lover is specially
well fitted to prepare land for wheat; and in this paper, I shall
endeavor, as the result of my experiments on the subject, to give an
intelligible explanation of the fact, that clover is so excellent a
preparatory crop for wheat, as it is practically known to be.

"By those taking a superficial view of the subject, it may be suggested
that any injury likely to be caused by the removal of a certain amount
of fertilizing matter, is altogether insignificant, and more than
compensated for, by the benefit which results from the abundant growth
of clover-roots, and the physical improvement in the soil, which takes
place in their decomposition. Looking, however, more closely into the
matter, it will be found that in a good crop of clover-hay, a very
considerable amount of both mineral and organic substances is carried
off the land, and that, if the total amount of such constituents in a
crop had to be regarded exclusively as a measure for determining the
relative degrees in which different farm crops exhaust the soil, clover
would have to be described as about the most exhausting crop in the
entire rotation.

"Clover-hay, on an average, and in round numbers, contains in 100 parts:

Water 17.0
Nitrogenous substances,
(flesh-forming matters)[A] 15.6
Non-nitrogenous compounds 59.9
Mineral matter, (ash) 7.5
-----
100.0
=====
[A] Containing nitrogen 2.5

"The mineral portion, or ash, in 100 parts of clover-hay, consists of:

Phosphoric acid 7.5
Sulphuric acid 4.3
Carbonic acid 18.0
Silica 3.0
Lime 30.0
Magnesia 8.5
Potash 20.0
Soda, chloride of sodium,
oxide of iron, sand, loss, etc. 8.7
-----
100.0
=====

"Let us suppose the land to have yielded four tons of clover-hay per
acre. According to the preceding data, we find that such a crop includes