310 
Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
it. The power of red clover to take from the atmosphere nitrogen¬ 
ous matter and other elements of plant-food is indeed wonderful. 
Mr. J. W. Wood, has well stated this, in his paper on 44 Rotation of 
Crops,” published in the transactions of the Wisconsin State Agri¬ 
cultural Society, for the years 1873-4. I quote his statement here. 
“Boussingault’s experiment ought to conslusively settle this question 
He transplanted young clover plants to a soil which had been de¬ 
prived of all organic matter, protecting them from rain and dust 
and watering them with distilled water only. He says for some 
days they seemed to languish, but by and by they became re¬ 
markably vigorous. In a month the clover ha:l grown to twice its 
original height, the plants had in all respects as fine an apperance 
as the clover of the same age which had been left growing in the 
field. Thus, in two months growth at the cost of air and water the 
clover had, so to say, trippled its quantity of organic matter and the 
weight of nitrogen contained in it was very nearly doubled.” 
Dr. Ycelcker, chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society of Eng¬ 
land, in his researches on this subject, published in the report of that 
society for the year 1869, gives a still more remarkable statement 
of the power of red clover to take and assimilate plant-food from 
the air. He says he found some of the farmers in the vicinity, that 
not only thought that clover was an excellent crop to prepare land 
for wheat, but asserted that the wheat did better when, instead of 
plowing in the second crop, they took it off. Dr. Ycelcker was in¬ 
credulous, but he found other farmers who said, u our wheat does 
best when we let the clover ripen and save the seed, and put the 
wheat in after that.” The doctor said it would be folly to deny 
this; I will look into the matter and satisfy myself. I am living 
here on the ground and can make the experiments. 44 He made the 
investigation and actually found that the quantity of those nutri¬ 
tive materials left in the surface of the soil after the clover -seed had 
been taken off was greater than when two crops of clover-hay 
had been cut, and greater when two crops had been removed than 
when only one had been taken off.” Thus proving that the clover 
took continuously from the atmosphere during its whole period of 
growth elements of plant-food, and that a* greater amount of plant- 
food than could be assimilated by the plant was taken by it and depos¬ 
ited in the soil. This was demonstrated by the repeated analysis of 
the soil made by Dr. Ycelcker, when one crop of clover had been 
