308 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



CliOVEH. 



LOVER is a great institution, 

 r^^y^w the value of -which is not as 

 fully understood as it should 

 be. The field for its develop- 

 ment is the prairies of the West, 

 where the fertility of the soil is 

 annually depreciating, for want 

 of manurial matter, to supply the 

 drain that is made upon it. 



When there is but little stock in proportion 

 to the number of acres cultivated, and that lit- 

 tle is not stabled in the winter, a large amount 

 of manure cannot be saved to enrich the broad 

 fields of corn and wheat. What shall be done ? 

 Two-thirds of the fertility, so far as wheat is 

 concerned, is lost already. Soils that a few 

 years since yielded thirty-three bushels now 

 yield eleven. The remedy is forthcoming just 

 when it is wanted, and experience is teaching 

 how to use it. It is wonderful how nature 

 keeps her treasures stored up until the neces- 

 sities of man compel him to seek for them. 

 Coal has been buried in the bosom of the 

 earth until man wants it to convert water into 

 steam, and iron ore into rails and ships, and 

 now he finds it cropping out all over the earth. 

 The fertility accumulated in the virgin soil 

 has sufficed for one generation, and now the 

 little brown clover seed has been given to fur- 

 nish machinery by which the elements of fer- 

 tility may be absorbed from the atmosphere, 

 and pumped out of the earth to supply the 

 wants of another generation. On most lands 

 four or five pounds of clover seeds and two or 

 three hundred pounds of plaster to an acre, 

 will in a little more than a year, if the soil is 

 tolerably good, be converted into two tons of 

 the very best hay. This material has been 

 chiefly derived from the atmosphere, by the 

 plants which have the power of changing car- 

 bon and oxygen into solid matter in their 

 stems and leaves. This they deposit in the 

 soil when they have completed their growth 

 and fall and decay, and thus fertilizing matter 

 is drawn from the atmosphere by the ton, an- 

 nually, and placed just where it is wanted for 

 the next crop. 



And the clover roots, yes, the clover roots, 

 what have they been doing all this time ? If 

 not interrupted they work on two years, and 

 then withdraw from the field and make room 

 for other workers who succeed them. We 



call them biennials, indicating that they take 

 two year's jobs. But what an amount of work 

 they do in this short time. They will push 

 themselves into the soil, one, two, three, four, 

 five feet, burrowing into and loosening it, 

 pumping up water from it, and the various 

 minerals held in solution, and depositing them 

 in the stems of the plants, along with the ma- 

 terials drawn from the atmosphere, and thus 

 we have a compost of silex, lime, potash, soda, 

 magnesia, alum, iron and the rest, mixed with 

 carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, &c., as food for 

 the next crop. These clover roots are grand 

 workers. They are no idlers. They do not 

 stop when they have worked eight hours. 

 When one of these little fellows finds a parti- 

 cle of lime or sulphur, away down three or 

 four feet underground he seizes it as his law- 

 ful prey — indeed it is the very thing he went 

 down after, and has been hunting after all 

 summer, — and now he sucks it into his open 

 mouth, and pulls and tugs like a boa constrictor 

 swallowing a goat, until he gets it within his 

 oesophagus, then he pushes it on and on through 

 the four or five feet of his longitude, and de- 

 posits it in the stem of the plant, to be used 

 where it is wanted in the process of construc- 

 tion. We should like to see all the roots from 

 an acre of thrifty clover washed and shook out, 

 dried and thrown into a heap. Would there be 

 two tons of them, — as much as there is of the 

 plants above ground? If so, these four or 

 five pounds of seed would have drawn from 

 the air and the ground four tons of solid mat- 

 ter, ready to be rotted down into plant food 

 for the crops that are to follow. 



Not only has this amount of manurial mat- 

 ter been prepared, but the soil has been bored 

 and loosened in all directions, so that the air 

 could penetrate it, and warm it, and act upon 

 the mineral matter it contains. This soil is 

 then in a very different condition from what it 

 was when the clover seed was sown. Its me- 

 chanical condition is greatly changed. The 

 rain can penetrate it. The roots of wheat can 

 run down into it. The decaying vegetable 

 matter upon the surface, as it dissolves by the 

 rain, can accompany the roots into the earth, 

 and yield up to them the nourishment it con- 

 tains. 



If the soil is too poor, or too much exhausted 

 to yield a full crop of clover at the first sow- 

 ing, plough it into the ground, and repeat the 

 process. The crop will be increased, and the 



