Taking The Crops Off The Land
Categories:
THE CLOVERS
The feeding value of clover hay is so
great that the livestock farmer cannot afford to leave a crop of clover
on the ground as a fertilizer. The second crop of red clover produces
the seed, and, if the yield is good, is very profitable at the prices
for seed prevailing within recent years. The amount of plant-food taken
off in the hay and seed crops would have relatively small importance if
manure and haulm were return
d without unnecessary waste. Van Slyke
states that about one third of the entire plant-food value is contained
in the roots, while 35 to 40 per cent of the nitrogen is found in the
roots and stubble. Hall instances one experiment at Rothamstead in
which the removal of 151 pounds of nitrogen in the clover hay in one
year left the soil enough richer than land by its side to produce 50
per cent more grain the next year. He cites another experiment in which
the removal of three tons of clover hay left the soil so well supplied
with nitrogen that its crop of Swede turnips two years later was over
one third better than that of land which had not grown clover, the
application of phosphoric acid and potash being the same. When two tons
of well-cured clover hay are harvested in June, removing about 80
pounds of nitrogen, 45 to 50 pounds are left for the soil. The amounts
of potash are about the same, while phosphoric acid is much less in
amount.