EXPERIMENTS ON CLOVER-SOILS. 167 



The gross amount of dry substance in the roots, and the gross 

 amount of ash per acre, are considerably exaggerated, owing to the 

 evidently large quantity of dirt attached to the roots and stubble. 

 For instance, the gross amount of ash in Lucern is given as 1,201.6 

 Ibs. per acre ; while the total amount of lime, magnesia, potash, 

 soda, sulphuric and phosphoric acids, is only 342.2 Ibs. per acre, 

 leaving 859.4 Ibs. as sand, clay, iron, etc. Of the 1,919.9 Ibs. of ash 

 in the acre of clover-roots and stubble, there are 1,429.4 Ibs. of 

 sand, clay, etc. But even after deducting this amount of impuri- 

 ties from a gross total of dry matter per acre, we still have 7,492.2 

 Ibs. of dry roots and stubble per acre, or nearly 3 tons of dry roots 

 per acre. This is a very large quantity. It is as much dry matter 

 as is contained in 13 tons of ordinary farm-yard, or stable-manure. 

 And these 3J tons of dry clover-roots contain 191^ Ibs. of nitrogen, 

 which is as much as is contained in 19 tons of ordinary stable-ma- 

 nure. The clover- roots also contain 74| Ibs. of phosphoric acid per 

 acre, or as much as is contained in from 500 to GOO Ibs. of No. 1 

 rectified Peruvian guano. 



" But the phosphoric acid," said the Doctor, " is not soluble in 

 the roots." True, but it was soluble when the roots gathered it 

 up out of the soil. 



" These figures," said the Deacon, " have a very pleasant look. 

 Those of us who have nearly one-quarter of our land in clover 

 every year, ought to be making our farms very rich." 



" It would seem, at any rate," said I, " that those of us who have 

 good, clean, well-drained, and well-worked land, that is now pro- 

 ducing a good growth of clover, may reasonably expect a fair crop 

 of wheat, barley, oats, corn, or potatoes, when we break it up and 

 plow under all the roots, which are equal to 13 or 19 tons of stable- 

 manure per acre. Whether we can or can not depend on these 

 figures, one thing is clearly proven, both by the chemist and the 

 farmer, that a good clover-sod, on well-worked soil, is a good pre- 

 paration for corn and potatoes." 



MANURES FOR WHEAT. 



Probably nine-tenths of all the wheat grown in Western New 

 York, or the " Genesee country," from the time the land was first 

 cleared until 1870, was raised without any manure being directly ap- 

 plied to the land for this crop. Tillage and clover were what the 

 farmers depended on. There certainly has been no systematic ma- 

 nuring. The manure made during the winter, was drawn out in the 

 spring, and plowed under for corn. Any manure made during the 

 summer, in the yards, was, by the best farmers, scraped up and 



