96 THE CLOVER CROP. 



The range of soils which the 'clovers possess is very 

 large ; indeed, every soil which is worth cultivation at all 

 affords a home to some of the species of this extensive 

 family. The only condition which is inseparable from 

 their productive cultivation is the presence of lime in the 

 soil. If this be absent, the clovers, like the other plants 

 belonging to the same order Leguminosce refuse to 

 grow. Lime, however, is a natural ingredient in all 

 soils, and is necessary more or less to all plants, therefore 

 it rarely happens that any place could be found in which 

 the clovers could not find a living. In their wild or 

 natural state they are met with chiefly in dry, light soils, 

 especially of the chalk or other limestone formations; and, 

 indeed, enter into the class of indigenous plants indicative 

 of soils of that character. In cultivation, however, we 

 call upon our plants to depart from their normal conditions, 

 and to increase their powers of development, and, conse- 

 quently, productive returns; and then we place them in 

 soils of a more fertile character than those they naturally 

 inhabit, and we furnish them with additional supplies of 

 food in the shape of various manures. 



Clovers enter so generally into the rotations of the pre- 

 sent system of farming, that we meet with them in culti- 

 vation on every description of soil, from the light sands 

 of Norfolk and Suffolk, and of the green and the new red 

 sandstone formations, to the compact soils of the districts 

 occupied by the London, the weald, oolite, and lias clays. 



The intermediate class of soils, however, is that which 

 is most suitable to the growth of the clovers a calcareous 

 loam, such as is met with at the junction of the lower 

 chalk, for instance, with the upper beds of the green sand, 

 or of the lias with the new red sandstone. These soils are 

 generally deep and well disintegrated, and contain most 

 of the conditions, physical as well as chemical, essential 

 to the vigorous growth of the crop. The habit of the 



