RED CLOVER. 137 



upon the yield of seed, and experiments ought to be made 

 to determine the relative amount to sow when in chaff 



It is a curious fact, and one, I believe, first mentioned by 

 Mr. Darwin, that the bumble bee plays an important part 

 in the fertilization of this plant. Careful observation will 

 no doubt reveal the fact that the amount of clover seed 

 gathered from a particular field will, other things being 

 equal, be in proportion to the number of bumble bees that 

 feed upon the flowers. In the act of feeding they gather the 

 pollen from one flower and transfer it to the next one upon 

 which they alight, thus acting as important agents in the 

 fructification of the flower, and consequently in increasing 

 the production of seed. 



CLOVER AS A PREPARATORY CROP FOR WHEAT. 



No question at the present day pertaining to agriculture 

 is more deeply interesting to the farmers of Tennessee than 

 how to increase the yield of the wheat crop per acre, for 

 upon this depends the profits of this standard crop, one 

 probably more generally grown in the State than any other. 

 It has long been noted that a soil well suited to clover is 

 generally well adapted to wheat, but not until the pains- 

 taking investigations of Dr. Voelcker, of England, was the 

 fact established that the clover plant, by increasing the 

 amount of available nitrogen in the surface soil, is the very 

 best fore-runner for wheat, unlocking, as it were, the ele- 

 ments in the soil necessary to a full and perfect develope- 

 ment of the wheat crop. 



Prof. Way has established the fact that the carbonate of 

 ammonia of rain-water and of manures are so absorbed and 

 so firmly fixed by the soil that no free ammonia can be 

 present in it. Neither pure nor carbonic acid water can 

 extract this fixed ammonia from the soil. It must be ex- 

 tracted by the roots of plants. A plant, therefore, with ex- 

 tensive root ramifications, such as clover, will extract a 

 much larger quantity than those plants with feebler roots. 



