The Louisiana cotton-boll. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], Attakapas, La.) 1872-1883, 1878-07-25
Hom 10 use Glove.

TOW 10 use Sloft'.
On this subject the Rural New Yorker
says:
Farmers who grow clover largely are
almost necessarily improving their land.
It is true that some modes of disposing
of the clover crop are more advantageous
than others, but 50 long as clover is
grown the soil must be bent flied. The
roots at least must remain, under the
most exhausted system Of cropping and
clover roots are no mean fertilizer. They
take from the subsoil and probably also
from the atmosphere most of the sub,
stance which the plaut contains. It is
hardly possibly, except by the utilization
of ATMOSPHERIC psaFpgsn, t. account for
the beneficial effsets of clover on lie.
soil. have often seen good crops
grown s. clover sod without manure,
aud an land which, before being clovered,
was reckonsd rather poor. OF course,
the effyct is all the better if a crop of
leaves and haulm is turned under with
the roots.
The clover helps the soil in other
ways, It's roots are the cheapest sub.
soiIer and il the feId is not very wet,
will give the soil all the drainage neces-
sary for ordinary farm crops. I am
sati fed that farmers who grow
clover largely, can keep their fields
dry with one half the understanding
they would otherwise need. Walking
this spring over the fields, | fad clover
sod dry and ready to plough, while in
timothy and other grass adjoining, the
water oozss out from the surface under
the pressure OF the foot. Even in wheat
fields I find that where clover has been
ploughed under, or e a clover sod, the
soil is much dryer than on whe8t after
stubble. The decaying cloverroots form
channels through which the water passes
away. 4
Ploughiug under clover when in bloom
is rightly regarded ss a Wssseful method
of using it-tar better, however, than not
u-ing it at all. The objections to naked
summer falloWs are that they require
two seasons to make q crop, and that
while the sod is decaying under the blaze |
OF a summer sun or unprotected surface
of the field, much of the valuable part
Of the clover Il lost. II the soil is rich,
as it should be, it will produce as much
after barley or oats a. after a naked fallow.
| do not suppose that fallows average five
bushels per acre more of wheat than land
after stubble, This year the
difference will be ven less, and some of
the best wheat / have seen was after a
heavy crop of barley, Five bushels of
wheat are too little to pay the loss OF a
grain crop and the extra expense ia
.cultivating the faIlow. There is a more
important loss, as summer falloWs are
usually ploughed the year after the
is sown, the roots have not vet
made their full growth, and do not until
the second crop of clover in September
when the seed is harvested. This is not
too late to plough and SOW TO wheat.
Good crops are thus grown but the
difficulty is in getting a good catch " OF
seed. My way is to harvest two
crops of clover the second yesr, the last
which is for seed. Feed this out on
the farm, sow the seed, and make q big
pile. The year after, manure
sod heavily, plant with corn or potatoes,
and then follow with barley or cats, aud
wheat again. In this way there Is no
about a good catch of clover
every year, and besides the manure
made from the two crops of clover, and
seed sold aud used will pay the interest
On the land.
ME@ - :