CLOVER THE RENOVATOR. r> i

Nelson Evening Mail, 21 February 1873, Page 4

CLOVER THE RENOVATOR.

(.Front the Toronto Globe.) The value of clover is yet scarcely appreciated by Canadian farmers. Few of them either sow land enough witb this crop, or sow it thick enough. Mechi holds forth, day by day, upon the principles of thin sowing, aud upon the advantages that accrue therefrom. Let us not be led astray. When we have brought our land to such a state of perfect culture and great richness as is the soil of Tiptree farm, then may we begin to experiment upon the relative values of thick and thin sowing. We propose to consider this question of thick or thin sowing of clover seed. Advocates upon both sides are to be found in the Canada Farmer for 1870 ; but as many 6f our readers are new subscribers, we would endeavor to lay down a few rules fdr" the guidance of those who wish, by a liberal use of clover, to bring their land into good heart. Of the green manures, undoubtedly clover is the very best. The practice of ploughing under —to rot—- -full crops of such succulent plants as clover, dates back to the times of the ancient Romans. The great difference between the effects of exhaustion upon land of green crops and cereals, may be summed in a few words. The cereal grows entirely from the food wbich it finds in the sojl, while the manyleafed plant draws its sustenance almost entirely from the atmosphere. Why is it that the beneficial effects of a rain storm are so much more quickly observable upon grass than upon a cereal ? - Because the rain-water not only carries its inherent plant-food to the lungs- or leaves of the crop directly, but it also beats down the nitrogen and ammonia that have been suspended for many days over the^ surface of the earth. If we, then, expose a large surface of green crop to the action of the atmosphere and as / the receivers of rain, we shall gather into the body of the green crops — where it will be retained and not lose itself in the depths of the soil — a Btore-house of all those foods, carbonic acid, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur, &c.,^ which are contained in larga quantities in rain-water. _„_ ' ti y " a.' „..■_.".'. : .•■';,;; , We store this food in the plant, and if we plough under that plant before it has made its" final; call' upon the food stored away; i.e., before it -ripens and dies, we ahall'/gfre plant-food, which "will be. available to the succeeding crop, as the green manure gradually decomposes and .. becomes; , 'am '.gamated^ititj^^

surface of green clover; aud t_is can he done most effectually by thick growth of the plant. The more plants, the more surface ' exposed to the atmosphere, and 'the more ; mouths ever sucking in the rich juices of the air and rain. . Again, from a plentiful supply of seed we have a thick growth of plants, and the more closely compacted that growth when we plough the plants down, tbe more rapidly will decomposition set in. Let us now look at the growth of clover in another light. Supposing that, upon clean rich land, we sow our clover seed iri quantities such as the advocates of thin sowing require; the result will be great coarse hay; the stock eat the leaves and leave the stalks. What we require for tbe cow, the sheep, and the hog is a sweet, tender, fine, clover hay, the chewing of which causes no difficulty, and of which □one is trodden under foot and wasted. We would approve of no rotation in Oanada, in which clover does not often appear. In many parts we have no means of buying animal manure, and there* is no, farmer that, can manufacture sufficient at home tb thoroughly renovate his land, unless indeed, under the supposition that be should buy feed other than that raised on the farm. Let such as would keep the soil rich, and have at all times a decomposing vegetable matter as a nursery from which the tender rootlets of a crop when first sown may draw tbeir nourishment, provide such by decaying of clover. Soil, when first ploughed and a portion taken up in the hand, should show an abundance of these vegetable rooting fibres to be in good heart. Then let us not only cow clover j as a crop, but as a manure also, whenever we may look forward to the profitable ploughing down of the same in from one to three years.