CHEArEST MA NUKE FOR lAUMEUS. 133 



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

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

 enierini; on its period of most rapid growth and exhalation, and, 

 conseciuently, the figures given above probably exaggerate the 

 amount of water given ofi" by tne wheat during the early part of 

 the season. It is, at any rate, ([uile 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 tliat clover can drink a much greater quantity 

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

 consetpientiy, to gel the same amount of food, it is not necessary 

 that tlie clover should have as much nitrogen, pliosphoric acid, 

 potash, etc., in the water as tlie wheat-i)lant 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, tliat it is not necessary to make the "sap of tli3 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 pliosi)horic 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 atnios- 

 p'.iere, we might sell the clover, and depend on the roots left in the 

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

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

 th;' soil, it is clear, that thougli for a year or two we might raise 

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



