1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



209 



IMPORTANCE OF THE CLOVER CROP. 



The hay crop of New England is of immense 

 value, and that value is annually increased by the 

 introduction of new varieties of grass, and by 

 quicker and better modes of making and securing 

 the hay. The consumption and waste of hay, by 

 horses in the army, has recently been immense, so 

 that this, combined with the plentifulness of 

 money, has brought it up to the unprecedented 

 price of forty dollars per ton ! 



Clover hay is not generally considered so good 

 for horses as timothy and red-top. Such, howev- 

 er, is not our opinion.* We believe that clover, 

 when properly managed, makes the best hay for 

 any stock, that we produce, and is less exhausting 

 to the soil than the production of most grasses. 

 "It not only makes up the variety necessary to 

 keep cattle in health, but its yield is large and 

 profitable ; it takes less from the soil and more 

 from the atmosphere, than most other green crops, 

 and the portion remaining in the soil contains 

 material to improve its mechanical condition, so 

 as to progress the inorganic constituents which it 

 elevates from the subsoil after subsoil plowing, 

 and is almost sure of success on any soil worthy 

 of cultivation." It has been ascertained that a 

 large number of tons of roots are left in the soil, 

 per acre, after a heavy crop has been cut off. This 

 mass of vegetable matter must be of essential 

 service to the soil, because it is just what most 

 soils need, and is intimately scattered through 

 every portion of it, where it decays in the very 

 presence of a thousand roots of succeeding plants, 

 all ready to take it up. It would be impossible 

 for us so to place nourishing substances in the 

 immediate neighborhood of the roots which we 

 desire to have fed. Nature can do it infinitely 

 better than we can. Let us, then, employ the 

 means, and leave it to her to carry out the await- 

 ing results. * 



One of our correspondents, "W. E. J.," of Hat- 

 field, in a communication to us some years ago, 

 says that "clover is, according to the laws of veg- 

 etation, a great extractor from the atmosphere, 

 and is abundantly supplied with leaves which are 

 spread to the wind, and take in carbon and nitro- 

 gen ; its roots are thrust into the subsoil and take 

 up the salts which other plants do not reach. 

 Here we have mineral elements combined. 

 When the clover is turned under, and we plant 

 with corn, it has an abundance of nutriment ne- 

 cessary for its growth. Oliver Marcy, in an ad- 

 dress upon agriculture, says, wherever you can 

 get a crop of clover, you may get a crop of corn. 

 If you have nothing but a sand bank, put on 

 something to make your seed catch and stimulate 

 the plant, and everything that is in the soil, air 

 and rain will be brought into the crop. Turn it 



in, and you have gained much ; but cast off the 

 green crops, and you have lost the essential ma- 

 terials which the plants extracted from the atmos- 

 phere." 



This vtew of the matter is generally confirmed 

 by Wilson, one of the soundest and most judi- 

 cious of the English agricultural writers, who says, 

 in his "Farm Crops," — "The habit of the clover 

 plant is to form large and fleshy roots, which 

 have a tendency always to penetrate deep into the 

 soil, and to seek their supplies of food from the 

 lower stratum. This tendency should always be 

 encouraged in all our cultivated plants. It has a 

 two-fold power of benefit to the farmer — not only 

 have his crops a greater range of feeding ground, 

 but they abstract from the subsoil, and elaborate 

 into their own structures on the surface, the food 

 ingredients which, by the percolation of rain or 

 other natural causes, have been carried down be- 

 low the range of tillage operations ; while, at the 

 same time, their roots being buried deep in the 

 soil, secure to them the power of obtaining mois- 

 ture from below at a time when the more surface- 

 rooted plants are suffering from the effects of the 

 summer sun and drought." These opinions are 

 entitled to weight, coming as they do from those 

 who have given careful attention to the subject. 

 Cutting, Curing and Housing Clover. 



In harvesting clover, our practice is to mow in 

 the morning, and let the grass remain just as it 

 fell, whether from the common scythe or the mow- 

 ing machine, until about three o'clock in the af- 

 ternoon, and then gather up the thinner portions, 

 laying them upon the thicker, and turn the whole 

 upside down. This can be done rapidly with a 

 three-tined fork. In England, they have what 

 they call a "collecting fork," made for this pur- 

 pose. If the crop is heavy, one of our three- 

 tined forks is as suitable an implement as can be 

 desired. In this condition the crop is left until 

 mid-afternoon of the next day, when it is careful- 

 ly taken up with the fork, made into cocks and 

 covered with caps. It is kept in this condition 

 forty-eight hours, and then, if the weather is clear, 

 it is thrown open — not spread — to the sun for 

 three or four hours in the middle of the day, and 

 then carted to the barn. All these operations re- 

 quire more care than necessary in securing herds- 

 grass or red top, — but when they are observed, 

 there will be only a trifling loss of leaves, and the 

 hay will be of the sweetest and most nutritious de- 

 scription. 



Below we give Wilson's account of the English 

 mode of securing the clover harvest : 



The crop is mown with the common scythe, and 

 left lying in the swathes. Here, however, the 

 process differs from that of the ordinary hay-field. 

 Instead of tossing it about either with forks or the 

 "tedding" machine, for the purpose of exposing i 



