536 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. { December o, isso. 
also that it may not be cut so closely when the corn is reaped. 
We have found it profitable to cut the Wheat higher up the 
straw, in order that the Clover may make an after growth fit for 
mowing in the autumn, and we have obtained excellent Clover 
fodder to cut up for horses and other animals during September 
and October, and until the first severe frost occurs. Again, this 
is not only a profitable plan—available when Wheat follows a 
Potato, Mangold, or other root crop — in four years out of six 
in the southern or south-eastern counties ; but it encourages the 
growth and strength of the Clover roots, and enables them to yield 
a larger increase of hay in the succeeding year, whereas if the 
young seeds had been treated in the ordinary way by close feed¬ 
ing with sheep the crowns of the plants and future buds would 
have been destroyed or seriously injured, and the Clover plants 
so much damaged that many of them would die. This leads us 
to a point which we shall be prepared to prove of the highest 
importance—namely, the growth and greatest increased weight of 
the roots of the Clover plants. 
We must at the same time look to the management of the Clover 
lea after the hay crops, or even crops of seed, have been removed. 
On certain mixed soils it is very difficult to insure a Clover lea 
free from Couch Grass ; it is therefore necessary that every oppor¬ 
tunity should be taken to fork-out single bunches of Grass. This 
must be done not only in the root crops before the corn, but also 
in the young Clover seeds, in order that the land may not require 
cleaning as a Clover lea. There are various modes of doing this. 
A backward fallow, for instance, after the first hay crop, is often 
resorted to, or the land sometimes scarified and tilled just before 
the final ploughing of the lea. The point we wish to enforce is 
that the tillage of a Clover lea cannot be done without destroy¬ 
ing the Clover roots to some extent. The roots of Couch may be 
forlced-out by hand labour, as we have often done. If any horse 
labour is used to root out Couch it should be done by the scarifier, 
but only with the points on, so that the Clover roots may be left, 
if not wholly, yet the greater portion of them. Couch Grass is 
our greatest enemy in all agricultural operations ; and if we allow 
it to remain in the Clover lea and plough it in, it so competes with 
the Wheat crop that a full crop is out of the question. Dr. Voelcker 
shows us that the food which the Clover root furnishes for the 
Wheat plant is also available for its enemy. 
We will commence our quotations from Dr. Yoelcker’s essay 
where he says, “ The fact is well known that many farmers justly 
regard the growth of Clover as one of the best preparatory opera¬ 
tions which the land can undergo, in order to its producing an 
abundant crop of Wheat in the following year. It has further 
been noticed that Clover mown twice leaves the land in better 
condition as regards its Wheat-producing capabilities than when 
mown once only for hay and the second crop fed off on the land 
by sheep ; for notwithstanding that in the latter instance the 
fertilising elements in the Clover crop are in part restored in the 
sheep excrements, yet, contrary to expectation, this partial restora¬ 
tion of the elements of fertility to the land has not the effect of 
producing more or better Wheat in the following year than is 
reaped on the land from off which the whole Clover crop has 
been carried, and to which no manure whatever has been applied. 
Again, in the opinion of several good practical agriculturists with 
whom I have conversed on the subject, land whereon Clover has 
been grown for seed in the preceding year yields a better crop of 
Wheat than it does when the Clover is mown twice for hay, or 
even only once, and afterwards fed off by sheep. Most crops, I 
need hardly observe, when left for seed exhaust the land far more 
than they do when they are cut down at an earlier stage of their 
growth, hence the binding clauses in most farm leases which com¬ 
pel the tenant not to grow corn crops more frequently nor to a 
greater extent than stipulated. However, in the case of Clover 
grown for seed we have, according to the testimony of trustworthy 
witnesses, an exception to a law generally applicable to most 
other crops. Agricultural experiences contradicting prevailing, 
and, it may be, generally current theories, are, unless I am much 
mistaken, of far more common occurrence than may be known to 
those who are either naturally unobservant or unacquainted with 
many of the details of farming operations ; indeed, an interesting 
and instructive treatise might be written on the apparent anomalies 
in agriculture. 
“ Observations extending over a number of years led me to 
inquire into the reasons why Clover is specially well fitted to 
prepare land for Wheat, and in the notes which 1 have now 
the pleasure of laying before the readers of the Journal I shall 
endeavour, as the result of my experiments on the subject, to 
give an intelligible explanation of the fact that Clover is so ex¬ 
cellent a preparatory crop for Wheat as it is practically known 
to be. By those taking a superficial view of the subject it may be 
suggested that any injury likely to be caused by the removal of a 
certain amount of fertilising matter is altogether insignificant, 
and more than compensated for by the benefit which results from 
the abundant growth of Clover roots and the physical improve¬ 
ments in the soil which take place in their decomposition. Look¬ 
ing, however, more closely into the matter, it will be found that in 
a good crop of Clover hay a very considerable amount of both 
mineral and organic substances is carried off the land, and that if 
the total amount of such constituents in a crop had to be regarded 
exclusively as the measure for determining the relative degrees in 
which different farm crops exhaust the land, Clover would have to 
be described as about the most exhausting crop in the entire rota¬ 
tion. Clover hay on an average and in round numbers contains 
in 100 parts :— 
Water. 170 
^Nitrogenous substances (flesh-forming matters). 15-6 
Non-nitrogenous compounds . 50-9 
Mineral matter (asli). 7-5 
100-0 
^Containing nitrogen. 2"5 
The mineral portion or ash constituents in 100 parts of Clover hay 
consist of phosphoric acid, 75 ; sulphuric acid, 4 - 3 ; carbonic acid, 
18'0 ; silica, 3-0 ; lime, 30‘0 ; magnesia, 8'5 ; potash, 20 - 0 ; soda, 
chloride of sodium, oxide of iron, sand, loss, &c., 8‘7 ; total, 100-0. 
“ Now let us suppose the land to have yielded 4 tons of Clover 
hay per acre. According to the preceding data we find that such 
a crop included 221 lbs. of nitrogen, equal to 272 lbs. of ammonia, 
and C72 lbs. of mineral matter or ash constituents ; 4 tons of 
Clover hay, the produce of 1 acre, thus contain a large amount of 
nitrogen, and remove from the soil an enormous quantity of 
mineral matters, abounding in lime and potash, and containing 
also a good deal of phosphoric acid.” 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour .—Horses have lately been employed in ploughing and 
sowing Wheat every day since the 28th ult., there only now remains 
the light land to be ploughed and sown with Wheat. Apportion the 
horse power of the farm so that no ploughed land shall be left unsown 
in the evening in consequence of the night frosts which are sure to 
prevail at this time of year. We notice much land which has been 
under autumn tillage lying in a very foul state with abundance of 
couch grass on the surface. It is not good practical farming to 
plough this grass under with a deep furrow ; the only plan to adopt 
is to rafter-plough and leave it until the spring, for at this date there 
is no hope of dry w-eather to enable the grass to be cleared off the 
surface by tillage. Where the land is clean, deep fallow-ploughing 
of all the land intended for Barley after Wheat will be going on daily 
whilst the weather continues open. The same plan will be pursued 
with land intended for the next year’s Mangolds, Carrots, Potatoes, 
and Swedes. Long fresh dung may be laid out before the ploughing 
on good dry land for the Mangolds, Carrots, and Potatoes, especially 
as this will save labour of the horses in the busy period of spring and 
seed time. In many instances, the slugs having destroyed the 
Trifolium, the land may be ploughed and lay during winter to be 
worked fine the first dry weather in the spring, and again sown with 
the Early Crimson Trifolium or with summer Yetches. The land which 
has been dunged and ploughed if clean will require no more plough¬ 
ing in the spring, but merely scarifying and sowing with Mangolds 
and Carrots at the earliest date. 
Hand Labour .—The land occupied with Cabbages that has been 
autumn-planted should now be locked over whilst the weather is 
mild, and vacancies filled with fresh plants, as the crop will come 
better together than when fresh plants are set out in the spring. 
The water meadows must still be attended to, and the course of the 
water changed every four or five days, especially on those meadows 
where the supply of water is short. The land, if strong and flat, 
where the Wheat has been sown should be looked over by men with 
spade in hand after heavy rains to let off any accumulations before 
it injures the Wheat. Hedging, ditching, and banking will now be 
necessary in the enclosed districts of small fields. In those cases 
where fences are required to be newly .planted with Whitethorn, this 
is a good time to do the work. Any hedges, too, intended for close 
trimming, where they have been neglected may be cut down and 
trimmed. The outlets of all underground draining should be care¬ 
fully attended to, and they will easily be found by the men whilst 
scouring the open dykes, which ought to be well opened and cleansed 
at this time, so as to give free exit to flood water. All the young 
cattle intended for dairy stock should now be placed in sheltered 
yards and sheds at night ; and although they may run out in the 
pasture at daytime, they should receive roots of some kind with 
sweet fresh Oat or Barley straw in the sheds. This feeding will keep 
them in moderate condition, and by lying in well-littered sheds it 
will prevent attacks of the quarter-ill, which in some seasons is very 
fatal amongst young heifers reared for the dairy. If any cake is 
given it should only be decorticated cotton cake in meal and mixed 
with cut roots, or with inferior hay cut into chaff. It is, however, 
