CHEAPEST MANURE FOB FARMERS. 133 



think the figures do not show the whole of the difference. The 

 clover was cut just at the time when the wheat-plant was 

 entering on its period of most rapid growth and exhalation, and, 

 consequently, the figures given above probably exaggerate the 

 amount of water given off by the wheat during the early part of 

 the season. It is, at any rate, quite clear, and this is all I want to 

 show, that an acre of good clover exhales a much larger amount 

 of water from spring to hay-harvest than an acre of wheat. 



" And what," said the Deacon, who was evidently getting tired 

 of the figures, " does all this prove ? " 



The figures prove that clover can drink a much greater quantity 

 of water during March, April, May, and June, than wheat ; and, 

 consequently, to get the same amount of food, it is not necessary 

 that the clover should have as much nitrogen, phosphoric acid, 

 potash, etc., in the water as the wheat-plant requires. I do not 

 know that I make myself understood." 



" You want to show," said the Deacon, " that the wheat-plant 

 requires richer food than clover." 



Yes, I want to show that, though clover requires more food per 

 day than wheat, yet the clover can drink such a large amount of 

 water, that it is not necessary to make the "sap of ths soil" so 

 rich in nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash, for clover, as it is 

 for wheat. I think this tells the whole story. 



Clover is, or may be, the grandest renovating and enriching 

 crop commonly grown on our farms. It owes its great value, not 

 to any power it may or may not possess of getting nitrogen from 

 the atmosphere, or phosphoric acid and potash from the subsoil, 

 but principally, if not entirely, to the fact that the roots can drink 

 up such a large amount of water, and live and thrive on very 

 weak food. 



HOW TO MAKE A FARM RICH BY GROWING CLOVER. 



Not by growing the clover, and selling it. Nothing would ex- 

 haust the land so rapidly as such a practice. We must either plow 

 under the clover, let it rot on the surface, or pasture it, or use it 

 for soiling, or make it into hay, feed it out to stock, and return the 

 manure to the land. If clover got its nitrogen from the atmos- 

 phere, we might sell the clover, and depend on the roots left in the 

 ground, to enrich the soil for the next crop. But if, as I have en- 

 deavored to show, clover gets its nitrogen from a weak solution in 

 the soil, it is clear, that though for a year or two we might raise 

 good crops from the plant-food left in the clover-roots, yet we 



