The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-12-27
M|at Eatm.
CLOVER.
PROF. voELcKER's EXPERIMENTS.

IL Is we'll known to most practical
farmers that if they can succeed in
growing good crop of clover, they are
almost certain to get a paying crop of
wheat. You see how all agricultural
matters depend upon each other.
have come to the conclusion that the
very best preparation, the very best
manure, if you will allow me thus to
express myself, is good crop of clover.
Now, at first sight nothing seems more
contradictory than to say that you can
remove very large quantity Of both
mineral and organic food from the soil,
and yet make it more productive, as in
the case of clover. Nevertheless it is
fact, that the larger the amount of
mineral matter that you remove in a
crop of clover, and the larger the
amount of nitrogen which is carried off
in clover hay, the richer the land be-
comes. Now here is really strange
chemical anomaly, which cannot be
discarded, and invites our investigation,
and it is an investigation which has
occupied my attention, l may say, for
more than ten years. This clover in
vestigation has very much interested
me for a great number of years; but
only during the last season have l been
able to bring it to anything like compile
ton, so as thoroughly to explain the
strange anomaly that is presented to US
in the growth of clover as prepare
tory crop for wheat. The explanation
is very simple, though puzzling when
you know not the chemical points that
are involved in the investigation.
cannot deny myself the qualification of
showing to you in a few figures that,
in thorough chemical point of view,
clover is the most exhausting crop that
you can possibly grow, while in thor
ough practical point of view it is the
most restorative crop, and the best pre-
paration for wheat that you can possibly
grow. Now if we examine what is
taken from the land in the shape of
clover, We shall find that, assuming an
acre of land TO yield four tons of clover
hay, these four tons of clover hay will
remove 672 pounds of mineral consti-
tuents, and not less than 224 pounds
of nitrogen, which is equal to 272
pounds of ammonia Four tons of clio
yer hay, tie produce of one acre, must
contain a large amount of nitrogen,
and remove from the soil an enormous
quantity of mineral matters Astounding
in lime, potash, and also much phos-
phoric acid. Now comparing what is
removed by a crop of wheat, we find
that, in a clover crop, we remove fully
three times as much mineral matter.
and great deal more, l believe, of
nitrogen, as we do in crop of wheat
The total-to give the exact figures
of mineral matter removed in an aver
age crop of wheat, amounts to IT'S
pounds an acre-that is, taking in both
the grain and the straw; the total
amount of nitrogen removed in the
grain of wheat amounts to only 26.7
pounds per acre, (not quite 81 pounds,)
and in the straw of wheat 1872 pounds,
or in both together 46 pounds of nitro
gen, which is only about one-ifth of the
nitrogen contained in an acre of clover
We should, therefore, naturally expect
that clover, which removes SO much
more nitio gen from the soil, would be
greatly benefited by the application of
heterogeneous manures; but the reverse
is the case. Wheat it is we'll known,
is benefited by the application of nitro
genous matters, but clover is not. On
the other hand, clover is benefited by
mineral manures, and at the same time
it leaves the land in even a better con-
dition in this respect for the succeeding
crop than it is without the Intervention
of clover. l believe a vast amount of
mineral manure is brought within the
reach of the corn crop by growing clo-
yer. 1t rendered available to the roots
Of the corn crop, while otherwise it
would remain in locked-up condition
of the soil, if no recourse were had to
the introduction of the clover crop.
Glover, by means of its long roots, pen
etrates large mass of soil. 1t gathers
up, so to speak, the phosphorc acid and
the potash which are disseminated
throughout large portion of the soil
and when the land is plowed the roots
are left in the surface, and in decaying
they leave in an available condition the
mineral substances which the wheat
plant requires to enable it to grow.
Although in clover hay these mineral
matters are removed in great quantity,
yet the store of mineral food that we
have in six or twelve inches of soil is
so great that it is utterly insignificant
in comparison with what remains; in
other words, the quantity of mineral
matters which is rendered available and
fit for use for the succeeding corn crop
is very much larger than the quantity
which is removed in the clover hay.
But the accumulation of nitrogen after
the growth of clover in the soil is ex-
tremely large. Even when the clover
crop is Insignificant, large quantity of
nitrogen amounting to tons is accumu-
lated in the surface soil, and the better
the clover crop the greater is the accu-
mutation OF nitrogen. In one of my
experiments l tried to determine the
amount of nitrogen which is left in the
portion of field when the clover was.
comparatively speaking, poor; and l
found that on the brow of the hill in
that field (for it had considerable de-
cllvity,) the clover was weak, the pro-
duce to an acre being ton IL cwt. 80
pounds, while at the bottom of the hill,
where the clover was stronger there
being more soil, it was 2 tons cwt. 81
pounds. Observe, too, that at the bot
tom of the field the wheat was always
better. Now, it is in virtue,I believe,
of this nitrogen that the wheat grew
so much more luxuriantly.
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