The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-07

complaint 1--WE cannot grow clover as We
formerly did" 1t becomes, then, of great
Importance to look into the reasons for
the failure. The failure may be the re-
suit of various causes. On some fertile
soils where clover has been grown for
years in a short rotation of crops the soil
gradually accumulates humus to such an
extent that it gets into an acid condition,
Now the success of clover is largely due
to the parasitic organisms that live in
the nodules on its roots, and through
which the plants are enabled to col
lect nitrogen from the air. When the
soil gets into an acid condition through
the accumulation of humic acids these
mlcro-organisms cannot thrive, for they
require that the soil be in a feebly aka
line condition. Then when the nitrogen
collection microbes fail to grow the clover
fails to thrive, though the soil may be
rich in plant food. There are many
plants that can abide an acid soil, but
clover is not one of .-.~se.
1t was found in New England that on
some of these soils where clover failed
sweetening of the soil through an APP
plcation of freshly slaked lime would
restore the conditions needed by the
throve But there are other soils in
which the so-called "clover sickness is
due simply to the loss of plant food from
the soil that the clover needs. There is
no plant grown that responds more
quickly on most clay soils to an appli-
cation of lime than clover, but where
this is the case it is largely due, as
we have said to the sweettening of the
organic matter in the soil But lime
never made poor soil rich. 1t may bring
into play in soils where it is present in
an unavailable form the potash that the
clover needs, but there are thousands of
acres all over the country where the
mineral matters are absolutely deficient,
and no plant will do its best till they
are supplied.
There are more failures of clover from
a lack of humus in the soil than there is
from an excess of this moisture retaining
material We once took charge of a place
on which there was a field of fertile
limestone soil. We were told that it
was useless to SOW clover on that field,
as it was clover-sick We gave it a
heavy dressing of lime, and sowed clover
or the wheat that followed, and made
as fine clover as we ever saw. This soil
was simply acid, though undertake by
limestone rocks. Now many a farmer
would have at once jumped to the conclu-
sion that lime was all the manure need
ed on that land, and that all that need
be done to get large crops would be to
go on applying lime This impression got
abroad among the farmers in the fertile
valleys of Pennsylvania many years ago,
and they applied lime year after year
Now they have found their error and
have gone to the other extreme and sell
dom use as much lime as they should
all because they thought that lime as d
manure had supplied all the needs of the
plant, while it simply enabled them to
rob the soil more effectually of its store
of phosphoric acid and potash They are
now using fertilizers to make crops, and
putting on the soil in this form what they
have for years been robbing it of. The
present necessity for complete fertilizers
could have been largely avoided had they
realized what they were doing. Glover
failed by reason of the taking away of
the plant food it especially needed, and
the sensible way to restore the conditions
in which they found lime profitable would
be to supply the plant food that the
aid get back to the soil the humus they
had robbed it of through an injudicious
use of lime. Glover, as we have often
said, will get you the nitrogen free. but
it cannot get from the air the phosphorc
acid that has been taken off in the
grain crops and in the bones of every
animal raised on the land 1t would not
restore the potash that the lime helped
70 H.
in the ordinary course it would have
been available. Where lining has
brought about this state of affairs, where
humus has been used up from the soil
and drought affects it more sensibly, and
clover is starving for the food it needs
the only resource is to return by artifi-
cial means the plant food that has been
taken away. The grain crops are smaller
by reason of this lack. the clover fails
or make feeble growth and the manure
pile is less through the lack of the ca
pacty of the farm for feeding stock.
The true way to get back to the origi-
AMI productive conditions is not by buy
ing a complete fertilizer to dress the
wheat fields in a niggardly way, and then
take it all off in the grain crop, but
the true and business-like way is to
feed the clover with what it needs and
then let the clover do the rest. 1t will
do it most cffectually, too. 1t has long
been the opinion of scientific workers
that phosphoric acid must be in an avail
able form when placed in the soil; hence
the use of the dissolved rock, since the
larger part of its phosphoric acid is at
once available. When this is applied in
unlimited quantities to a wheat crop is
undoubtedly helps the wheat and is used
up in the helping. Glover is usually
sowH on wheat in the spring in the
clover growing sections of the country.
and after the wheat is cut il feels the
lack of what the wheat has used up,
and sometimes fails as soon as harvest
is over and it is exposed to the sun in a
weakened condition. The part of wisdom,
then, would be to put the phosphoric acid
there in a more liberal manner, and
part of it.. at least, in the insoluble form
of pulyerized phosphate rock or floats,
which will gradually come into use after
the wheat is made. Then not only the
clover, but the wheat. needs potash to
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