VALUE OF CLOVERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15862, 27 February 1912, Page 2

VALUE OF CLOVERS.

The following paper is from the pen of Professor W. P. Brooks, director of the Massachusetts Agricultural Experimental Station:—

Most farmers who keep stock appreciate tho fact that the clovers aro among the most valuable of all tho forage crops that can be produced. The reasons why the clovers are so important are not always understood. In this article tho writer will attempt to make these reasons clear. ~ Not infrequently in personal interviews or by letter, the writer’s attention is called to the fact that in some localities farmers are meeting with poor success in their efforts to produce this valuable class of forage crops. The reasons for comparative failure in efforts to produce clover doubtless vary in different localities, and it .may not be possible for one unfamiliar with conditions to give directions which will always lead to success. Certain conditions, however, which are well established, must be provided, or failure will be the result. REASONS WHY CLOVERS ARE ESPECIALLY VALUABLE ON THE FARM. It is the writer’s opinion that on farms where stock is kept it will usually not bo profitable to use clovers as green manures. They can be better utilised on such farms by cutting and feeding to stock, or by pasturing. On tho other hand, where but little stock is kept, and especially where the production of apples, peaches or other tree fruits is an important part of the farm business, the olovers are among tho most, valuable crops which can be used for cover, to supply . hemue, and to enrich the soils in nitrogen. It is now generally understood that under right conditions clovers are capable of taking the nitrogen which they need from tho air. In this respect the clovers and the other plants of the clover family are superior to any other crops which can bo used for similar purposes. It is, then, this single fact, that tho clovers can take the nitrogen they need from the' air, while crops of other families can not do this, which renders them so much more valuable than other crops for cover and green manuring. It is the purpose of this article to consider especially clovers as forage crops. A brief statement of the principal reasons for their great value as such may be useful.

1. The cost of manures and fertilisers needed to produce them is • low. As has just been stated, the clovers, under the right conditions, take their nitrogen from the air. They draw upon the soil simply for the mineral constituents of plant food, such as limo, phosphoric acid, potash and magnesia. These mineral elements of plant food are relatively abundant, and can be purchased at comparatively low prices. Nitrogen, on the other hand, if purchased in the form of either manure or fertilisers, will usually cost from 16 to 18 cents per pound. Phospheric aoid and potash cost only 3 to 5 cents per pound, the price varying according to the material selected. Lime and magnesia cost still less. The latter, indeed, need seldom be purchased:, for it. as well as the mineral.constituents found in plants, is almost invariably sufficiently abundant in all soils.

Striking evidence that the manurial cost of producing clovers is loiv is afforded by the result in one of the few of the Hatch Experimental Station. A plot in this field was manured annually for fifteen years at the following rates per acre: —Dissolved bone-black, 320 lbs and muriate of potash 1601bs. The crops raised on this field, in the order of their production, were as follows: Corn, corn, oats, hay, hay, oom, rye, soy beans, white mustard, corn, corn, hay, hay, and corn. Tlie hay crops have consisted in all cases of mixed grass and clovers. During the fifteen years referred to, the entire field has received two applications of lime, at the rate in each case of one ton to the acre. The annual cost of the dissolved bone-black and muriate of potash ap-: plied to this plot has been at the rate of about 23s per acre, while the cost of the two applications of lime has been sufficient, to spread over the fifteen years, to amount to about 4s 2d per acre annually. The total cost of manuring this land then, has been at the rate of about 27s 2d • per acre annually. This plot has invariably produced good crops. Its fertility does not appear to have decreased. In 1902 it produced shelled corn at the rate of .56 bushels to the acre. Clover has always predominated in the Hay crops. The yield of hay (two crops) in 1901 was at the rate of 3400 pounds to the acre. That portion of this yield which has not ben manured during the last fifteen years will at present yield corn at the rate of .7- bushels of shelled., corn per acre, and hay at the rate of about 600 pounds. • ••> ; Some of the fields of- the Massachusetts Agricultural College farm are kept permanently in mowing. A number of acres have, not been broken for about twenty-four years. In 'IBS9, when the writer took charge of these fields, they were producing rather light crops of Kentucky blue grass, much mixed with the white daisy. ' For the last few years these fields have been subdivided into plots, and. various combinations of fertilisers employed. To a considerable' area, the annual application per aero is at the rate of basic slag meal 500 pounds, and a potash salt sufficient to furnish 75 pounds of actual potash per acre. The areas thus manured have steadily improved under the treatment: received. At the start there was but little clover. Under the system of fertilising followed, tlio proportion of clover is steadily increased. The daisies have almost entirely disappeared, while the grass, as well as the clovers, though in less degree, has improved. The annual cost of fertilisers amounts to about 29s 2d per acre. The .soil of these fields is natural grass land, and is quite well adapted for clovers as well.

The product under this system of ma-nuring-ranges from about 2 to 2J tons per acre in two crops. During the present season these fields have given one of the best as well as one of the heaviest crops produced since 1889. 2. Clovers arc of especial value upon tho farm as stock feed, on account of this exceptional richness in protein. Protein, ns: is well understood, is the most valuable of the food constituents, being essential to the formation of flesh, and undoubtedly influencing milk production to a greater degree than any other food constituent. Hay made from grasses is likely to contain only 0 to 8 per cent of protein; hay made from clovers, on tho other hand, is likely to contain from 12 to 14 per cent. Every farmer, however, who has had experience knows the superior results which can be obtained in feeding when good clover hay is available. This point, therefore, needs no further discussion.

3. The production of clovers under the right conditions enriches the soil. This is true even whon the crops produced aro cut and removed. Clover, as has been pointed out, is capable of taking its nitrogen from the air. Not only does it take from the air under the right- conditions a large proportion of the nitrogen which becomes a part of its stems, leaves and flowers, but it also takes targe amounts of nitrogen which becomes a part of its root. The three tons of clover hay which an acre of good clover land .will produce iii a year will contain-about 120 pounds of nitrogen;' and yet after the production! of this crop the soil will contain more nitrogen than it did at the start, if conditions have been right, for the roots and the stubble of the clover are very rich in this element, and when these decay the nitrogen they contain becomes a part of the capital of the soil and this nitrogen has been taken from the air and thus brought nothin the reach of subsequent crops through the agency of the growin - clover. In one other direction the growth of clovers is likely to result in soil improvement. Most of them are very deep-rooted plants. They have long, thick tap roots, which run down into the soil. As a consequence, the subsoil compound is opened up and mellowed. The availability of the stores of plant food in it, as well as in the surface soil, is increased. Crops which follow clovero, are likely to send their foots deeper into the soil than when . following grasses, which are more shallow rooted. Under -these conditions crops are-less likely to suffer. They gather food from a wider soil jarea, and are consequently more certain and less dependent upon applied fertility. The fact that other crops almost invariably do. well when following a good crop of clover is generally understood among farmers of experience, and these points, therefore, do not appear to need, further discussion.

4. Tlie fact that when a clover sod is broken up the following crops do exceptionally well has just been pointed out and is generally understood. That tho grasses growing in the fields with clovers in permanent -mowings will ultimately dorivo great benefit from the "clovers whidh' ,'ha‘re grown with them is not so generally understood. That suoh is the ease, however, cannot be doubted. European experience lias demonstrated 1 it, and many observations in America confirm the results of European experience. It will be of interest to consider how this effect is produced. As has been pointed out. a suitable selection of fertilisers will maintain a large proportion of clovers in permanent mowings. It must -be remembered, however, that the individual clover plants are not long lived. Most of our clovers are short-lived perennials. The single plant will not. as a rule, live more than two or three years. Clover is permanent in the mowing simply because some of the seed almost invariably ripens previous to the cutting of tho crops. Considerable numbers of individual plants undoubtedly die every year. It is the decay of the roots and stubble of these plants which accounts for-the benefit to the grasses. Grasses thrive where nitrogen in available forms is abundant in the soil. The decay of the roots and stubble of clovers brings this element within the reach of the grasses, and thus the olovers, which first help themselves by drawing nitro-gen-from the air, in their death and decay help the grasses as well. Any permanent mowing which at the outset is brought into good condition to produce clovers in a few years, will also be in a condition to produce a strong growth of grasses as well as clovers. Fo-r four important reasons, then, the clovers are among the most valuable of forage plants; first, the manurial cost of their production is exceptionally low; second, they are richer in protein than most of the forage crops—far richer than grasses; third, they enrich the soil-in nitrogen, us well as subsoil it, so that tho following crops are almost invariably good; fourth, in permanent mowings they ultimately go enrich the soil in nitrogen that the grasses as well as the clovers make vigorous growth.