428 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



needed at about the rate of 1 ton to the acre; the weight referred to 

 to be taken before slacking. If air-slacked lime is used, 1^ tons to 

 the acre will not be too much. The best season for applying lime is 

 autumn or early spring. As a rule, it should be spread upon the plowed 

 land and deeply worked in with the disc harrow. 



2. The Use of Much Manure inexpedient. — The writer is aware 

 that splendid clover is often grown where the land is heavily dressed 

 with manure. He is not disposed to deny the possibility of produc- 

 ing fine crops of clover on manure alone. He would, nevertheless, urge 

 that manure alone be not depended upon as a means of enriching 

 clover land. The leading and most valuable element of plant food in 

 manures is nitrogen. The application of this for clovers in any con- 

 siderable amounts is unnecessary. If clovers are grown on manures, 

 they will feed upon the nitrogen in the manure; they will not draw 

 from the air for that element. Growing clover upon manures, there- 

 fore, is not the best economy. Moreover, it is important to point out 

 that the grasses with which clover is most generally grown are greatly 

 invigorated by heavy dressings of manure, A strong, rank growth of 

 the timothy and redtop will tend to crowd out the clover. Fine crops 

 of hay may be produced, but it will not be clover hay, nor rich in 

 clover. The writer would not be understood as urging that manure 

 should never be used on land which is being prepared for clover, 

 although he would strongly advise against top-dressing clover with 

 manure. On soil which is naturally poor in nitrogen, manure may 

 wisely be used in moderate amounts for crops preceding clover. Heavy 

 dressings would be a mistake. It is far better to use the manure in 

 only moderate or small amounts, and to use it in connection with 

 materials which will supply Hme, phosphates and potash. 



3. The Supply of the Mineral Elements of Plant Food should be Lib- 

 eral. — We should not forget, in considering the best means of grow- 

 ing clover, that the stock of nitrogen in the air from which it is capable 

 of drawing is practically unhmited. The more of this nitrogen we can 

 gather in the crop and in its roots and stubble, the better. In a cer- 

 tain sense, this trapped atmospheric nitrogen is so much clear gain. 

 In considering this point, it must be remembered that the clover plant, 

 like other plants, must take the different food elements in a certain 

 balanced proportion. Though the nitrogen the clovers need is practi- 

 cally unlimited in amount, they cannot make a heavy growth unless 

 provided with a great abundance of the elements which they must 

 take from the soil. It is clearly unwise to lessen our chances for gath- 

 ering the valuable element nitrogen from the air through failure to 

 supply the soil elements in adequate amounts. The rule, then, in 

 preparing for clover or in top-dressing for clover should be to supply 

 the phosphates, potash salts, lime and possibly magnesia in great 

 abundance. With these present in abundance, and with a soil of such 

 a character that it will furnish suitable conditions and supply the 



