178 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[May,, ■ 
Walks and Talks on the Farm.—No. 136. 
[COPYRIGHT SECURED.] 
“ I do not understand,” said the Judge, “your 
position in regard to clover. I would like to have 
you on the witness stand with a good farmer to 
prompt a sharp lawyer in examining you. In your 
direct testimony you say ‘ clover is the grand reno¬ 
vating crop of American agriculture ! ’ ‘ Raise 
your own clover-seed and sow it with unsparing 
hand ? ’ ‘ You should never sow wheat without 
seeding it down to clover.’ Nay, more,” said the 
Judge, “ you even go so far as to say that this is 
not enough, and that instead of the common rota¬ 
tion, corn, barley, and wheat, you would seed the 
barley with clover. You tell us that to grow a 
maximum crop of wheat or barley, the one chief 
thing that the soil requires is nitrogen. You tell 
us that a crop of clover contains three or four times 
as much nitrogen as a crop of wheat or barley, and 
that when we grow a crop of clover and plow it 
under or feed it out on the land, the soil is sup¬ 
plied with what wheat and barley so much need, 
nitrogen. Now all this is clear enough, and I 
thought I understood your views. But on your 
cross examination you say ‘ Clover cannot create 
nitrogen, and there is no evidence that it gets it 
from the atmosphere.’ You were then asked this 
question : ‘ Suppose you had a field of wheat, half 
of which was seeded down with clover, after the 
wheat was off, the half where there was no clover 
was plowed. On the other half the clover was al¬ 
lowed to grow without being pastured. It grew so 
large in the fall that some of the clover plants 
headed out. The frost of winter cut down this 
clover, and it formed a mat of manure on the sur¬ 
face. The next spring the other half was plowed 
again, and summer fallowed in the old-fashioned 
way. The clover on the other half was allowed to 
grow, and did grow very large and rank. The sec¬ 
ond week in June this heavy crop of clover was 
plowed under, and the land was kept mellow and 
free from weeds by the free use of the cultivator 
and harrows, and finally the whole field was sown 
to wheat in September.’ Now which of those two 
parts of this field would be likely to produce the 
best crop of wheat? The question,” continued 
the Judge, “ was plain and well put, but it was dif¬ 
ficult to get a direct answer from you. You want¬ 
ed to qualify. You said a good deal would depend 
on the character of the soil. If it was a light sand 
or sandy loam, you thought the half where the 
clover was plowed under would produce much the 
best wheat, but if it was a heavy clay you thought 
perhaps the summer fallow would give tne largest 
yield. You did not know. You talked about the 
mechanical effect of the clover in ameliorating and 
lightening this heavy clay. You thought the clover 
might keep it warmer and drier, and that on the 
whole the chances were in favor of the half which 
had grown the clover. Still you would not say.” 
“ You were then asked how much nitrogen such 
a crop of clover, taking roots and all, would con¬ 
tain. You replied, ‘ If the growth in the fall which 
rotted on the ground, and the growth in the spring 
with the roots, were equal, taken altogether, to 
four tons of clover hay, then the crop would con¬ 
tain about 200 lbs. of nitrogen. ’ ” “You were 
then asked how much nitrogen a crop of wheat of 
50 bushels per acre would contain? You said, 
' Wheat contained 1.80 per cent of nitrogen, and 
wheat straw 0.65 per cent.’ You said furthermore 
that such a crop of wheat would give at least 100 
lbs. of straw to each bushel of wheat, and conse¬ 
quently the crop would contain 51 lbs. of nitrogen 
in the grain, and 321 lbs. in the straw, or the whole 
crop of wheat of 50 bushels per acre would contain 
861 lbs. of nitrogen. You said such a crop of clo¬ 
ver contained nitrogen enough, (200 lbs.), for three 
crops of wheat and straw of 38 bushels per acre. 
And you had before said that nitrogen was the 
chief thing which we required to grow large crops 
of wheat, worth in fact, from 25 to 30 cents per lb. 
And yet you hesitate to say whether the part of the 
field on which this large crop of clover was plowed 
under as manure, would or would not produce a 
greater crop of wheat than the other half where no 
clover was plowed under, and no manure of any 
kind applied.” 
“ If you will allow me,” I said, “I will explain.”— 
But the Judge stopped me. “ Answer the questions, 
sir, which are put to you. You admit that you have 
plowed under clover and roots which contain 200 
lbs. of nitrogen per acre. Now please say, yes or 
no, whether that soil does not contain 200 lbs. more 
nitrogen per acre than the land where no clover 
was grown or plowed under ? ”—“ No.” 
At this answer the Judge, the Squire, the Deacon, 
and the Doctor had hard work to repress their sur¬ 
prise and indignation. They thought I was trifling 
with them. And the Judge asked in a severe tone, 
“ What, then, has become of this 200 lbs. of ni¬ 
trogen? ”—“ It is in the soil.”—“And yet you say 
the soil does not contain 200 lbs. of nitrogen. You 
plow under clover containing 200 lbs. of nitrogen, 
and you say it is then in the soil ? ”—“ Yes. Some 
of it still undecomposed in the clover, and some 
mixed with the soil. I do not suppose there has 
been any of it lost.”—“Please explain yourself, 
sir,” said the Judge, with a frown.—“ That is what 
1 have been trying to do for some time, but you 
stopped me. If I take $200 out of my left hand 
pocket and put it into the right hand pocket, 1 be¬ 
come no richer by the change. I have not got 8200 
more money, and yet I have just put $200 into my 
pocket. And so if a crop of clover takes 200 lbs. 
of nitrogen out of the soil and you plow under the 
clover, the soil becomes no richer in nitrogen by 
the operation.” 
“ Well,” said the Squire, “why then do you ad¬ 
vocate growing clover ? Why do you call it the 
great renovating crop of American agriculture ? ”— 
I speak of it as the great renovating crop of our 
agriculture, because it seems specially suited to our 
climate and circumstances ; and because, especially 
on our limestone soils, it grows with astonishing 
vigor. If our land is dry, clean, and w r ell cultiva¬ 
ted, we can often grow large crops of clover with 
no manure except a bushel or two of plaster per 
acre. The turnip has been called the great reno¬ 
vating crop of British agriculture, its sheet-anchor. 
But it is a crop which requires a large outlay in la¬ 
bor and manure. On many English farms, no 
matter how heavily they are manured, clover can 
seldom be grown to advantage oftener than once 
in six, eight, or ten years. It may be so here in 
time, but as long as I can grow good crops of clo¬ 
ver, I shall continue to do so.” 
“ Never mind all that,” said the Judge, “ tell us 
why you would grow clover for the purpose of en¬ 
riching the land, or, in other words, for the purpose 
of furnishing the cereals with nitrogen when you 
say that the clover returns to the soil no more ni¬ 
trogen than it had taken out of the soil ? ”—“ Be¬ 
cause experience, observation, actual experiment, 
and true science, all tend to show that a crop of 
clover, when plowed under or fed off on the land, 
actually does enrich the soil for wheat and barley, 
and I have no doubt for oats, rye, corn, and pota¬ 
toes also.” 
“Now you are getting on to one side of the 
question. We, too, know that clover enriches the 
land. We think it does so by getting nitrogen 
from the atmosphere. But you deny this.”—“I 
say it is not proven. The facts are all the other 
way, and are susceptible of another and very differ¬ 
ent explanation. I believe in clover. I grow more 
of it than any of you. But your theory of its ac¬ 
tion will not bear the slightest examination. It 
will not hold water. And an erroneous theory, espe¬ 
cially a fundamental one like this, leads to grave 
errors in practice. Farmers sometimes grow clover, 
make it into hay, and sell it, the clover roots help 
them to grow a fair crop of wheat. This they sell; 
and they sell corn, and oats, and barley, and pota¬ 
toes,and timothy hay. They say, 1 If we do run down 
our land we can easily bring it up again by growing 
clover.’ They make a sad mistake. Clover is a 
crop for the good farmer, not for the poor farmer. 
It gathers up and utilizes the nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid, potash, etc., already in the soil. It does not 
get them from the atmosphere.” 
“ Go on with your explanation, sir,” said the 
Judge.—“ The Deacon and I have talked this matter 
over again and again.”—“Never mind what you 
have said to the Deacon. Keep to the point. We 
want to get to the bottom of this subject. Let me 
ask you again, why, if clover does not get nitrogen, 
phosphoric acid, and potash from the atmosphere, 
you so persistently advise it as a renovating crop?” 
“Because clover saves these important elements 
of plant-food from running to waste. They are in 
the land. A certain amount of them are held in 
solution by the water which always exists in the 
soil. Wheat, and barley, and probably oats, corn, 
potatoes, and grass, require a stronger solution than 
clover. We know that wheat often yields only half 
a crop, simply because it cannot find in the soil 
sufficient nitrogen and phosphoric acid, and yet clo¬ 
ver, on the same soil, finds much more nitrogen, 
phosphoric acid, and potash than is required 
to produce the heaviest crop of wheat. And 
so I say grow as much clover as possible, and 
either plow it under or feed it on the land ; or 
make it into hay, feed it to cows, sheep, horses, 
or hogs, and take back the mauure to the land. 
Then the wheat, barley, and other crops can get 
hold of the plant-food which they require. 
When you plow under a crop of clover you do 
not increase the quantity of nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid, potash, etc., in the soil. It was there before 
the clover grew. But you concentrate these im¬ 
portant fertilizing substances. You gather them 
up into the roots, leaves, and stems of the clover, 
and when these decay in the soil the roots of wheat, 
barley, etc., can find food rich enough for the rapid 
and healthy growth of these crops.” 
Two years ago, the Deacon and I were talking 
about Mr. Lawes’ remarkable experiments on bar¬ 
ley. (Walks and Talks in American Agriculturist, 
1873, page 134.) He has now grown 23 crops of 
barley in succession on the same land. Two plots 
have been left continuously without manure of any 
kind. The following table shows some of the most 
important results : 
Average yield per 
MANURES PER ACRE. acre for 23 years.. 
1. No Manure.21 bush. 
2. Superphosphate of Lime.21} “ 
3. Superphosphate and Ammonia or Nitrate of 
Soda.49 “ 
4. Superphosphate and Ammonia and Salts of 
Potash, Soda, and Magnesia. 48} “ 
5. 14 Tons Barnyard Manure.48} “ 
This little table is worthy of much more consid 
eration than we can now give it. I must be very 
brief. Look first at No. 2 and No. 3. The only dif¬ 
ference between the two plots is that No. 3 has had 
about 50 lbs. of nitrogen applied annually per acre 
in the form of sulphate of ammonia or nitrate of 
soda. This has doubled the crop. Then look at 
No. 5. The 14 tons of manure applied each year 
contains about 200 lbs. of nitrogen, and an exces¬ 
sive abundance of every element of plant-food, and 
yet we get no more barley than from No. 3. In 
other words, 50 lbs. of nitrogen in an available con¬ 
dition, give as great a crop as 200 lbs. of nitrogen 
in barnyard manure. The crop of barley in grain 
and straw, on plot 3 and on plot 5, removes from 
each acre about 25 lbs. of nitrogen per annum. So 
that in the 23 years, there has been applied to plot 
3, 1,150 lbs. of nitrogen per acre. The crops grown 
have taken out 575 lbs., and there has been left in 
the soil 575 lbs. of nitrogen per acre. On plot 5 
there has been applied 4,600 lbs. of nitrogen. The 
crops have removed 575 lbs., and there is conse¬ 
quently 4,025 lbs. of nitrogen left in the soil. 
Now recollect that 100 lbs. of available nitrogen 
per acre would make the land so rich that the crop 
would probably be “as flat as a pancake.” But 
the enormous quantity of nitrogen which has accu¬ 
mulated in the soil from the annual application of 
14 tons of manure per acre, produces no over lux¬ 
uriance of growth, and in fact gives a no larger 
crop now than 50 lbs. of nitrogen applied in the 
form of nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia. 
What has become of this 4,025 lbs. of nitrogen ? 
Mr. Lawes has shown that a portion of it is washed 
out by rains. But there is undoubtedly a large 
amount lying in the soil, in such a form that barley 
and wheat cannot take it up. But clover can take it 
up. At any rate to a much greater extent than 
