The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1878-09-04
Clover.


succeeding crop of wheat grown on
land from which a heavy crop Of clio.
yer has been taken will be much
heavier than if no clover had been
there. How il this? Such could
not be the case if all the food of
plants was derived from the soil, for
then the soil would, upon the remo-
val of the clover. be less able to pro-
duce crop Of wheat than before.
But the fact is that plants do not de-
rive all their food. nor even the prin-
cipal part of it, from the soil. Re-
peated chemical tests have demon
strated the fact that from 95 to 80
per cent Of the entire substance Of
agricultural plants is derived direct
ly or indirectly from the atmosphere.
Not that plants take all the So per
cent, through their leaves and stems
above ground, but that the air con-
tains the elements which principally
go to build up the structure of
Iplants, which, being absorbed by the
rains and snow and dew, are washed
down into the soil from whence they
are taken up by the roots of the
plant to aid in building up its struc.
ture. Prof. Voelcker Whose author
ity as a chemist is unchallenged,)
says lit is a fact that the larger
the amount Of mineral matter you
remove in q crop of clover, and the
larger the amount of nitrogen which
is carried off in the clover hay, the
richer the land becomes. . And he
accounts for it thus: The clover
plants take nitrogen from the atmos-
phere and manufacture it into their
own substance, which, on decomposi-
ton of the clover roots and leaves,
produces abundance of ammonia;
that in reality the growing of clover
is equivalent to a great extent to
manuring with Peruvian guano."
And he then goes on to show that
there is a larger quantity of real ma
nure in a crop of clover than in the
largest dose of Peruvian guano a
farmer would ever think Of apply
ing.
Now the professor must be either
right or wrong in his proposition.
Which is it? Let us see !: No one
doubts the facts that clover either
takes a part OF its food from the air
or takes it all from the soil. If from
the air, las the professor says,) then
clover really adds to the store Of.
plant food, and is an improver of
the soil. But if from the soil. then
it certainly has tendency TO im-
poverish rather than improve it. We
rather think the professor right, and
that science, in this case. is nothing
more than natural law exemplifed.
And whilst chemical investigation
shows that a considerable part of the
substance found in the ashes of
plants is derived from the soil, yet
that the main pant or the conbusti-
BILE portions comes from the air, both
through the leaves and through the
roots after having been washed down
by rains. &c. Another very inpor-
tant office which clover performs
and with which it is not usually
that when sown thickly
it not only smoLhers cut nearly all
the class Of annual weeds the first
season. but so weakens or partially
smothers the biennial class that they
mature little or no seed the first sea-
son, and almost entirely disappear
the second. And, besides this, it
prevents the seeding of the soil with
1 fresh stock of weeds, such as usu-
Ally follow a manuring with ordinary
arm y ard material. and with which
he latter is more or less lilled.-
Bait. Sun