Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-03-29
sow LARGELY OF CLOVER,


By reference to our market reports j
will be seen that clover seed are cheaper
than they have been for years. The time il
therefore propitious for sowing a large
breadth of land in this king of all the
grasses. There is no species of forage al
once SO nutritious and SO cheap, as that
from clover; and as a fertilizer and subsoil-
er, it has no equal. The virgin soil which
had been accommodating for centuries upon
the surface of the earth has met the wants
of one generation; but the red clover has
been supplied to draw from the atmosphere
above, or from The subsoil beneath, the ele-
ments of fertility for another generation.
Let every farmer who has not done 50, buy
a few clover seed and little land plaster
and SOW on some worn out spot on his
farm. After breaking the land SOW the
seed at the rate of a gallon to the
acre, and when the little plants, harbingers
of thrift and plenty, appear above ground
SOW two hundred-pOunds of plaster to the
acre, and the land is redeemed, at a cost,
too, of less than three dollars per acre.
But the plaster, what good does it do? 1t
feeds the young clover by attracting ammo
MIA from the atmosphere, and the young
plant in its turn changes the carbon and OK
ygen into solid matter. When the plants
have completed their growth they deposit
all this in the soil to be used in feeding other
crops, and making marketable products.
The roots, too, those little quiet workers
run down two, three or four feet into the
soil, seize upon every ingredient that can
be made serviceable in the growth
of plants and bring It TO the surface.
After a crop Of clover the land is
loose. The roots Of plants can
penetrate it. The warm air can permeate
il. The water can percolate through it.
The combined action of the elements upon
it produces further disintegration and sets
free fertilizing elements and inorganic ma
terials, till then beyond the power Of plants
TO assimilate.
A crop Of clover also shades the land
and prevents evaporation, and by so doing,
the capacity Of the soil for absorbing the ma
nurial gases is wonderfully increased.
There are four substances necessary for
the full development Of plant, and that
development is Obstructed when any one
of these is wanting viz water, from which
oxygen and hydrogen are obtained; car
bonic acid, which furnishes the plant with
carbon ammonia, which supplies the
plant with nitrogen; and lastly, the
inorganic substances. All these ele-
ments are required before a plant
can reach its complete maturity, and all of
them are increased after q crop Of clover.
BY penetrating the soil with its roots a
larger and more constant supply Of moisture
(water) is assured. The immense surface
of leaves absorb large quantity of carbonic
acid from the atmosphere; the roots also
find carbonic acid in the decaying organic
matter. Ammonia, which supplies nitrogen,
is absorbed from the air. or the nitrogen is
taken from the nitrates in the soil through
the agency of the roots. And, lastly, the
inorganic substances, potash, soda, lime,
magnesia, silica, etc, are rendered avail
able to plants by being unlocked through
the weathering rendered possible, beneath
the surface, by the admission of air and
water, following the channels cut out by
the roots of the clover,
No farmer, worthy the name, can fail to
make use of clover, the only remedial agent
for that most direful of all diseases, poverty
of soil. Wherever it will grow let it be
sown, and the investment win prove in the
highest degree profitable.