Charley made the calculation, and found that an acre of clover, from May 25 to June 28, evaporated 528,598 lbs. of water, or 15,547 lbs. per day. A much more accurate way of ascertaining how much water an acre of clover evaporates is afforded us by these experiments. After the plants were cut, they were weighed and analyzed; and it being known exactly how much water each plant had given off during its growth, we have all the facts necessary to tell us just how much a crop of a given weight would evaporate. In brief, it was found that for each pound of dry substance in the wheat-plant, 247.4 lbs. of water had been evaporated; and for each pound in the clover-plant, 269.1 lbs. An acre of wheat of 15 bushels per acre of grain, and an equal weight of straw, would exhale during the spring and summer 177¾ tons of water, or calculated on 172 days, the duration of the experiment, 2,055 lbs. per day. An acre of clover that would make two tons of hay, would pass off through its leaves, in 101 days, 430 tons of water, or 8,600 lbs. per day--more than four times as much as the wheat. These figures show that, from an agricultural point of view, there is a great difference between, wheat and clover; and yet I think the figures do not show the whole of the difference. The clover was cut just at the time when the wheat-plant was entering on its period of most rapid growth and exhalation, and, consequently, the figures given above probably exaggerate the amount of water given off by the wheat during the early part of the season. It is, at any rate, quite clear, and this is all I want to show, that an acre of good clover exhales a much larger amount of water from spring to hay-harvest than an acre of wheat. “And what,” said the Deacon, who was evidently getting tired of the figures, “does all this prove?” The figures prove that clover can drink a much greater quantity of water during March, April, May, and June, than wheat; and, consequently, to get the same amount of food, it is not necessary that the clover should have as much nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash, etc., in the water as the wheat-plant requires. I do not know that I make myself understood. “You want to show,” said the Deacon, “that the wheat-plant requires richer food than clover.” Yes, I want to show that, though clover requires _more_ food per day than wheat, yet the clover can drink such a large amount of water, that it is not necessary to make the “sap of the soil” so rich in nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash, for clover, as it is for wheat. I think this tells the whole story. Clover is, or may be, the grandest renovating and enriching crop commonly grown on our farms. It owes its great value, not to any power it may or may not possess of getting nitrogen from the atmosphere, or phosphoric acid and potash from the subsoil, but principally, if not entirely, to the fact that the roots can drink up such a large amount of water, and live and thrive on very weak food.