H-i THE CLOVER CROP. 



had succeeded, and on some portions failed, the results 

 were even less satisfactory, the portions on which it 

 failed giving higher indications of fertility than where 

 it succeeded. Similar negative results were obtained 

 by Dr. Anderson, in a more recent examination 1 of the 

 soil of a field at Thurston (East Lothian), on the old red- 

 stone formation, " in which the contrast between a good 

 crop of clover on one part of the field, and its absolute and 

 total failure on another part, was so striking as to merit 

 careful examination/' The analysis showed a very close 

 similarity between both the soil and the subsoil of the 

 two portions of the field on which such a difference in the 

 produce was seen. The lime and the magnesia were pre- 

 sent in satisfactory proportions, and the proportion of 

 alkalies in excess of that usually met with in soils. The 

 proportion of phosphoric acid, which we usually look upon 

 as so necessary to the fertility of our land, was nearly five 

 times as large in the soil on which the clover failed as in 

 that which carried a large crop ; while the proportions of 

 sulphuric acid were exactly the reverse the soil on which 

 the crop succeeded containing about six times as much in its 

 composition as that on which the crop failed. 



Here, then, we have confirmatory evidence, as far as it 

 goes, of the importance of sulphur in some shape to the 

 healthy growth of the clover plant; and, consequently, that 

 the application of bones, which has been recommended 

 strongly as a remedy, is not likely to be followed by such 

 beneficial results as when applied in the shape of "super- 

 phosphate/' which always contains a large proportion of 

 sulphuric acid in its composition. In each of the cases 

 alluded to, however, the soils in which the plant throve 

 contained sulphate of lime in far larger proportions than 

 those in which it failed. With this exception, which 

 would tend to show us the importance of sulphuric acid 



1 High. Soc. Trans., 1857, p. 117. 



