Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1872-08-29
From the New England Farmer.
Clover.

From the New England Farmer.
Clover.
Glover is;a great institution, the
value Of which is not as fully under
stood as it should be. The.feld for
its development is the prairies Of the
West, where the fertility Of the soil
is annually depreciating, for want Of
manurial matter, to supply the drain
that is made upon it.
When there is little stock in pro-
portion TO the number Of acres cult
vated, and that little is not stabbed
in the Winter, a large amount of
manure cannot be saved to enrich the
broad fields of corn and wheat. What
shall be done? Two-thirds Of the
fertility, SO far as wheat is concerned,
is lost already. Soils that a few
years since yielded thirty-three bush
els now yield eleven. The remedy
is forthcoming just when it is wanted,
AID experience is teaching how to
use it. 1t is wonderful how nature
keeps her treasures stored up until
the necessities of man compel him to
seek for them. Coal has been buried
in the bosom OF the earth until 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 i'll the
virgin soil.has suficed for one genera
ton, and now the little brown clover
seed has been given to furnish ma
chinery by which the elements of
fertility may be absorbed from the
atmosphere, and pumped out of the
earth to supply the .uts of another
generation. On most lands four or
five pounds of clover seeds and two
or three hundred pounds of plaster
to an a,re, will, in little more than
a year, if rhe soil is tolerably good,
be converted into two tons Of the
very best hay. This material has
been chiefly derived from the atmos-
pherc by the plants which have the
power 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 fall and decay, AID this
iertiiizing matter is drawn from the
atmosphere blythe ton, annually, and
placed just where it is wanted for
the next crop.
And the clover roots, yes the clio.
yer roots, what have they been doing
I'll this time? If not interrupted
they work on two years, and then
withdraw from the field and make
room for other workers who succeed
;hem. We call them biennials indi-
eating they take two year jobs. But
whatan amount. OF work they do in
this short tine They will push
themselves into the soil, one, two,
three, four, FIVE feet, burowing into
: and loosening it, pumping up water
from 1t, and the various mirfcrals held
n solution, 'and deposiiing them in
the stems Of the plants, along with
The materials drawn FROM the atlnos-
I.phere, and thus we have compost
Of silex, lime, potash, soda, magnesia,
alum, iron and the rest, mixed With
carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, ETC., as food
for the next Cop. These clover roots
are grand workers. They are no
idIers. 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 under ground, he seizes it
as his lawful prey-indeed, it is the
very thing he went down after, and
has been hunting after all Summer
and now he sucks it into his open
mouth, and pulls and tugs like boa
constructor swallowing a goat, until
he gets it within his esophagus, hen
!. he pushes it on and on through the
four or FIVE feet of his longitude, 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 an 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
ground? II 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 rot
ted down into plant food for the crops
that are to follow.
Not only has this amount of manu-
rial 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 was ,wlA9sa the