Year: 1878

to inquire whether clover actually in
creases fertility or only makes it more
easily available for present crops.
Years hence this will be an interesting
question, but for long time to come
all that farmers need ask is how to make
the soil produce maximum crops OF
grain and grass. Whoever does this
need not fear that the large crops will
not sell for enough to supply the waste
Of fertility which they cause. When
this time comes, as it never will, no
skill in farming can make the business
profitable. In othei, words, the men
who supply the world with bread will
only partly earn their own, and must
make up the deficiency by exhausting
their capital. The bare statement of
such a position carries with it the best
refutation of its fallacy. Looking at
the condition of farming through q
period OF twenty-five years, find that
wherever good farming has been prac-
ticed there has been decided increase
in fertility, that larger crops are grown
than ten or twenty years ago, and that
good farmers are yearly becoming less
and less dependent on the season for
profitable results. Most of this i'm
provement is due to the use of clover ;
other influences have helped, but with
out clover all the manuring ind nnder-
draining that have been expended on
land would only suffice to maintain fer
tility, without perceptible improvement
The best mode OF utilizing clover be-
comes therefore the central question in
agricultural improvement. Whether it
shall be ploughed under, pastured or
mown whether it shall be turned under
the year after being sown, or left to per-
feet its seed whether it shall be sown
alone, or with some some small grain
crop; these are questions affecting vitality
the prosperity of the farming popula-
tion. The farmers of western New York,
having long been foremost in wheat pro-
| duction, easily learned to use clover as
its best auxiliary. With the PROCESS of
years they have learned experimentally
the best modes of using clover. Forty
years ago ploughing under clover when
in full blossom was the standard method.
Wheat then was the staple crop, and al
most the only one which sold for money.
A few COWS to supply the family with
milk and butter; hogs enough to fill
the pork barrel and pay the taxes, and
horses to work the farm, were almost
the only stock kept on some of the
largest and most successful wheat farms.
The manure to make the wheat crop
was furnished almost exclusively by the
clover ploughed under the previous sea-
son. Since the introduction of mixed
husbandry this system has been greatly
changed. More stock is kept more re-
lance is placed on manure artificial
fertilizers are more largely used each
year, and there is comparatively little
summer following and plowing under
of clover.


There can be no doubt that this sys-
tenn of mixed farming is more profitable,
not only in the money value of crops
sold, but vastly more so i'll the fertility
OF the soil. There is greater certainty,
also, for the farmer. He does not have
all his eggs in one basket, and bad
season does not leave him with receipts
running far behind his inevitable ex-
penses The weather that is bad for
one crop is favorable for others, and he
has always a reasonable certainty of
having something to sell. OF late years
shrewd farmers have learned to carry
the system of mixed husbandry q step
further, and add clover seed to their list
OF available crops. Eight or ten to fifty
or seventy-five bushels of clover seed,
as grown on many farms every year, are
valuable addition to the farm receipts
for the year. The money thus secured
is made quite as easily as any which the
farmer receives, and believe it is made
not only without injury but with positive
benefit to the soil, at least to its produc-
tive capacity. The farmers who grow
clover seed are the men who become
rich, for every year their fields become
more fertile. The shade which the clo-
yer leaves during the heats of summer
furnish to the ground increases the
nitrogen which it holds, while the clover
roots perform the equally beneficial
operation of permeating the subsoil and
bringing up the unavailable fertility
from beneath and making it available.


These advantages are, to some extent,
incident to the use of clover in any way.
But the farmer who grows clover seed
shades and mulches his soil more per-
fectly, and secures stronger and deeper
growth OF root than if the plant is pas
tured or is ploughed under at any earlier
period. There is a further and very
important advantage in growing clover
seed. He who has seed to buy sows
sparingly. He who grows it can afford
to SOW literally. Not less than one peck
per acre should be sown. After few
years growing of clover seed, the ground
will be filed with the seed, which will
spring up in after years as they. are
turned to the surface. Two years ago,
one of my neighbors ploughed field in
the fall, after taking off clover seed
crop. Barley was sown in the spring,
and good crop, abont thirty bushels
per acre, was grown. The field was then
ploughed and sown with wheat, and
though the farmer did not SOW quart
of clover seed, he has as good " catch 4"
as any one could wish. Enough seed
was wasted to seed the ground, and, as
the field was only lightly cultivated in
the spring for barley, the seed was never
turned up until ploughed for wheat. /
do not advise trusting to such chance
seeding as this. Better SOW the field as
usual, and let the volunteer clover come
in as extra to give the soil q closer mat
and heavier growth. The farmer who
sows clover seed for few years will find
it profitable far beyond the money value
of the seed which he sells. Cor. Amer
5can CultiUdtor.