74 



RED CLOVER ( Trifolium pratense.} (Pasture and Hay.) 

 There is no forage plant in all respects so useful to the American 

 farmer as red clover. It has been well styled the corner stone of agricul- 

 ture and this because it seems to be the concomitant or forerunner of all 

 successful agriculture. In the border States a farmer who is too 

 poor to sow clover is too poor to own a farm. In our climate and soils 

 this plant is well nigh indispensable. The soils of Tennessee fatten upon 

 it. It furnishes an immense amount of grazing, yields an abundance of 

 nutritious hay, and is a profitable crop, considered with reference to the 

 seed alone. But beyond all these it acts as a vigorous ameliorator of the 

 soil, increases more than any other forage plant probably the amount 



CLOVER FIELD AT SOMERVILLE, TENN. 



of available nitrogen, supplies humus and so becomes an important agent 

 in keeping up the productive capacity of the soil, increasing the yield of 

 other crops and thus adding to the prosperity of the farmer who sows it. 

 Scientific inquiry has abonl reached the conclusion that the little excres- 

 cences or tubercles upon i' e roots of clover enable the plant to utilize 

 the free nitrogen of the :: icsphere as an important element of fertility. 

 It must be borne in min<l liat a soil may contain the most abundant sup- 

 plies of every substance demanded by a growing plant, and yet that plant 

 may perish of starvation. If these substances are not in a condition to 



