The Clover Mystery. 239 



"As regards the unfailing success of your Clover crop, I think 

 this is; in the first place, due to your deep cultivation, by deep 

 rooting plants, 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-Bowmont 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 --exclusively 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 failixre 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 

 Prance, 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 igrasses 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 difficulty in forming a decisive opinion 

 as to one of the steps nepessary for obtaining the fullest and most 



