The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1885-08-20
GLOVER AS A FERTILIZER.

Red and White Clovers as Disinteg orators
of the Soil.
Probably no merely theoretical solu-
ton of this question that could be
offered would be accepted as satisfactory
or conclusive; but 1 have a case in view
where a practical demonstration of it
has been made, and to the word 'fer-
t~ilizer'' I attach here the widest signif-
cation, meaning by it any substance or
plant which will enhance the yield by
any process, whether chemical, vital or
mechanical.
On contiguous farms in the Muskin-
gum Valley, Southern Ohio. there are
two fields, m of twenty acres, n OF
ten. separated only by a fence. They
both lie on the second plateau or bench,
have been cleared and in cultivation the
same length of time (about seventy
years.. and have been subjected to the
same rotation of corn and wheat-the
ten-acre field without interruption, the
twenty-acre field with a rest of a year
or two about every fourth year. The
reader will please bear this fact in
mind, since it shows that the larger
field has had the advantage in n re-
spect, and it should have full force at
tached to it in connection with the re-
suits about to be reel rded.
The greatest and nPst important diff
ference between the systems of cultiva-
ton pursued in these two fields is, that
the small field has been kept seeded in
red clover, while the large one has been
allowed to seed itself to white. At any
rate, this has been the case for the last
twenty-five or thirty years. The little
field is part of a small farm, while the
large one is part of q large farm; and.
though the successive owners of the
| small farm have been on the whole bet
| ter farmers than the owners of the 9th
er, vet the latter have maintained a
| system of tillage which was better than
the average of Ohio. and which might,
| perhaps, be said to have been inferior
to that followed on the little farm, only
in that it neglected the seeding of the
| ground with red clover, allowing the
white to take its place.
The proprietor of this small farm has,
as l say, cropped with wheat and corr
alternately. Every spring when there is
wheat on the field, in February or March,
he sows about two quarts of seed per acre
and this small amount suffices to keeI
the ground occupied. White clover
never makes its appearance, nor an,
other vegetation, in fact, except some
rag weed after harvest, SO thoroughly
has the red clover taken possession
But in the field just over the fence
white clover is equally firmly estab
lished. 1t comes up after harvest 81
thick as to hold the ragweed in checl
fully as well as the red clover in thu
neighboring field, if not better.
Now, it will hardly be denied by the
experienced farmer that red clover act
as a better mechanical divisor of tn
soil than white clover. 1t has coarse
and more abundant roots and stems. /
lays. as it were, a great number o
minute tile-drains through the soil. Ii
the red clover field, with an equa
amount of tillage, the soil will Away
be finer, less lumpy than that in tn
white clover field. Therefore. whethe
it has a greater or less percentage o
nitrogen (Which I have not the table
by me at this moment to determinel. j
serves as a better inductor of that ele
ment from tho rain and the atmospher
into the soil.-Stephen PoWers. in Coun
tru Gentleman.