Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-02-10
CLOVER.

The following excellent article on Glow
er from the NeaO England Farmer we
commend to all farmers, but more espe-
cislly to those who are suffering their
farms to go to ruin for want of it. We
feel that we cannot too often urge upon
the agriculturlst of the State the necessity
of preserving their lands. Tie whole
wealth of the State depends more, indirect
ly, upon clover than upon:any other one
plant. We rely upon the products of
agriculture for our money; those products
can only be raised profitsbly upon fertile
land; land that has been WON can be re-
stored by no fertilizer but clover except
at a cost greater than the worth of the
land, nor can good land be kept good
without the use of clover or some other
fertilizer:
Clover is great institution, the value
of which is not as fully understood as it
should be- The field for its development
is the prairies of the West, where the
fertility of the soil is annually depreciat-
ing for want of manurial matter to sup
ply the drain that is made upon it.
When there is little stock in proportion
to the number of acres cultivated, and
that little is not stabbed in the winter,
large amount of manure cannot be saved
TO enrich the broad fields of corn and
wheat. What shall be done2 TWo-thirds
of the fertility, SO far as wheat is con
ceTned, is lost already. Soils that a few
years since yielded thirty-three bushels,
now yield eleven. The remedy is forth
coming Just when it is wanted, and eXpe-
rience is teaching how to use it. 1t is
wonderful how nature keeps her treas
ures stored up until the necessities of man
compel him to seek for them. Coal has
been buried il the bosom of the earth IN
til man wants to convert water into
steam, and iron ore into rails and ships,
and now he finds it cropping out all over
the earth.
The fertility accumulated in the virgin
soil has sufficed for one generation, and
now the little brown clover seed has been
given to furnish machinery by which the
elements of fertility may be absorbed
from the atmosphere, and pumped out of
the earth to supply the wants of another
generation. On most lands four or five
pounds of clover seeds and two or three
hundred pounds of plaster to an acre, will
in little more than year, if the soil is
tolersbly good, be converted into two
tons of the very best hay. This material
has been chiefly derived from the atmos-
phere, by the plants which have the pow
er of changing carbon and oxygen into
solid matter in their stems and leaves.
This they deposit in the soil when they
have completed their growth and fal! aud
decay, and thus fertilizing matter is drawn
from the atmosphere by the ton, annu-
ally, and placed just where it is wanted
for the next crop.
And the clover roots, yes, the clover
roots, what have they been doing all this
timer If not interrupted they work on
two years, and then withdraw from the
field and make room for other workers
who succeed them. We call them bien-
mails, indicating that they take two-year
jobs. But what an amount of work they
do in this short time. They will push
themselves into the soil, one, two, three,
four, five feet, burrowing into and loosen
ing it, pumping up water from it, and the
various minerals held in solution, and de-
posting them in the stems of the plants,
along with the materials drawn from the
atmosphere, and thus we have compost
of slick, lime, potash, soda, magnesia,
alum, iron and the rest, mixed with car
h., Y,itrorar, off food for tho
next crop. These clover roots are grand
workers. They are no idlers. They do
not stop when they have worked eight
hours. When one of these little fellows
finds particle of lime or sulphur, away
down three or four feet underground, he
seizas it as his lawful prey-indeed, it is
the very thing he went down after, aud
has been hunting after all summer-snd
now he sucks it into his open mouth, and
pulls and tugs ike q boa constructor swal-
lowing goat, until he gets it within his
9sOphagus, then he pushes it on and ON
through the four or five feet of his lOngi-
tude, and deposits it in the stem of the
plant, TO be used where it is wanted in the
process of construction. We should like
to see all the roots from al acre of thrifty
clover washed and shook out, dried and
thrown into heap. Would there be two
tons of them-as much as there is of the
plants above ground2 If so, these four
or five pounds of seed would have drawn
from the air and the ground four tons of
solid matter, ready to be rOtted down into
plant food for the crops that are to fol-
! low.
Not only has this amount of manurial
matter been prepared, but the soil has
been bored and loosened in all directions,
so that the air could penetrate it, and
warm it, and act upon the mineral matter
it contains. This soil is then in very
different condition from what it wss
when the clover seed was sOwn. Its me-
chanical condition is greatly changed.
! The rain can penetrate it. The roots of
wheat can run down into it. The de-
caying vegetable matter upon the surface,
as it dissOlves by the rain, can accompany
the roots into the earth, and yield up to
! them the nourishment it contains.
If the soil is too poor, or too much ex-
hausted to yield full crop of clover at
the first sowing, plow it into the ground,
and repeat the process. The crop will be
/ increased, and the soil improved by every
repetition-until at length, you will get
I the thirty bushels of wheat.
I But we are impatient. We want to
/ get the thirty bushels in one year. We
/ cannot wait. But Providence is patient.
''The mills of the gods grind slow.p We