Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-02-14
GLOVER CULTURE.
Essay Of R. E. Gif1n, Read at the
Farmers Institute at St. Glars
vile, February Sth.

When the hills of Belmont count!
were first cleared of the primitive forests
our ancestors found a soil of abounding
fertility. Through the decay of the
leaves and other products of the forest
for untold years the soil had become
filed with available plant food, and il
was only necessary to scratch the sur
face and and SOW the seed. and the hus-
bandman might look for an abundant
harvest But by successive cropping
now for almost century, the available
plant food has been reduced and the
soil only yields its strength after ardu-
Gus labor of preparation and cultivation
But is the soil exhausted? BY no means.
Except some spots which are sterile
by nature, or from which the soil has
been permitted to wash away, our soil is
a vast storehouse of plant food, suffi-
cient to produce large crops for hun
dreds, yes, thousands of years. But it
is locked up in the soil, and old Mother
Earth yields up her vast wealth little by
little. 1t is well that this is so-for if
the plant food was all Immediately avail
able, it would be quickly exhausted. and
the land reduced to absolute barrenness.
By constantly growing crops of grain
the supply of plant food is soon reduced
so that our fields fail to produce prOfta-
bic crops, and rotation of crops has long
been found necessary, and We must al
! ternate exhaustive crops with other
crops which are recuperative in their
nature. Among all the crops for this
purpose, clover holds prominent posi-
! ton. 1t is the great renOvating crop of
American agriculture. Clover possesses
the power in an eminent degree to gath
| er up and to store in the soil in an avail
able form, those elements of plant
growth which are essential to their
profitable production, and more nearly
than any other crop which we produce,
will bring the land into that condition
in which it was found when the forests
were first removed. A heavy crop of
clover will gather up an immense amount
of plant food, especially of nitrogen.
Of all the elements of plant growth nj
trOgen is the most difficult to Secure-it
is the most costly ingredient of all our
commercial fertilizers. 1t is essential
to the growth of living thing, both
animate and inanimate. 1t is very
abundant in nature, but is hard to catch
and hard to hold when caught. Now, a
crop of clover yielding but one ton of
hay per acre, will furnish from its tops
alone from from 40 to so pounds of nj
trogen. This is as much as is contain
ed in ton of ordinary super phosphate
or bone dust, and besides the roots will
yield nearly equal amount-or as
much in the roots and tops as is con-
tanned in two tons of super-phosphate,
or in Is Or20 tons of barnyard manure.
Now if we increase the crop to 2 tons
of hay per acre, we increase the roots as
much, and we have vast amount of
manure. Where the clover gets this nj
trOgen has long been a disputed point,
some writers claiming that it obtained
it directly from the atmosphere and thus
increased the absolute amount in the
soil. But we know of no experiments
which prOce that clover obtains its sup
ply from that source, though it seems
probable it may do so to some extent
But no matter where it obtains 1.-The fact
remains that it finds it SOme1Chere Is
it any wonder that such large crops of
grain follow crop of clover? for it is
wonderful what really heavy crop of
clover will do for man, and such is its
effects upon the mechanical condition
of the soil that were it possible to re-
move every particle of both roots and
tops, we would probably obtain heav-
ier crop than if the clover had not been
grown. 1t is for these reasons the
vast amount of plant food it will store
in its roots and tops, and its effect upon
the mechanical condition of the soil,
that clover is the grandest renovating
crop we possess. But there is no magi-
cal influence about it which will enable
us to convert piece of sterile soil into
rich and productive land, by the grow
ing of clover alone, and many attempts
which are made to improve land by the
growing of clover are labor and seed
thrown away, for the clover will not
grow, owing to the sterility of the soil. |
1t is on piece of good land that clover
will get in its best licks and produce won
derful results. We are convinced that
this crop is far too much neglected by
the farmers of Belmont county, for while |
we have in general soil well suited to !
It's growth, if We turn to the statistics |
of Ohio we find reported but few hun |
dred acres, while such counties as Darke |
and Butler and Stark and many others, |
report scores of thousands, while their
soil is not any better adapted to clover
than ours, and the conclusion is irresist- |
ible that we are not living up to our op-
portunities. We need to be awakened, |
and we hope the the consideration of
this question to-day will have good eff |
feet. Aside from its renovating prop |
critics there are few crops more prOfta- |
bic. A moderate crop of clover will |
yield at two cuttings p tons of hay per |
acre, and animal products must be low
indeed if this hay is not worth $S per
ton on the farm, and it is often worth
much more. This would be $40 per
acre; what more proftacle crop can be
grown?-and if the second crop be cut
for seed the amount will not be Iessened, |
perhaps increased, and then what grand |
feed it makes!-how easy it is to winter
stock upon clover hay, or even to fatten
them almost without grain. But we
think we are all agreed as to the import
ance and profit of clover if we can only
get it to grow. How shall we accom-
plish this? If we wish to grow clover
proftably we must SOW it upon ground
in good heart and in good condition
Perhaps we will succeed better if we SOW
our seed with wheat than with any other
crop which we commonly cultivate, and |
it will greatly increase our chances of |
success if the wheat has received a coat |
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