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Show GROWING RED CLOVER CROfl i Must Not Be Looked Upon as Cure ! All for Farm Troubles Humus Is Important Factor. The production of clover is th foundation of agriculture in the east ern and north central states, writes J. M. W.-stgate and F. H. Hillman United States department of agriculture, agricul-ture, as upon ita successful growth depends to a large extent the maintenance main-tenance of the nitrogen content of the soils in the principal crop-producing sections. Clover must not be looked upon as a cure-all for farm troubles. Its roots do add large quantities of the very valuable nitrogen and humus to the soil, but aside from bringing up a limited supply of phosphoric acid and potash from the lower layers of the soil it does not add the othr important impor-tant fertilizer elements to the soil upon up-on which it grows; upon many soils these , elements (particularly phosphoric phos-phoric acid) must be added the same as though no clover was being grown upon them. So long as the soil is fairly well supplied sup-plied with humus, and it is. not too greatly depleted of the ordinary fertilizer fer-tilizer elements, there is usually no difficulty in obtaining successful Btands of clover by the ordinary methods meth-ods of seeding; but when continued cropping reduces the humus content of the soil to a point below that required re-quired for successful clover production produc-tion it becomes necessary necessary to adopt radical means to restore the ground to its proper condition. It has been repeatedly shown that the failure of the clover in a section is but a prophecy of the early failure of other leading crops in that particular particu-lar section. The substitution of alsike for ordinary red clover to be continued contin-ued in the rotation on some soils which no longer grow the ordinary red clover. The lack of humus in the soil is the most potent factor in the failure fail-ure of red clover in the sections, but other factors, such as too acid a soil and the presence of funguous diseases or insect enemies, must also be overcome. over-come. Liming and proper drainage will overcome the soil acidity. The insect and fungous diseases may be held in check by clipping or cutting at the proper time, and by furnishing the proper soil conditions to produce a crop so vigorous that it will succeed in spite of the enemies which prove troublesome to less vigorous stands. |