Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-06-01
CLOVER As a FERTILIzER.

From an essay on "Cloyer as a Green
Crop to Turn Under" published in the
Salem (Mass.) Standard, we extract the
following. 1t is especially valuable from
the experiment in relation to the top and
root:
"Of all the cultivated grasses, clover is
the best, all things considered. Besides
making excellent hay, it produces more pas
ture than either Of the others, and for soil
ing is invaluable. 1t will not yield so much
hay per acre on very strong land, because
it cannot stand up to mature, but makes a
very good mixture with timothy on such
land. Two crops of it can he grown in a
year, which cannot be done with either of
the others. Besides being valuable for hay,
pasture and soiling, to be returned to the
soil, is invaluable as green crop for i'm
proving land. The reason appears to be a
large part of the growth is absorbed
from the atmosphere, and by blowing IN
der is deposited in the ground for fertiliz-
ing other crops. Here appears to be its
great value. Neither mari (uDless of a
calcareous nature) nor plaster wiL
make wheat directly, (although mari has
the reputation of containing an average of
two and one-half per cent, Of phosphOric
acid-the great wheat fertilizer) but they
are the great stimulants for clover and 9th
er grasses, when applied to the surface, by
the attraction they have for ammonia and
other fertilizers in the atmosphere, or from
some other cause, and clover turned under
will produce any other crop. Thus We see
clover is a direct fertilizer, because it re-
turns to the land much more than it draws
from it, while of the other green crops some
are but little and some are of no bentit.
Therefore it is reasonable to conclude that
other crops had previously absorbed from
be land what they returned to 1t.
"The value of clover turned unuer, or of
clover sod, depends very much on the
amount of vegetable matter contained
therein. Some farmers have cOntended
that the roots contain large per cent. Of
vegetable matter when compared with the
tops. To test this question fairly went
into field of second crop Of clover last
summer, where the soil was deep, rich and
lOamy, with a subsoil of a like nature, so
the roots could easily strike deep, and dug
several stools of clover, with roots twelve
inches long, tapering nearly 70 point. The
roots were washed carefully. The tops
were measured in length (not height, for it
was all lodged) from two to three feet aud
over. The tops and roots were separated,
aud weighed in proportion of five to one
while green, and when dried, the same.
The clover, if then cut and cured, would
have made Il tons of has to the acre, and of
the roots were only as one to five as
the tops, this would give only 500 pounds
to the acre of dried roots; and as only one
eighth of this by weight is below the reach
of the ordinary plOw of five inches and the
reach Of the main body of the roots of our
field crops, which is only 62R pounds to the
acre, we thus see the absurdity of the tap
roots of the clover to much extent fertiliz-
ing the subsol. The 623 pounds below the
five inches taken from the 500 pounds, the
whole amount of roots, leaves but 4375
pounds of roots in the soil if dried. This
estimate is for the largest growth of clover
Ordinary crops are much smaller, $50
pounds of dry roots in the soil above the
depth Of five inches, and 40 pounds below
it, would be fair estimate.
"The first crop of clover on the land al
luded to was very heavy-at least ton to
the acre more than the second crOp-con-
sequently the proportion of the roots to the
tops was as nine to one, provided the roots
had not grown any with the growth of the
second crop. 1t is, perhaps, about fair to
suppose the clover stubble, leaves and hav,
left on the ground in gathering the crop is
about equal in weight tc that of the roots,
or 500 pounds to the acre. This, with the
whole roots will make but 1000 pounds,
or half ton to the acre of dry vegetable
matter in the very best clover sod, exclu-
sive of the humus, and while green, fonr
times as much by weight. Where the soil
is already supplied with humus and other
substances, comprising a good soil, this
half ton of dry vegetable matter, or its
equivalent, two tons Of green mater, will,
in an ordinary season, on good land, with
good culture, insure seventy-fiye bushels of
corn to the acre, or a crop of clover addi-
tional, twenty-five to Thirty bushels Of
wheat"