460- TRANSACTIONS OP THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



is hundreds of times greater than the requirements of the crops, ' 

 but that the condition of the materials is not such as to yield 

 them up to the crops. I believe there is not a soil in the whole 

 Mohawk or Genesee valley which does not contain, even of the 

 phosphates, sufficient for over *700 crops, and I never saw a soil 

 that did not contain, quantitatively, enough lime for thousands 

 of crops, but I have found many a one requiring additions of 

 lime, because that which was there was not in a condition to be 

 appropriated by plants, therefore you must' remember that the 

 great value of green crops is that they consist largely of those con- 

 stituents required for crops, in the required condition for assimi- 

 lation. Take the analysis of starch, which goes to form fat ; of 

 gluten, which goes to form muscle, and you cannot find a chemist 

 who, by making up the same composition, can produce either fat 

 or muscle. You know that if you want these you must use them 

 in their proximate condition, and not in their ultimate or primary 

 condition. It is to these facts that green crops owe their value. 



Again, green crops act, in a degree, as a mulch. They not 

 only add these elements by their decay, for even if you cut off 

 the clover, 5'ou remove a much less proportion of the organic 

 matter than would be supposed. You have only to cut up a por- 

 tion of the soil, four feet deep, en masse, and place it upon a 

 Bieve and let a stream of water pass through it, to become con- 

 vinced of the great value of the roots of the clover left in the 

 soil. Of the action of clover as a mulch, I shall speak again in 

 a separate connection. Every gardener knows that if he will 

 properly fertilize the soil and place his cabbages near enough to- 

 gether for their lower leaves to cover and mulch the ground, he 

 will get a better crop than if the cabbages were placed at a 

 slightly greater distance apart, notwithstanding the fact that 

 upon soil not fully prepared, the same number of cabbages will 

 require a greater number of square feet. Upon lands containing 

 an adequate quantity of progressed material, larger and better 

 cabbages can be raised by letting the lower leaves lie down and 

 assume the figure which nature intended for the plant, so that it 

 acts as a mulch to the soil below. 



Prof. Nash. — If it be true that the improved condition of that 

 part of the clover which goes to form animal organization is 

 enough to set off all the loss by its being fed to animals, does it 

 not follow that it is wisest for the farmer to feed off his clover 

 instead of plowing it in ? 



