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From the New England Farmer.
Clover.
Clover is a gre.\t institulion, the
value of which is not as fully under¬
stood as it should be. The field for its
development is the prairies of the
West, where the fertility of the soil is
annually depreciating, for want of
manurial matter, to supply the drain
that is made upon it.
When there is little stock in pro¬
portion to the number of acres culti¬
vated, and that little is not stabled in
the Winter, a large amount of manure
cannot be saved to enrich the broad
fields of com and wheat. What shall
be done ? Two-thirds of the fertility,
so far as wheat is concerned, is lost
already. Soils that a few years since
yielded thirty-three bushels now yield
eleven. The remedy is forthcoming
just when it is wanted, and experience
is teaching how to use it. It is wonder¬
ful how nature keeps her treasures
stored up until the in cessities of man
compel him to seek for them. Coal
lias been buried in the bosom of the
earth until man wants to convert wa¬
ter into steam, ami iron ore into rails
and ships, and now he fiuds it crop¬
ping out all over the earth.
The fertility accumulated in the
virgin soil has sufficed for one gener¬
ation, and now the little brown clover
seed has been given to furnish ma¬
chinery by which the elements of fer¬
tility may be absorbed Irom the at¬
mosphere, and pumped out of the
earth to supply ihe wants of another
generation. On most lands lour or
five pounds of clover seeds and two
or three hundred pounds of plaster to
an acre, will, in a little more than a
year, if tl« soil is tolerably good, be
converted into two tons of the very
best hay. This material has been
chiefly derived from the atmosphere
by the plants which have the power
of changing carbon and oxygen into
.solid matter in their stems and leaves.
This they deposit in the soil when they
have completed their growth and fall
and decay, and thus fertilizing matter
is drawn from the atmosphere by the
ton, annually, and pheed just where
it is wanted for the next crop.
And the clover roots, yes, the clo¬
ver roots, what have they been doing
all this time ? It not interrupted they
work on two years, and then with¬
draw from the field and make room
for other workers who succe ed them.
We call them biennials, indicating
that they take two year jobs. Hut
what an amount of work they do in
this short time! They will push
themselves into the soil, one, two, three,
four, five feet, burrowing into and
loosening it, pumping up water from
it, and the various minerals held iu
solution, and depositing them in the
stems of the plants, along- with the
materials drawn from the atmosphere,
and thus we have a compost of si lex,
lime, potash, soda, magnesia, alum,
iron and the rest, mixed with cat bon,
oxygen, nitrogen, etc., as food lor the
next crop. These clover roots are
grand workers. They are no idleis. >
They do not stop when they have
worked eight hours. When one of
these little fellows finds a particle ot
lime or sulphur, away down three or
four feet under ground, lie seizes it as
his lawful prey—indeed, it is the very
thing he went down after, and has
been hunting after all Summer—and
now he sucks it into his open mouth,
•and pulls and tugs like a boaconsfrie
tor swallowing a goat, until la: gets it
within his oesophagus, then he pushes
it on and on through the four r five
feet of his longitude, and deposits it
in the stem of the plant, to be used
where it is wanted in the process of
construction. Wc should like to see
all the roots from au acre of thrifty
clover washed and shook out, dried
and thrown into a heap. Would there
be two tons of them—as much as there
is of the plants above ground? If so,
these four or five pouuds of seed
would have drawn from the air and the
ground four tons of solid matter,
ready to be rotted down into plant
food for the crops that are to follow.
Not only has this amount of manu
rial matter been prepared, but the
soil has been bored and loosened in
all directions, so that the air could
penetrate it, and warm it, and act
upon the mineral matter it contains.
This soil is then in a very different
condition from what it was wheu the
clover seed was sown. Its mechanical
condition is greatly chauged. The
rain can penetrate it. The roots of
wheat can rim down into it. The de¬
caying vegetable matter upon the
surface, as it dissolves by the rain, can
accompany the roots into the earth,
and yield up to them the nourishment
it contains.
If the soil is too poor, or too much
exhausted to yield a full crop of clover
at the first sowing, plow it into the
ground, and repeat the process. The
crop will be increased, and the soil
improved by every repetition—until
at length, you will get the thirty
bushels of wheat.
But we arc impatient. We want
to get the thirty bushels in one year.
We cannot wait. But Providence is
patient. “The mills of the gods grind
slow v We must wait. We must
make the manure on the soil where it
is to be used. We can get labor,
wheu we cannot get manure. We
must put as much labor oil ten acres
as we dovv put on twenty, and we shall
get more wheat, and more corn, and
improve the soil instead of exhausting
it. We must raise clover.
--- m +■ ---
The Theory of Irrigation.
Great similarity exists in the con¬
sequences arising from the destruc¬
tion of forests and from land drainage,
both as they affect the temperature
and humidity of the atmosphere and
soil, which in their turn are, with a
good show of reason, supposed to have
a considerable effect upon the distri¬
bution of raiufull, though not perhaps
upon the actual amount of it. It is
impossible to restore the harmony of
nature thus once distributed without
allowing the lands, cleared aud im
proved, to revert to their original
state; but as this would be detrimen¬
tal lather than conducive to man’s
interests, it is more desirable that the
balance should be restored in other
ways and by other means, which,
while counteracting the evil effects
above referred to, admit of the reten¬
tion of the land in its improved state
of productiveness. Thus, by the
artificial production of moisture in
the soil by means of irrigation, the
equilibrium may be restored; while
the subsoil drainage, which has in
many cases rendered a resort to irri¬
gation necessary, is in itself essential
to the proper development of cultiva¬
tion by irrigation; otherwise the land
especially iu heavy soils, is liable to
become waterlogged, to the injury
alike of the crops and the health ot
the neighborhood. This latter is
clearly proved in the case of the rice
crops, which are so notoriously iiiju
rious to health that no European can
with safety sleep in the vicinity.
“Not only docs the population de¬
crease where rice is grown,” says
Escourrou Milliago, “but even the
flocks are attacked by typhus." This
is, happily, not the case where simple
irrigation is adopted for the growth of
grass, cereals, vegetables, and other
crops required in European countries
generally, where proper attention is
paid to subsoil drainage. The reason
why land will not produce good crops
in the absence of a sufficient amount
of water, even though it be highly
manured and otherwise well cultiva¬
ted, is that moisture is essentially
necessary for the admixture with the
soil of those invigorating properties
existing in manures, which in the
absence of that agency would, though
mechanically mixed with the earth,
remain chemically separate and dis¬
tinct from it, aud therefore not in
such a state as to be in any way bene¬
ficial lor the development of growth
in herbage or plants. With the as¬
sistants of water, however, the salts
contained ia manure are set free and
eagerly unite with the soil, by which
they may be said to be digested and
prepared to become fit food for the
nourishment of vegetation; but even
when so taken up, these salts are,
during seasous of drought, held from
vegetation with an irou grasp by the
soil, from which moisture alone can
again loosen them. Thus we see that,
wtiilc moisture is required in order to
cause a chemical combination between
the constituents of the manure and
the soil, it is also further required
before -that soil will yield up the
properties thus obtained lor the pur¬
poses of vegetation. Having now
considered in wluit manner irrigation
has been rendered a necessary ad
junct to cultivation, it remains tut to
state briefly what steps are required
for the conservancy of rainfall in
in order to render it most conducive
toward a restoration of that balance
in nature which previous operations
of man have tended so seriously to
disturb. These are two—namely, the
prevention of waste by storage, and
the construction of ebaunels for the
proper distribution of water so col¬
lected, properly fitted with mechauical
appliances lor the regulation of the
supply to different fields or districts as
it may be required. In conclusion,
it may be remarked that the question
cf sewage irrigation is one entirely
distinct from that of simple irrigation
by means of water alone; the purpose
of the one being but the application
of moisture to the soil, it iu no way
supercedes the necessity for manuriug;
while Ihe former combines the appli¬
cation of manure with irrigation. It
does not seem at all probable that the
two will ever be carried out in con¬
junction; neither is it necessary that
they should be combined. It is also
clear that, whereas sewage irrigation
is only practicable to a certain limited
extent, and in localities bordering
upon towns or places whore a num
ber of human habitations are congre¬
gated together, irrigation in its simple
form may be adopted to land a greater brought or
less extent, wherever is
under cultivation.— (Quarterly Jour -
mil of Science.
Domestic Receipts.
Oram/for Foil try. —Take a pound
of gravy beef, and score it with a
knife in several places; flour it a
good deal, and put it into a stew pan
with some butter ready melted. Fry
the meat, turning it over and over,
that it may be thoroughly browned ;
then pour iu three pints of boiling
water, some whole pepper, two or
three cloves, a bunch of sweet herbs,
and a half crust of bred. Cover the
pan close, and let it boil till the
liquor is reduced to a pint; thou
strain it off, add some salt, and thicken
it, if necessary, with flour and butter.
Apples and Tapioca Pudding .—
But a teacupfnl ol tapioca into a pint
aud half of cold water over night.
Before breakfast the next morning
set it where it will become quite
warm, but not hot enough to cook.
After breakfast pare six good-sized
sour apples, or eight, if not very
large ; quarter them, and steam them
in a dish till tender. Lay them iu the
pudding dish, stir a cupful aud a half
of sugar iuto the soaked tapioca, add
a teacupful of water and tea-poonful
of salt, stir together, and pour over
the apples ;• slice a leuimon very thin,
aud lay over the top ; bake slowly
three hours ; cat with butter, with
wine sauce or hard sauce, as you
prefer.
Brandy Peaches. —One pound of
sugar to each pound of fruit ; boil the
fruit until soft ; make the syrups
with as little water as possible. Take
the peaches and lay separately on a
dish ; boil the syrup again until to
the right consistency ; put peaches in
the jar, theu add one part brandy to
two parts of syrup, stir, and fill up
the j ir.
Strawberry and Blackberry Jelly.
Bruise the fruit, put in a thin cloth,
and allow to strain over night. Next
morning add half a pound sugar to
each pint of juice; boil twenty
minutes.
Grape Jelly. —Bruise and boil the
fruit, then strain ; add halt a pound
of sugar to each pint of iuicc, thou
boil from ten to twenty minutes, ac¬
cording to stage of maturity of fruit.
Fig Jelly. —Wash, and add wator
sufficient to cover the fruit ; boil
twenty miuutes; strain, then add
sugar, and boil as above.
Jelly Cole — One cup of sugar,
one cup of milk, twotablespooufuls of
butter, one egg, two cups of flour,
one tablespoonful of cream of tartar,
and half a teaspoon ful of soda; flavor
with nutmeg or lemon. This makes
six