188 The Clover Mystery . 



planta ; and, in the second place, to the use of seed of a good and 

 hardy strain, and that has been grown in a suitable climate. How 

 much is relatively due to the system, and how much to the seed, it 

 is impossible to say; but you have abundantly proved that the two 

 together have resulted in unfailing success. The red clover you have 

 used at Clifton-on-Bowmonb has been the late-flowering red variety, 

 which is exclusively grown in England, chiefly on the Cotswold Hills, 

 and the quantity of seed raised annually bears a very small proportion 

 to the quantity of red clover annually sown in Great Britain. But 

 there are other varieties of red clover, grown in England and other 

 countries, which are very desirable, such as ordinary English red, 

 Canadian, Russian, North of France, etc. — hardy sorts of large 

 growth— and if these strains of the best quality were ejcolusively used 

 in this country, and grown on your system, I do not doubt that the 

 clover crops of the United Kingdom would be as invariably successful 

 as are the crops at Clifton-on-Bowmont." 



The failure, then, of the experimenter above mentioned to grow 

 clover from the seed obtained from his seedsman was evidently owing 

 to the latter having supplied seed grown in the South of France, 

 Italy, the United States, or some comparatively warm climate ; and 

 I think it is perfectly clear, when a crop of clover comes up in a 

 thoroughly satisfactory manner in the autumn, as that of the above- 

 mentioned experimenter did, and totally perishes by the spring 

 following, the failure can only be attributed to the seed having been 

 produced in some much warmer climate than ours. 



Let us now turn to the cases where the failures are partial, or, in 

 other words, where the crop falls far short of what it might and should 

 be. In this connection the experiments and results at Clifton-on- 

 Bowmont conclusively support the value of deep-rooting plants and 

 grasses and the system of farming adopted, which is fully described 

 in my ' ' Agricultural Changes and Laying Down Land to Grass. " 



On ploughing down the first turf in my system of rotation a great 

 improvement in the clover crop is perceptible, but a most marked 

 improvement is shown, which cannot be estimated at less than 25 per 

 cent,, after ploughing down the second. The increase of clover then 

 rises in proportion as the land is filled with decaying vegetable matter, 

 and deeply tilled with the agency of roots, which enable water to pass 

 rapidly downwards and rise as freely, by capillary attraction, to 

 supply the great demand of the clover for moisture. There is, then, 

 no dfficulty in forming a decisive opinion as to one of the steps 

 necessary for obtaining the fullest and most certain success in growing 

 clover, and I say certain because we have succeeded equally well in 

 growing good crops of clover in seasons of the most severe drought 

 as we have done in the most favourable seasons. 



If the preceding conclusions are sound they lead to the certain 

 conclusion that the use of a large proportion of ryegrass is adverse to 

 growjng clover with the fullest degree of success, for it has been 

 found by experiments made by the Highland and Agricultural Society 

 that the amount of roots left by a mixture of natural grasses (other 



