42 ` Bulletin N 0. 125. _ ’
_ others yielding plants lasting two years ; most failing the third year.
With the great demand for clover seed of late, everything that will  
pass muster as clover seed has been thrown on the market, and dis-  
appointments have resulted. Some of/them,_I have no doubt, are  
due to sowing seeds of short-lived varieties. ’  
(2) Absence of humus in the soil is undoubtedly in some  it
V cases the cause of clover failure. In August of last summer the , 
. writer saw in Christian County a rfield of clover on a portion of  
which stable manure had been spread; On the fertilized portion the  
clover was then doing very well, but on the rest it was very scant,  
and the plants present were of sickly appearance. This clover on  
the untreated land was not worth preserving, while the other prom-  
ised to make good crops. The condition of the soil where no manure Q 
was spread was most unfavorable to the growth of the plants, being  
hard and dry, plainly with no vegetable matter of consequence in  
it. Now, such land cannot be expected to furnish first rate growths  
of anything. Clover and related plants, especially, require a good  3
deal of humrus to do their best. They willlget nitrogen from the  
air, it is true, but they will not thrive in soils completely devoid of  .1
vegetable` matter. Some years ago at Guthrie, Kentucky, Isaw a tj
sowing of clover on land on which shocks of corn had stood during  I
the winter. On the site of every shock was a good growth of young  CY
clover; elsewhere the field was almost bare of plants. There is  6
something in the stalk and other parts of a grain that clover needs, ·, 
and it seems to me that it.is not always as improving the physical  ;-
I condition o-f a soil that corn-stalks and other parts of grains do good_  
to clover. The clover appears to need the grain or cereal in rotation,  ”j
just as the grain or cereal needs the leguminous plant.  
But, I am told, in early days clover was sown when the  
ground was frozen and without following it with a drag, good  
stands were secured, while farmers cannot now get such stands even I  "
on virgin soil. _ J;·
(3) Soils now-a-days need more preparation for clover than  
they did in pioneer times. In the-early days soils were rich in  
humus left by the annual fall of leaves, and the decay of tree trunks  
during a long period of time. The tender young clover plant then  j_ _
found shelter quickly and soon sent its roots down into the rich