430 Transactions of the American Institut3, 



that assures us that where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise, he 

 is very far from welcoming, when a love of the very name of 

 "milk" betrays him, as it does sometimes, to put to his lips the 

 white fluid called after that name, by courtesy, hereabout. 



Clover is eminently a lime seeker in its habits, and had its birth 

 place, so far as can be ascertained, in the calcareous soils of the 

 East. It flourishes, therefore, most luxuriously throughout the 

 great valley of which I have been speaking, whether on the south side 

 of the Potomac, in what, since Phil. Sheridan took liis rough ride 

 through it, is widely and almost exclusively known as the Shenan- 

 doah valley, but which used to be known as the "Valley of Vir- 

 ginia," or that part of it on the north side of that now so classic 

 river, where it sweeps through large sections of Marj-land and 

 Pennsylvania, with the designation of Cumberland valley, that 

 magnificent agricultural section, passing through the clover fields, 

 of which, in the month of June, as I had the exquisite pleasure of 

 doing last year, ought to be sufiicient to convince the most skepti- 

 cal that the plant under notice is not overrated by me in this paper. 

 When sown on laud of the limestone formation just referred to, 

 from the surface soil of which the naturally imparted properties 

 of the lime rocks have not been all abstracted by vegetation, as is 

 too soon and often the case by reason of unwise culture, growing 

 as much out of a lack of chemical knowledge as a lack of energy, 

 it then needs little or no manure, as we have learned from a state- 

 ment of results already given. But even the richest land may 

 finally be robbed of its more accessible constituents, by too long 

 cropping with plants which find their appropriate food therein, so 

 as to no longer grow them efficiently, because of everything being 

 carried awaj^ from, and nothing returned to the earth. 



To this rule the limestone soil under notice offers no exception; 

 and when it has become thus robbed, there is no restorative, that 

 is found to be so effectual as clover. Hence it is — barnj-ard 

 manure always excepted — almost the sole dependence as a direct 

 fertilizer. I desire especial attention to the term " direct," because 

 it is the key to the philosophy of clover culture for either the resto- 

 ration of worn-out lauds in the IMiddle and Border States, or the 

 increased fertility of other classes of soil. Clover is what, to bor- 

 row a term recently introduced by a certain new religious sect, 

 might be called a " mediumistic " fertilizer, as generally relied on 

 there; that is, it is found to have the power as well as the aptency 

 for absorbing from the subsoil with its remarkably deep running 



