542 Transactions of the American Institute. 



ver, and one of the most noteworthy points of excellence in the clover 

 crops consists in the fact that in its growth it draws more largely 

 from the atmosphere and more lightly from the soil than almost any 

 plant that grows. Tlie atmosphere is a great chemical laboratory, in 

 which are generated many of the life-giving properties indispensable 

 to animal and vegetable existence. Prominent among these proper- 

 ties is ammonia. In every clover crof> that is plowed under, a large 

 amount of this valuable ingredient is transferred from the atmosphere 

 to the soil, and the earth is thereby materially enriched. The roots 

 of the clover, by penetrating deep into the soil, operate mechanically 

 in loosening the soil and rendering it porous and pliable. Bassin- 

 gault has shown, by a carefully instituted series of experiments, that 

 the largest portion of the clover croj^ is that which grows below the 

 surface of the ground. Hence, whenever a clover sod is turned under, 

 no matter how closely it may have been mown or depastured, tlie 

 ground is materially enriched, 



I^^ext to clover, there is perhaps nothing, as a green crop that is 

 superior to the pea. Like buckwheat it grews rapidly, and like clo- 

 ver it draws very largely from the atmosphere, and but slightly from 

 the soil. It should be plowed under at the time the vine has attained 

 its full growth, and while beginning to blossom. Especially on stiff 

 clay soils will the pea be found valuable as a green crop. Let those 

 wlio have never tested it give it one fair trial. 



Adjourned. 



February 2, 1869. 



Mr. Nathan C. Ely in the chair ; Mr. John W. Chambers, Secretary. 



Extent of Plant Roots. 



Mr. John McYean, Scottsville, JST. Y., writes that farmers 

 and laborers often observ^e facts in nature which, truly stated, are 

 acceptable to men of science. For example, in June, a few yearg 

 ago, he had occasion to dig a well in a field of very thrifty winter 

 wheat, through strata of clayey loam soil and subsoil, with under- 

 laying limestone and gravel, and gypseous shales. Fifteen feet down 

 he found a multitude of roots of the grow- ing grain, as large as linen 

 sewing thread and of considerable tenacity. It was also a common 

 thing for men digging plaster on his premises to find clover roots 

 •extending twelve feet below the surfacie, and Mr. McVean, in con- 

 sideration of the fact that tlie club, in canvassing the matter of deep 



