Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1874-02-06

GREEN MANURINe.


ness in this particular. Talk to them about
collecting materials for manure and Of bull
ding in every field n hill of compost, and they
will call your attention TO the excellencies
of red clover TO keep land up. Those, who
have been reading the Nes0 Eorb Tribune
will refer with an air oil sure defense TO what
George Geddes has said in favor of clover rs
n sort of soil alchemy, in which everything is
found which soil need TO keep 1t up, and
more than keep II up-make it more beauu-
iul If any sensible man will reflect q mot
ment, il he has had an opportunity to read
anything about natural physiology, or knows
anything about what soils are composed of
and what crops require for growth and ma
turing of seed, he will conclude that no one
plant contains all the desirable elements Of
the various crops. The notion at is nothing
more) that clover will advance the general
agriculture of country is the exact counter
part of what was entertained by English
farmers in some parts of the kingdom over
hundred years ago, and whose farms be-
came clover sick; that is, would not pro-
duce that plant any longer. Those who clio
yer their farms constantly here will share
the same fate by any by
We find the above, without credit, in a
recent humber ofthe Springfield Republican.
The writer is curiously in error, both as to
of turning under green crops, including clo-
yer, for fertiizng purposes, is as yet but
little followed in this country, and the few
who do practice it, mostly in the wheat grow
ing counties of New York, are just those
farmers who are not guilty of letting their
farms get poor and hungry.
Those among our American farmers who
have begun to use clover as green manure
are our most scientific cultiyators, That
is, they are readers Of agricultural books,
aud understand something Of the principles
of agricultural chemistry. They mostly
know without being told, that they cannot
get something from nothing, aud they do not
expect to do it by their use Of clover. Never
theless, they know as practical fact that
the growing of clover upon land even when
it is not plowed in, enriehes the soil, and
puts it into good condition fol- grain crops.
1t is with them, after learning so much
from experience, to decide whether it would
pay them best, in given case, to feed of,
make into hay, or turn under clover crop.
In any of these cases they do not, as we have
said, expect to circumvent Providence, or get
something where nothing is to be had. They
have simply discovered, or learned, valua.
Bile fact, and made use Of it.
No farmer who has given it a fair trial
doubts the immediate fertilizing power Of the
clover plant upon suitable land. The ques.
ton, however, is fair one, whether there is
any real gain from its use, or whether the
clover may not merely enable us to ruin our
land the faster, taking of heavy crops for a
few years, only to leave the farm irretrieva-
Setting theory aside for the present, we
FIRST appeal to experience to give us light on
this point. In this country, so far, there is
no record Of any injury on the contrary the
farmers who began the practice twenty years
or more ago, like Mr.. Geddes, are still its
warmest advocates. In England, Prof.
Voelcker, the chemist of the Royal Agricul-
tural Society, is a warm advocate Of the
practice, and it has no enemies in that coun-
try, among either practical or scientific men,.
The same may be truthfully said to be the
case in Germany, where the practice is older
than any where else.
Yet we do not doubt that an unwise, per-
sistent, excessive reliance upon clover as a
sole means Of fertilization would result, in
some cases, in the lands showing symptoms
Of exhaustion, and becoming not only co-
yer sick, but grain-sick and root-sick as
well. Asa matter of fact, however, such ca
SEES rarely occur, since the farmers who use
clover as manure generally understand the
principles upon which it benefits the land,
and know that this, like any other special
fertilizer, must not be relied upon to the ex-
clusion of others that make good all de6cien.
clcs in the supply OF plant food
What are those principles? What does
clover do to benefit the SOIL and what can it
do to injure it? Knowing the answer to
these two questions, the farmer is prepared
to act understandlngly in its use as fertii-
zer
First, then, clover does actually add fer
tilizing material to the soil, in very conside.
rable quantity. This fertilization is both Of
the direct and the indirect kind. The d.
rect fertilization afforded by clover comes
from the large amount Of heterogeneous matter
which the plant collects from the atmosphere
II is this which makes il so valuable crop
to precede wheat in rotation, because
wheat requires large amount Of nitrogen
and yet on account of its small LEAKAGE, must
get it ALL or nearly all, from the soil. The
nitrogen accumulated in the roots Of the clio
yer, and in the top also if it Is turned in, is
in just the best condition to be given up Il
the roots Of the wheat as it is required fol
the perfection of the grain. A semi-direc
fertilization from the use Of clover comes by
means Of the power its deep-boring tap roots
with their branching 6brss, have of extract
ing mineral matter from the subsOil, wheI
other plants, with feebler or with only horl
zontal roots, cannot get anything. 1t istrue
nothing is really added to the soil by this
if by the soil we mean the earth for tw'
three or four feet downward; but very mucl
is added to the surface soil, and openings ar
also made, where the decayed clover root
stood, by which the roots Of other plant
may 60 down much farther than they coul
otherwise penetrate, either for moisture Q
mineral matter, Very powerful indirect iel
tilizatiOn is afforded by means Of the larg
amount Of decaYing vegetable matter adde