MEDIUM RED CLOVER 69 



located on sections of the prairie but newly broken. 



Two reasons may be given by way of explanation, 

 but these may not furnish all the reasons for the 

 experience just referred to. First, much of the 

 land was so porous in its nature that in dry seasons 

 the young plants perished for want of moisture. 

 As such lands become worn throgh cropping, they 

 lie more firmly and compactly; hence, there is less 

 loss of moisture through the free penetration of the 

 soil within a short distance of the surface of the 

 dry atmosphere. And second, the requisite bacteria 

 is not in these soils until it is brought to them by 

 sowing seed repeatedly, more or less of which grows, 

 and in growing increases the bacteria in the soil 

 until that point is reached when good crops of clo- 

 ver can be grown with the usual regularity. 

 j The suitability of sandy and gravelly lands for 

 growing clover depends much on the amount of 

 plant food which they contain, on the character of 

 the climate, and on the subsoil. Such soils when 

 possessed of some loam when underlaid with clay, 

 and in a climate with 20 inches and more per an- 

 num of rainfall, usually grow good crops of clover; 

 but when conditions the opposite prevail, the growth 

 of this plant is precarious. However, when sandy 

 or gravelly soils low in fertility are underlaid with 

 the same and the rainfall is sufficient, good crops 

 of clover may be grown if these soils are first suf- 

 ficiently supplied with vegetable matter and then 

 sufficiently fertilized. 



Muck soils do not seem to have the proper ele- 

 ments for growing clover in the best form. But 



