St. Landry democrat., 1879-02-08
Advantages of Glover.


Yorker writes: Whenever clover can
be grown, the means for restoring ex-
hausted fertility are always at hand. 1t
does this in many ways. On heavy
loans or clays clover roots penetrate the
subsoil, opening it to the fertilizing in
fuences of air and light. They take
from the subsoil the manuria) elements,
chiefly mineral, which have lain dormant,
or beyond the less vigorous feeders.
The surface soil on land long cropped is
generally deficient in mineral fertilizers.
AS the clover plant is mainly near or
above the surface, what is brought from
the subsoil helps to make the surface
richer. At the same time another i'm
portant renovating process is going on.
The clover leaves form a mulch, pro-
tecting the surface from the heat and
rapid evaporation of moisture which
would otherwise occur. Under this
shade there is strong reason to believe
that unavailable nitrogen is transformed
into nitric acid or unites with some base
forming a nitrate, and is thus made
available as plant food.
I omit in this enumeration of the
benefit from clover, the advantages which
many believe it to possess of using
atmospheric nitrogen by absorption
through the leaves. This is mooted
question, and, though important, its
! decision does not involve that of the
necessity of growing clover. If clover
has the. power, it is probably through
the ammonia held by dews and rains on
the leaves, and is thus helped by the use
of gypsum and land plaster, which often
produces remarkable results on the
clover plant. There can be no doubt
that growth of clover heavy enough to
form mulch adds to the heterogeneous
fertility in the soil. Glover is rich in
nitrogen. In the decay of its leaves and
roots it gives the soil just what is wanted
to grow maximum crop of any kind of
grain. On the wheat growing soils of
Western New York tanners have found
by experience that growing clover en-
ables them to produce as large crops Of
wheat as in early days when the virgin
fertility of the soil was not exhausted.
There is even an increase in fertility on
cropped land regularly seeded with
clover. Some years ago a successful
farmer had occasion to remove fence
between two fields, throwing both into
one. The fence was crooked rail fence,
and had been unmoved many years. He
supposed. as matter of course, that this
uncropped land would prove the richest,
but instead of this being the case, there
WAS s poor streak through the field
where the fence stood, which was not
remedied until several years afterward,
when he applied dressing of manure to
restore equality. The covered land on
either side was without any fertilizer
excepting clover, and yet it had con
stantly increased in fertility.
The use of clover as manure has here
tofore been chiefly on light, sandy soil
deficient in vegetable matter. Here the
soil, when not in crops, must be con
tinuously seeded with it, and, as often as
possible, the entire growth of the plant
must be plowed under. Treated thus,
sandy soils, which would otherwise be-
come barren waste, are rendered pro-
ductive. IL some localities are farms
which consist mainly of drifting sand,
which not even mortgage will hold,
and by their side other farms naturally
no better that, by the use of clover, have
been made fertile. Pure sand has no
capacity for retaining manures. Adding
vegetable matter, as we do with clover,
we may add whatever else we choose.
with the assurance that it will remain a
fixed benefit. On heavy land clover
benefits the crop by disintegrating the
too compact mass. On sand the decay
ng clover forms the soil on which the
crops must grow. 1t makes heavy soil
lighter and lighter soils heavier.
The advantages of clover in cleansing
foul land have never been appreciated.
AS usually grown, in the seedlings, it
does not have this advantage. Sown as
it should be, at least peck of seed per
acre, and allowed to form dense mass,
clover will smother and destroy most
annual weeds, and greatly aid in lsup-
pressing those hardy perennials, thistlea
and quack grass. But to do :thiss. effec>
tually, clover should be grown with the
least possible check. No pasturing
should be permitted when the ground is
moist enough to poach by the feet of
cattle Or horses, Especial care should be
taken of clover while young. The best
farmers now will not pasture the first
year after seeding. In season like the
present, | would make an exception.
Glover this year blossomed and in some
places seeded from last years seeding
So soon as the blossoms began to appear
I would pasture lightly to keep down
the blossoms. This makes rich food for
cattle or horses, and, as blossoming is
very exhaustive to the plant, light pas
turing rather promotes its vigor. But
the second year no boot of horse or COW
should be allowed in the clover field,
except as horses are used to cut and