246 The Clover Mystery. 



this has been attained— when the land has been cheaply and deeply 

 tilled and aerated -with roots, and thus inter-penetrated with humus 

 — the value of the chemist and the manure merchant will be most 

 strikingly apparent, and will be as absolutely certain as, in conse- 

 quence of the low state of fertility of our soils, the value of both 

 is at present uncertain. If you apply artificial manures to a 

 mineralized soil you may lose much of your money if the season is 

 either over-wet or over-dry. If you apply them to soil amply 

 supplied with humus the results from the manure are certain, as a 

 fully humus-fed soil is able to set at defiance the vicissitudes of the 

 season, and besides, ripens the crops earlier (last year my barley was 

 got in in good condition, while that of my neighbours was caught 

 by the rain), and from giving a good nidus for the plants, renders 

 them less liable to disease. 



I think I have now established the fact that the future success of 

 our agriculture depends upon growing full crops of clover, and 

 shown how this can be done with absolute certainty, and I may 

 mention in conclusion that I have made a list (published in The 

 Farmer's Gazette, Dublin, November 28th, 1903) of no less than 

 twenty-six distinct consequential advantages which arise out of 

 growing it with the aid of the system of farming adopted on my 

 experimental and demonstration farm. This consists of putting 

 down a mixture of three large grasses, one small one, three clovers, 

 kidney vetch, chicory, burnet, and yarrow, which is left for four 

 years, or more, if desirable, and is followed by turnips, oats, turnips, 

 and barley or oats with grass seeds. With this system weeds are so 

 completely abolished that none have been removed from the farm 

 for the last iz years, and visitors have said that they had never seen 

 a cleaner farm. The effect on the health of the stock has been most 

 marked, partly, I think, from the drainage caused by the deep- 

 rooters, and partly from the tonic properties of the burnet and 

 yarrow, and from the variety of food supplied. At a very large sale 

 this year my half-bred ewe lambs topped the market, I obtained 

 first prize for the tup lambs at the Border Union Show at Kelso, and 

 it may be mentioned that, with the exception of some given to the 

 ao rams annually sold, no artificial food is used with the sheep 

 stock on the 1,250 acres of which the farm consists. Do not the 

 facts in this paper seem to show that on the whole the cheapest 

 and best manure merchant is the seed merchant, and that he is also 

 the cheapest cultivator and drainer of the soil, the most economical 

 producer of meat, the best preserver of the health of stock, and the 

 best promoter of their condition ? 



Robert H. Ei,i,iot. 



Clifton Park, Kelso. 



