244 TwENTY-FiEST Biennial Report 



pastures are made up chiefly of grasses and clovers; 

 the annual forage comes from a great variety of plants 

 of many families, but still chiefly from members of the 

 grass family, such as com and sorghum, with some root 

 crops, pumpkius, rape, etc., some of these sources fur- 

 nishing variety rather than the essentials. In Kentucky 

 we have one grass that has, perhaps, been depended 

 upon too much for pasturage. Blue grass is an excel- 

 lent plant for the purpose on good lands, not too wet 

 and not too dry, but on gravelly, clayey and rather poor 

 soils, it does not furnish the grazing needed. It should 

 not be supposed that where blue grass fails us, we are 

 entirely deprived of grazing. Perhaps the soil lacks 

 something blue grass needs, and we can, it may be, pro- 

 vide it. If it is nitrogen, or vegetable matter to render 

 the soil less hard and compact, we have the clovers to 

 help us. 



You have probably observed that when the surface 

 of a soil is removed, and the .clayey sub-soil is exposed, 

 many plants, among them blue grass,- wUl not grow on it 

 at all. In some regions very few plants of any sort 

 appear on such exposed areas the first year, and these 

 are of slight growth. The second year a fair growth 

 may appear of a miscellaneous assortment of plants, 

 among them some white clover, and iu a few years the 

 whole surface may be pretty thickly occupied with 

 clover. What is the explanation of this? Why do the 

 clovers precede the grasses on such soils? 



It results from the fact that the deeper layers of 

 soil even when containing most of the necessary plant 

 food, do not contain nitrogen in sufficient quantity, and 

 are too solid to be easUy penetrated by the roots of 

 plants. When exposed to the air and frosts their plant 

 food is dissolved, and plants like clover which provide 

 their own nitrogen are soon able to take possession. 

 After them come the grasses and other plants. 



This natural process illustrates and points out the 

 procedure necessary for the farmer who wishes to get 

 a permanent meadow or pasture on rather unpromising 

 soils. If he can once get a good growth of some of -the 

 clovers — white clover, red clover, cowpeas, soy beans, 



