Alsike Clover in Northern Wisconsin

CLOVERS
AND
How to Grow Them

BY
THOMAS SHAW

Author of "Forage Crops Other than Grasses,"
"The Study of Breeds," "Soiling Crops and
the Silo," "Animal Breeding," "Grasses
and How to Grow Them," etc.

NEW YORK
ORANGE JUDD COMPANY
1906

Copyright, 1906
By ORANGE JUDD COMPANY

TO ALL PERSONS
WHO ARE OR MAY BE INTERESTED
IN THE
GROWING OF CLOVERS
THIS WORK IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
BY THE AUTHOR

St. Anthony Park, Minn.
1906

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In preparing this work, the chief sources of information beyond the author's experience and observation have been the bulletins issued by the various experiment stations in the United States and discussions in the Agricultural Press.

For the illustrations the author is indebted to Professor A. M. Soule of the experiment station of Tennessee, Professor H. H. Hume of the experiment station of Louisiana and Mr. W. T. Shaw of the experiment station of Oregon.

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE

Some books have been written on Clover in the United States, and as far as they go they serve a good purpose. Many references and discussions have also appeared in various bulletins and reports issued by the experiment stations. These have proved helpful not only in the States in which they have been issued, but also in other States where the conditions are similar. But no book or bulletin has yet appeared which discusses the growth of clovers as applicable to all parts of the United States and Canada. Nor has any been issued which takes up the subject in orderly and consecutive sequence. It is evident, therefore, that there is not only room for a book which will cover the ground with at least measureable fulness, but also in concise and orderly succession, but there is great need for it. It has been the aim of the author to write such a book.

Only those varieties of clover are discussed at length which are possessed of economic value. The treatment of the subjects is virtually the same as was adopted in writing the book on "Grasses and How to Grow Them." Some references are made to the history, characteristics and distribution of each variety. These are followed by discussions with reference to soil adaptation; place in the rotation; preparing the soil; sowing; pasturing; harvesting for hay; securing seed; and renewing the stand.

The book is intended, in some measure at least, to meet the needs of the students of agriculture, with reference to the plants discussed and also of all who are concerned in the tilling of the soil.

St. Anthony Park, Minn.
1906

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

In this book all the varieties of clover will be discussed that have hitherto been found of any considerable value to the agriculture of America. Varieties that are of but little value to the farmer will be discussed briefly, if discussed at all. The discussions will be conducted from the standpoint of the practical agriculturist rather than from that of the botanist. It is proposed to point out the varieties of clover worthy of cultivation, where and how they ought to be cultivated, and for what uses.

Definition of Clover.—According to Johnson's Encyclopædia, clover or trefoil is a plant of the genus Trifolium and the family Leguminosæ. The Standard Dictionary defines it as any one of several species of plants of the genus Trifolium of the bean family Leguminosæ. Viewed from the standpoint of the American farmer it may be defined in the collective sense as a family of plants leguminous in character, which are unexcelled in furnishing forage and fodder to domestic animals, and unequaled in the renovating influences which they exert upon land. The term Trefoil is given because the leaves are divided into three leaflets. It is also applied to plants not included in the genus, but belonging to the same order.

The true clovers have their flowers collected into roundish or oblong heads and in some instances into cone-shaped spikes. The flowers are small and of several colors in the different varieties, as crimson, scarlet, pink, blue, yellow and white, according to the variety, and some are variously tinted. The stems are herbaceous and not twining. The seeds are inclosed in pods or seed sacks, each of which contains one, two and sometimes, but not often, three or four seeds. The plants have tap roots, and in some varieties these go far down into the subsoil. The roots are also in some varieties considerably branched.

Varieties.—At least twenty varieties, native or naturalized, are found in Great Britain; more than twelve varieties belong to the United States. The more valuable varieties found in this country have been introduced from Europe, unless it be the small white clover (Trifolium repens). Viewed from the standpoint of the agriculturist the varieties that are most generally useful include medium red clover (Trifolium pratense), alfalfa (Medicago sativa), alsike (Trifolium hybridum), mammoth (Trifolium magnum), crimson (Trifolium incarnatum) and small white (Trifolium repens). The varieties which flourish only in the South include the Japan (Lespedeza striata) and the burr clover (Medicago denticulata). Sweet clover (Melilotus alba), sometimes called Bokhara, which will grow equally well North and South, is worthy of attention because of its power to grow under hard conditions, in order to provide honey for bees and to renovate soils. Other varieties may render some service to agriculture, but their value will not compare with that of the varieties named.

The most valuable of the varieties named in providing pasture, include the medium red, the mammoth, the alsike and the small white. The most valuable in providing hay are the medium red, alfalfa and alsike. The most valuable, viewed from the standpoint only of soil renovation, are the medium red, mammoth, alsike, crimson, Japan and sweet. The most valuable in producing honey accessible to tame bees, are the small white, alsike and sweet.

Distinguishing Characteristics.—Clovers differ from one another in duration, habit of growth, persistence in growth, their power to endure low or warm temperatures, and ability to maintain a hold upon the soil. Of the varieties named, alfalfa, the small white and alsike varieties are perennial. That most intensely so is the first variety named. The medium red and mammoth varieties are biennial, but sometimes they assume the perennial quality. Sweet clover is biennial. The crimson, Japan and burr varieties are annual.

Some varieties, as alfalfa, crimson and sweet clover, are upright in their habit of growth. Others, as the small white and the burr, are recumbent. Others again, as the medium red, alsike and mammoth, are spreading and upright. The alfalfa and medium red varieties grow most persistently through the whole season. The sweet, small white and alsike varieties can best endure cold, and the sweet, Japan and burr varieties can best endure heat. The small white, Japan, burr and sweet clovers stand highest in ability to maintain a hold upon the soil.

The minor points of difference are such as relate to the shape and color of the leaves, the tints of shade that characterize the leaflets, the shape and size of the heads and the distinguishing shades of color in the blossoms.

The characteristics which they possess in common are the high protein content found in them, the marked palatability of the pasture and hay, unless in the sweet and burr varieties, the power which they have to enrich and otherwise improve soils, and the honey which they furnish.

Plan of Discussion.—Chapter I., that is, the present chapter, as already indicated, is introductory, and outlines the nature, scope and plan of the work. Chapter II. deals with the general principles and facts which relate to the growing of clovers. A close study of these will, in the judgment of the author, prove helpful to those who engage in growing any of the varieties of clover discussed in the book. Chapters III. to XI. inclusive treat of individual varieties, a chapter being devoted to each variety. It has been the aim of the author to discuss them in the order of the relative importance which they bear to the whole country and to devote space to them accordingly.

The following varieties are discussed and in the order named: Medium Red clover, Alfalfa, Alsike, Mammoth, Crimson, Small White, Japan, Burr and Sweet. All of these varieties will be found worthy of more or less attention on the part of the husbandmen in the various parts of this continent.

Chapter XII. is devoted to a brief discussion of miscellaneous varieties which have as yet been but little grown in this country, or of varieties of but local interest. The former are Sainfoin (Onobrychis sativa), Egyptian clover (Trifolium Alexandrianum), yellow clover (Medicago lupulina), Sand Lucerne (Medicago media), and a newly introduced variety of Japanese clover (Lespedeza bicolor). These may prove more or less valuable to the agriculture of the United States when they have been duly tested, a work which as yet has been done only in the most limited way. The latter include Florida clover (Desmodium tortuosum), more frequently called Beggar Weed, Buffalo clover (Trifolium reflexum), and Seaside clover (Trifolium invulneratum). These may be worthy of some attention in limited areas where the conditions are favorable, but it is not likely that they will ever be very generally grown. They are dwelt upon rather to show their small economic importance and with a view to prevent needless experimentation with plants possessed of so little real merit.

CHAPTER II

SOME GENERAL PRINCIPLES WHICH APPLY TO THE GROWING OF CLOVERS

In growing clovers, as in growing other crops of the same species, which embrace several varieties, certain features of management will apply more or less to all of these in common. It will be the aim to point out the chief of these in the present chapter.

Adaptation in Clovers.—Adaptation in the varieties of clover considered will be more fully given when discussing these individually, but enough will be said here to facilitate comparisons. Clover in one or the other of its varieties can be grown in almost all parts of the United States and Canada. Speaking in a general way, the medium and mammoth varieties can be grown at their best between parallels 37° and 49° north latitude. Alfalfa has special adaptation for mountain valleys of the entire West, but it will also grow in good form in parts of all, or nearly all, the other States. Alsike clover grows in about the same areas as the common and mammoth varieties, but it may also be grown further North, owing to its greater hardihood. Crimson clover has highest adaptation to the States east of the Allegheny Mountains and west of the Cascades, but will also grow in the more Central States south, in which moisture is abundant. Small white clover will grow in any part of the United States or Canada in which moisture is sufficiently present. Japan and burr clover grow best south of parallel 37° and east of longitude 98°. Sweet clover will grow in all the States and provinces of the United States and Canada, but has highest adaptation for the Central and Southern States.

With reference to adaptation to soils, medium and mammoth clover grow best on upland clay loam soils, such as have sustained a growth of hardwood timber, and on the volcanic ash soils of the Western mountain valley. Alfalfa flourishes best on those mountain valley soils when irrigated, or when these are so underlaid with water as to furnish the plants with moisture. Alsike clover has much the same adaptation to soils as the medium and mammoth varieties, but will grow better than these on low-lying soils well stored with humus. Crimson clover has highest adaptation for sandy loam soils into which the roots can penetrate easily. Small, white clover has adaptation for soils very similar to that of alsike clover. Japan clover and burr clover will grow on almost any kind of soil, but on good soils the growth will, of course, be much more vigorous than on poor soils. Sweet clover seems to grow about equally well on sandy loams and clay loams, but it has also much power to grow in stiff clays and even in infertile sands.

Place in the Rotation.—All the varieties of clover discussed in this volume may be grown in certain rotations. Their adaptation for this use, however, differs much. This increases as the natural period of the life of the plant lessens and vice versa. Consequently, the medium red variety, the mammoth, the crimson, the Japan and the burr varieties stand high in such adaptation. The alsike, living longer, is lower in its adaptation, and alfalfa, because of its long life, stands lowest in this respect. The small, white variety is almost invariably grown or found growing spontaneously along with grasses, hence no definite place has been or can be assigned to it in the rotation. Sweet clover being regarded by many as a weed has not had any place assigned to it in a regular rotation, although in certain localities it may yet be grown for purposes of soil renovation. (See [page 306].)

All these crops are leguminous without any exception. This fact is of great significance where crops can be rotated. They have power to gather nitrogen from the air and store it in the soil in tubercles which form on their roots, in all soils in which they produce a vigorous growth. This fact indicates where they should come in the rotation. They should be grown with a view to gather food for other crops made to follow them, which have not the same power. They should, therefore, be made to precede such crops as the small cereals, corn, the sorghums, the millets and cotton. But since these clover plants have the power to bring nitrogen from the air, it must not be supposed that they will grow with sufficient vigor in soils destitute of this element. They must be able to appropriate enough from the seed soil to give them a good start before they can draw nitrogen from the air, hence, though they may be made to follow almost any kind of crop, it may sometimes be necessary to apply some nitrogenous fertilizer before they will make a vigorous growth.

The clovers, unless in the case of some of the smaller varieties, are more commonly sown to provide hay than pasture in the first crops obtained from them. The value of the hay is increased or lessened in proportion as weeds are present. To insure cleanliness in the hay crop, therefore, the system which aims to sow clover seed on land to which clean cultivation has been given while growing on them a cultivated crop, as corn or field roots, meets with much favor. The mechanical condition of the soil immediately after growing these crops also favors the vigorous growth of the young clover plants, more especially when they are sown upon the surface of the land after some form of surface cultivation, rather than upon a surface made by plowing the land after cultivation has been given to it, but to this there may be some exceptions.

Clover in some of its varieties is frequently grown from year to year in orchards and for the two-fold purpose of gathering food for the trees and providing for them a cover crop in winter. The medium red and crimson varieties are preferred for such a use. The latter is the more suitable of the two, since it does not draw on soil moisture needed by the trees, owing to the season at which it is grown. Enough of the seed of these crops may be allowed to mature to re-seed the land from year to year, and thus keep it producing. The clover plants not only gather nitrogen for the fruit trees, but in their decay they increase the power of the soil to retain moisture for the benefit of the trees.

Some varieties of clover may be grown as catch crops, that is, as crops which are grown in addition to some other crop produced the same season. When thus grown, it is usually for purposes of soil improvement rather than to furnish food. The varieties best adapted for this purpose in the Northern States and Canada are the medium red and the crimson, the latter being much more circumscribed in the area where it will grow successfully than the former. When medium red clover is thus grown, it is commonly sown along with one of the small cereal grains, and is buried in the autumn or in the following spring. (See [page 75].) The extent of the advantage is dependent chiefly on the amount of the growth made, and this in turn is influenced by the character of the soil, the season, and the nurse crop. In certain areas favorable to the growth of clover some good farmers sow clover along with all the small cereal grains which they grow. Crimson clover is usually sown in the late summer after some crop has been reaped and it is plowed under the following spring. (See [page 250].)

In the Southern States Japan clover and burr clover will serve the purpose of catch crops better than the other varieties. The former will follow a winter crop (see [page 284]), and the latter a summer crop. (See [page 294].)

Although alfalfa is not usually looked upon as a rotation crop in the Rocky Mountain valleys, it may be made such a crop. In these it grows so vigorously as to fill the soil with its roots in one or two seasons, hence it may be made to rotate profitably with other crops. (See [page 135].) In such instances, however, medium red clover would probably answer the purpose quite as well, and possibly better, since the labor of burying it with the plow would be less difficult.

While some varieties of clover may be grown in various rotations and with profit, one of the best of these, where the conditions are favorable, is a three years' rotation. The first year some small cereal grain is grown and clover is sown along with it or, at least, on the same land. The next year the clover is grown for hay or pasture. The third year a crop of corn, potatoes or vegetables is grown, and the following year small cereal grain and clover. The clover may thus be made to furnish nitrogen indefinitely for the other crops, but in some instances it may be necessary to add phosphoric acid and potash.

Preparing the Soil.—Clovers are usually sown with a nurse crop. The exceptions are crimson clover, and in many instances alfalfa. When thus grown, the preparation of soil for the nurse crop will usually suffice for the clovers also. But there may be instances in which it would be proper to give more attention to cleaning and pulverizing the soil to properly fit it for receiving the clover seed. The leading essentials in a seed-bed for clover are fineness, cleanness, moistness and firmness. Ordinarily black loam soils, sandy loam soils, sandy soils, humus soils and the volcanic ash soils of the West are made sufficiently fine without great labor. Clay soils may call for the free use of the harrow and roller used in some sort of alternation before they are sufficiently pulverized. Excessive fineness in pulverization of these soils is also to be guarded against in rainy climates, lest they run together, but this condition is present far less frequently than the opposite.

Cleanness can usually be secured when clovers follow cultivated crops by the labor given to these when the land is not plowed in preparing it for the clovers. In other instances the longer the land is plowed before putting in the seed and the more frequently the surface is stirred during the growing part of the season, the cleaner will the seed-bed be.

In the spring the land is usually sufficiently moist for receiving the seed. In the autumn moisture is frequently deficient. Stirring the surface of the soil occasionally with the harrow will materially increase the moisture content in the soil near the surface, even in the absence of rain. As crimson clover is usually sown in the late summer and alfalfa is frequently sown in the autumn, it may sometimes be necessary to give much attention to securing sufficient moisture to insure germination in the seed.

When clovers are sown in the spring on land which is also growing a winter crop, no preparation is necessary in preparing the land for receiving the seed. On some soils the ground becomes sufficiently honeycombed through the agency of water and frost to put it in a fine condition for receiving the seed. When this condition is not present, the seed will usually grow if sown amid the grain and covered with the harrow.

When clovers are sown on sod land for the purpose of renewing pastures, disking them will prepare them for receiving the seed. The extent of the disking will depend on such conditions as the toughness of the sod and the nature of the soil. Usually disking once when the frost is out a little way from the surface, and then disking across at an angle will suffice, and in some instances disking one way only will be sufficient. On newly cleared lands the clovers will usually grow without any stirring of the land before sowing, or any harrowing after sowing. Clovers that are grown chiefly for pasture, as the small white, the Japan and the burr, will usually obtain a hold upon the soil if scattered upon the surface which is not soon to be cultivated.

Fertilizers.—On certain soils low in fertility and much deficient in humus, it may be necessary to apply fertilizers in some form before clovers will grow vigorously. Such are sandy soils that have been much worn by cropping, and also stiff clays in which the humus has become practically exhausted. In such instances green crops that can be grown on such lands, as rye, for instance, plowed under when the ear begins to shoot, will be found helpful. If this can be followed on the sandy soil with some crop to be fed off upon the land, as corn, for instance, and the clover is sown, successful growth is likely to follow. On clays in the condition named it may not be necessary to grow a second crop before sowing clover, since in these soils the lack is more one of humus than of plant food. The application of farmyard manure will answer the same purpose, if it can be spared for such a use.

Other soils are so acid that clovers will not grow on them until the acidity is corrected, notwithstanding that plant food may be present in sufficient quantities. Such are soils, in some instances at least, that have been newly drained, also soils that grow such plants as sorrels. This condition will be improved if not entirely corrected by the application of lime. On such soils this is most cheaply applied in the air-slaked form, such as is used in plastering and in quantities to effect the end sought. These will vary, and can only be ascertained positively by experiment.

Usually it is not necessary to apply much farmyard manure in order to induce growth in nearly all varieties of clover, and after free growth is obtained, it is not usually necessary to supply any subsequently for the specific purpose named. In some soils, however, alfalfa is an exception. It may be necessary to enrich these with a liberal dressing of farmyard manure to insure a sufficiently strong growth in the plants when they are young. Having passed the first winter, further dressings are not absolutely essential, though they may prove helpful.

Farmyard manure applied on the surface will always stimulate the growth of clovers, but it is not common to apply manure thus, as the need for it is greater in growing the other crops of the farm. When thus applied, it should be in a form somewhat reduced, otherwise the coarse parts may rake up in the hay. It is better applied in the autumn or early winter than in the spring, as then more of the plant food in it has reached the roots of the clover plants, and they have also received benefit from the protection which it has furnished them in winter.

In a great majority of instances, soils are sufficiently well supplied with the more essential elements of fertility to grow reasonably good crops of clover, hence it has not usually been found necessary to apply commercial fertilizers to stimulate growth, as in the growing of grasses. In some instances, however, these are not sufficiently available, especially is this true of potash. Gypsum or land plaster has been often used to correct this condition, and frequently with excellent results. It also aids in fixing volatile and escaping carbonates of ammonia, and conveys them to the roots of the clover plants. It is applied in the ground form by sowing it over the land, and more commonly just when the clover is beginning to grow. The application of 50 to 200 pounds per acre has in many instances greatly increased the growth, whether as pasture, hay or seed. The following indications almost certainly point to the need of dressings of land plaster: 1. When the plants assume a bluish-green tint, rather than a pea-green, while they are growing. 2. When the plants fail to yield as they once did. 3. When young plants die after they have begun to grow in the presence of sufficient moisture. 4. When good crops can only be grown at long intervals, as, say, 5 to 8 years. It has also been noticed that on some soils where gypsum has long been used in growing clover the response to applications of the plaster is a waning one, due doubtless to the too rapid depletion of the potash in the soil.

Potassic fertilizers give the best results when applied to clovers, but dressings of phosphoric acid may also be helpful. Applications of muriate or sulphate of potash or kainit may prove profitable, but on many soils they are not necessary in growing clover. Wood ashes are also excellent. They furnish potash finely divided and soluble, especially when applied in the unleached form. When applied unleached at the rate of 50 bushels per acre and leached at the rate of 200 bushels, the results are usually very marked in stimulating growth in clover.

Seasons for Sowing.—Clovers are more commonly sown in the springtime in the Northern States and Canada than at any other season and they are usually sown early in the spring, rather than late. On land producing a winter crop, as rye or wheat, they can be sown in a majority of instances as soon as the snow has melted. That condition of soil known as honeycombed furnishes a peculiarly opportune time for sowing these seeds, as it provides a covering for them while the land is moist, and thus puts them in a position to germinate as soon as growth begins. Such a condition, caused by alternate freezing and thawing, does not occur on sandy soils. Where it does not so occur, sowing ought to be deferred until the surface of the ground has become dry enough to admit of covering with a harrow. As in sowing the seeds of certain grasses good results usually follow sowing just after a light fall of snow, which, as it melts, carries the seed down into the little openings in the soil. But there are areas, especially in the American and Canadian northwest, where in some seasons the young clover plants would be injured from sowing the seed quite early. This, however, does not occur very frequently. When sown on spring crops, as spring wheat, barley and oats, the seed cannot, of course, be sown until these crops are sown. The earlier that these crops are sown the more likely are the clovers sown to make a stand, as they have more time to become rooted before the dry weather of summer begins. In a moist season the seed could be safely sown any time from spring until mid-summer, but since the weather cannot be forecast, it is considered more or less hazardous to sow clovers in these northern areas at any other season than that of early spring. If sown later, the seed will more certainly make a stand without a nurse crop, since it will get more moisture. If sown later than August, the young plants are much more liable to perish in the winter.

In the States which lie between parallels 40° and 35° north, and between the Atlantic and the 100th meridian west, clover seeds may be sown in one form or another from early spring until the early autumn without incurring much hazard from winter killing in the young plants, but here also early spring sowing will prove the most satisfactory. The hazard from sowing in the summer comes chiefly from want of sufficient moisture to germinate the seed.

In the Southern States the seed is sown in the early spring or in the autumn. If sown late, the heat of summer is much against the plants. Seeds sown in the early autumn as soon as the rains come will make a good stand before the winter, but there are some soils in the South in which alternate freezing and thawing in winter, much more frequent than in the North, would injure and in some instances destroy the plants.

In the Western valleys where irrigation is practiced, clover seeds may be sown at any time that may be desired, from the early spring until the early autumn. The ability to apply water when it is needed insures proper germination in the seed and vigor in the young plants.

Methods of Sowing.—Clover seed may be sown by hand, by hand machines, and by the grain drill, with or without a grass-seed sowing attachment. These respective methods of sowing will be discussed briefly here, but since they are practically the same as the methods to be followed in sowing grass seeds, and since they are discussed more fully in the book "Grasses and How to Grow Them" by the author, readers who wish to pursue the subject further are referred to the book just named.

When clovers are sown by hand, usually but one hand is used. Enough seed is lifted between the thumb and two forefingers of the right hand to suffice for scattering by one swing of the same. On the return trip across the field the seed should be made to overlap somewhat the seed sown when going in the opposite direction. In other words, the seed is sown in strips or bands, as it were, each strip being finished in one round. Some sowers, more expert at their work, sow with both hands and complete the strip each time they walk over the field. When the ground is plowed in lands of moderate width the furrows will serve to enable the sower to sow in straight lines. Where the sowing is done on land sown to grain by the drill, the drill marks may be made to effect the same result. When sown on light snows, the foot-marks will serve as guides. In the absence of marks it will be necessary to use stakes to guide the sower. Four stakes are used, two of which are set at each end of the field, and these are moved as each cast is made. At each round made over the field, from 12 feet to 15 feet may be sown by the sower who sows only with one hand. The sower with two hands will accomplish twice as much.

A comparatively still time should be chosen for sowing the seed by hand, more especially when grass seeds, which are usually lighter, are sown at the same time. In hand sowing much care is necessary in scattering the seed, so that each cast of the seed will spread evenly as it falls, leaving no bare spaces between the cast from the hand or between the strips sown at one time. Hand sowing, especially in the Western States, is in a sense a lost art, owing to the extent to which machine sowing is practised; nevertheless, it is an accomplishment which every farmer should possess, since it will oftentimes be found very convenient when sowing small quantities of seed, and in sowing seeds in mixtures which cannot be so well sown by machines.

Hand machines are of various kinds. Those most in favor for ordinary sowing consist of a seeder wheeled over the ground on a frame resembling that of a wheelbarrow. It sows about 12 feet in width at each cast of the seed. It enables the sower to sow the seed while considerable wind is blowing and to sow it quite evenly, but it is not adapted to the sowing of all kinds of grass and clover mixtures, which it may be desirable to sow together, since they do not always feed out evenly, owing to a difference in size, in weight, in shape and in the character of the covering.

When clover seed is sown with the grain drill, it is sometimes sown separately from grain; that is, without a nurse crop, and is deposited in the soil by the same tubes. But it is only some makes of drills that will do this. Clover seed, and especially alfalfa, may be thus sown with much advantage on certain of the Western and Southern soils, especially on those that are light and open in character, and when the seed is to be put in without a nurse crop. Eastern soils are usually too heavy to admit of depositing the seed thus deeply, but to this there are some exceptions.

When sown with a nurse crop, the seed is in some instances mixed with the grain before it is sown. In some instances it is mixed before it is brought to the field. At other times it is added when the grain has been put in the seed-box of the drill. This method of sowing is adapted to certain soils of the Western prairies and to very open soils in some other localities, but under average conditions it buries seeds too deeply. There is the further objection that they all grow in the line of the grain plants and are more shaded than they would be otherwise. Nevertheless, under some conditions this method of sowing the plants is usually satisfactory.

One of the most satisfactory methods of sowing clover seeds along with a nurse crop is to sow the clover with a "seeder attachment;" that is, an attachment for sowing small seeds, which will deposit the same before or behind the grain tubes as may be desired. The seed is thus sown at the same time as the grain, and in the process is scattered evenly over the surface of the ground. These seeder attachments, however, will not sow all kinds of clover and grass mixtures any more than will hand-sowing machines do the same.

Depth to Bury the Seed.—The depth to bury the seed varies with the conditions of soil, climate and season. Clover seeds, like those of grasses, are buried most deeply in the light soils of the prairie so light that they sink, so as to make walking over them unusually tiresome when working on newly plowed land, and in other instances so light as to lift with the wind. On such soils the seeds may be buried to the depth of 2 to 3 inches. On loam soils, a covering of 1 inch or less would be ample, and on stiff clays the covering may even be lighter under normal conditions.

Clover seeds are buried more deeply in dry than in moist climates, and also more deeply in dry portions of the year than when moisture is sufficient. While it may be proper in some instances to scatter the seeds on the surface without any covering other than is furnished by rain or frost, it will be very necessary at other seasons to provide a covering to insure a stand of the seed.

When clover seed is sown on ground honeycombed with frost, no covering is necessary. When sown on winter grain in the spring, the ground not being so honeycombed, covering with the harrow is usually advantageous. When sown on spring crops and early in the season, it may not be necessary to cover the seed, except by using the roller, even though the seed should fall behind the grain tubes while the grain crop is being sown, or should be sown subsequently by hand. In other instances the harrow should be used, and sometimes both the roller and the harrow. Under conditions such as appertain to New England and the adjacent States to Ontario and the provinces east and to the land west of the Cascade Mountains, clover and also grass seeds do not require so much of a covering as when sown on the prairie soils of the central portion of the continent.

Sowing Alone or in Combinations.—Whether clover seed should be sown alone or in combination with the seeds of other grasses will depend upon the object sought in sowing it. When sown to produce seed, it is usually sown without admixture, but not in every instance; when sown to produce hay, it is nearly always sown in mixtures, but to this there are some exceptions; when sown to produce pasture, it is almost invariably sown with something else; and when sown to enrich the land, it is, in all, or nearly all, instances, sown without admixture.

When sown primarily to produce seed, there are no good reasons why timothy and probably some other grasses may not be sown with medium red and mammoth clover, when pasture is wanted from the land in the season or seasons immediately following the production of seed.

The presence of these grasses may not seriously retard the growth of the clover plants until after they have produced seed, and subsequently they will grow more assertively and produce pasture as the clover fails. Moreover, should they mature any seed at the same time that the clover seeds mature, they may usually be separated in the winnowing process, owing to a difference in the size of the seeds. But timothy should not be sown with alsike clover that is being grown for seed, since the seeds of these are so nearly alike in size that they cannot be separated.

When hay is wanted, the practice is very common of sowing timothy along with the medium red, mammoth and alsike varieties of clover. Timothy grows well with each of these; supports them to some extent when likely to lodge; matures at the same time as the mammoth and alsike clovers; comes on more assertively as the clovers begin to fail, thus prolonging the period of cropping or pasturing; and feeds upon the roots of the clovers in their decay.

Next to timothy, redtop is probably the most useful grass to sow with these clovers, and may in some instances be added to timothy in the mixtures. Some other grasses may also be added under certain conditions, or substituted for timothy or redtop. In certain instances, it has also been found profitable to mix certain of the clovers in addition to adding grass seeds when hay is wanted. The more important of these mixtures will be referred to when treating of growing the different varieties in subsequent chapters. When growing them, the aim should be to sow those varieties together which mature about the same time. The advantages from growing them together for hay include larger yields, a finer quality of hay, and a more palatable fodder.

In the past it has been the almost uniform practice to sow alfalfa alone, but this practice is becoming modified to some extent, and is likely to become more so in the future, especially when grown for pasture.

When sown to produce pasture, unless for one or two seasons, clover seed is sown in various mixtures of grasses in all or nearly all instances. The grasses add to the permanency of the pastures, while the clovers usually furnish abundant grazing more quickly than the grasses. Several of them, however, are more short-lived than grasses usually are, hence the latter are relied upon to furnish grazing after the clovers have begun to fail. In laying down permanent pastures, the seed of several varieties is usually sown, but in moderate quantities. The larger the number of the varieties sown that are adapted to the conditions, the more varied, the more prolonged and the more ample is the grazing likely to be.

When clovers, except the crimson variety, are sown for the exclusive purpose of adding to the fertility of the land, they are usually sown along with some other crop that is to be harvested, the clover being plowed under the following autumn or the next spring. These are usually sown without being mixed with other varieties, and the two kinds most frequently sown primarily to enrich the land are the medium red and crimson varieties. The former grows more quickly than other varieties, and the latter, usually sown alone, comes after some crop already harvested, and is buried in time to sow some other crop on the same land the following spring.

Sowing with or without a Nurse Crop.—Nearly all varieties of clover are usually sown with a nurse crop; that is, a crop which provides shade for the plants when they are young and delicate. But the object in sowing with a nurse crop is not so much to secure protection to the young plants as to get them established in the soil, so that they will produce a full crop the following season. Two varieties, however, are more commonly sown alone. These are alfalfa and crimson clover.

Alfalfa is more commonly sown alone because the young plants are somewhat delicate and easily crowded out by other plants amid which they are growing. Because of the several years during which alfalfa will produce crops when once established, it is deemed proper to sacrifice a nurse crop in order to get a good stand of the young plants. The other clovers are usually able to make a sufficient stand, though grown along with a nurse crop. In some situations alfalfa will also do similarly, as, for instance, where the conditions are very favorable to its growth. Crimson clover is more commonly sown alone for the reason, first, that it is frequently sown at a season when other crops are not being sown; second, that it grows better without a nurse crop; and third, that if grown with a nurse crop the latter would have to be used in the same way as the clover.

Some have advocated sowing clovers without a nurse crop under any conditions. Such advocacy in the judgment of the author is not wise. It is true that in some instances a stand of the various clovers is more certainly assured when they are sown without a nurse crop, but in such situations it is at least questionable if it would not be better to sow some other crop as a substitute for clover. But there may be instances, as where clover will make a good crop of hay the year that it is sown, when sowing it thus would be justifiable. In a majority of instances, however, it will not make such a crop, because of the presence of weeds, which, in the first place, would hinder growth, and in the second, would injure the quality of the hay.

The nurse crops with which clovers may be sown are the small cereal grains, as rye, barley, wheat and oats. Sometimes they are sown with flax, rape and millet. They usually succeed best when sown along with rye and barley, since these shade them less and are cut earlier, thus making less draft on moisture in the soil and admitting sunlight at an earlier period. Oats make the least advantageous nurse crop, because of the denseness of the shade, but if they are sown thinly and cut for hay soon after they come into head, they are then a very suitable nurse crop. One chief objection to flax as a nurse crop is that it is commonly sown late. The chief virtue in rape as a nurse crop is that the shade is removed early through pasturing. The millets are objectionable as nurse crops through the denseness of the shade which they furnish and also because of the heavy draught which they make on soil moisture. Peas and vetches should not be used as nurse crops, since they smother the young clover plants through lodging in the advanced stages of their growth.

Amounts of Seed to Sow.—The amounts of clover seed to sow are influenced by the object sought in sowing; by combinations with which the seeds are sown, and by the relative size of the seeds. The soil and climate should also be considered, although these influences are probably less important than those first named.

When clovers are sown for pasture only, or to fertilize the soil speedily and to supply it with humus, the largest amounts of seed are sown. But for these purposes it is seldom necessary to use more than 12 pounds of seed per acre. These amounts refer to the medium red and mammoth varieties, which are more frequently used than the other varieties for the purposes named. They also include the crimson sown usually to fertilize the soil. When sown to provide seed only, 12 pounds per acre of the medium red, mammoth and crimson varieties will usually suffice. Half the quantity of alsike will be enough, and one-third the quantity of the small white, or a little more than that. Whether alfalfa is grown for seed, for hay or for pasture, about the same amounts of seed are used; that is, 15 to 20 pounds per acre. When sown with nurse crops and simply to improve the soil, it is customary to sow small rather than large quantities of seed, and for the reason that the hazard of failure to secure a stand every season is too considerable to justify the outlay. From 4 to 5 pounds per acre are frequently sown and of the medium or mammoth variety.

When the mammoth and medium varieties of clover are sown for hay with one or two kinds of grass only, it is not common to sow more than 6 to 8 pounds of either per acre. The maximum amount of the seed of the alsike required when thus sown with grasses may be set down at 5 pounds per acre. These three varieties are chiefly used for such mixtures. With more varieties of grass in the mixtures, the quantities of clover seed used will decrease. When clovers are sown with mixtures intended for permanent pastures, it would not be possible to name the amounts of seed to sow without knowing the grasses used also, but it may be said that, as a rule, in those mixtures, the clovers combined seldom form more than one-third of the seed used.

The seeds of some varieties of clover are less than one-third of the size of other varieties. This, therefore, affects proportionately, or at least approximately so, the amounts of seed required. For instance, while it might be proper to sow 12 pounds of medium or mammoth clover to accomplish a certain result, less than one-third of the quantity of the small white variety would suffice for the same end.

The influences of climate and soil on the quantities of seed required are various, so various that to consider them fully here would unduly prolong the discussion. But it may be said that the harder the conditions in both respects, the more the quantity of seed required and vice versa.

Pasturing.—When clover seed is sown in nurse crops that are matured before being harvested, the pasturing of the stand secured the autumn following is usually to be avoided. Removing the covering which the plants have provided for themselves is against their passing through the winter in the best form. In some instances the injury proves so serious as to result in a loss of all, or nearly all, the plants. The colder the winters, the less the normal snowfall and the more the deficiency of moisture, the greater is the hazard. But in some instances so great is the growth of the clover plants that not to graze them down in part at least would incur the danger of smothering many of the plants, especially in regions where the snowfall is at all considerable.

But when the seed is sown alone or in mixtures of grain and even of other grasses in the spring, grazing the same season will have the effect of strengthening the plants. This result is due chiefly to the removal of the shade that weeds and other plants would furnish were they not thus eaten down, but it is also due in part to the larger share of soil moisture that is thus left for the clover plants. Pasturing clover sown thus should be avoided when the ground is so wet as to poach or become impact in consequence. Unless on light, spongy soils which readily lose their moisture, such grazing should not begin until the plants have made considerable growth, nor should it be too close, or root development in the pastures will be hindered.

It would not be possible to fix the stage of growth when the grazing should begin on clover fields kept for pasture subsequent to the season of sowing. The largest amount of food would be furnished if grazing were deferred until the blossoming stage were reached and the crop were then grazed down quickly. But this is not usually practicable, hence the grazing usually begins at a period considerably earlier. In general, however, the plants should not be grazed down very closely, or growth will be more or less hindered.

Grazing clover in the spring and somewhat closely for several weeks after growth begins, has been thought conducive to abundant seed production. This result is due probably to the greater increase in the seed heads that follow such grazing. This would seem to explain why clover that has been judiciously grazed produces even more seed than that clipped off by the mower after it has begun to grow freely.

In nearly all localities the grazing of medium red clover, and even of mammoth clover, somewhat closely in the autumn of the second year, is to be practised rather than avoided. These two varieties being essentially biennial in their habit of growth will not usually survive the second winter, even though not grazed, hence not to graze them would result in a loss of the pasture.

With nearly all kinds of clover there is some danger from bloat in grazing them with cattle or sheep while yet quite succulent, and the danger is intensified when the animals are turned in to graze with empty stomachs or when the clover is wet with dew or rain. When such bloating occurs, for the method of procedure see [page 95]. The danger that bloat will be produced is lessened in proportion as other grasses abound in the pastures.

Harvesting.—All the varieties of clover, except alfalfa, are best cut for hay when in full bloom. Here and there a head may have turned brown. If cut earlier, the crop is difficult to cure, nor will it contain a maximum of nutriment. If cut later it loses much in palatability. Alfalfa should be cut a little earlier, or just when it is nicely coming into bloom, as if cut later the shedding of the leaves in the curing is likely to be large.

All clovers are much injured by exposure to rain or dew. They will also lose much if cured in the swath, without being frequently stirred with the tedder; that is, it will take serious injury if cured in the swath as it fell from the mower. If cured thus, it will lose in aroma and palatability, through the breaking of leaves and, consequently, in feeding value. To avoid these losses, clover is more frequently cured in the cock. When cured thus, it preserves the bright green color, the aroma and the tint of the blossoms, it is less liable to heat in the mow or stack and is greatly relished by live stock when fed to them.

To cure it thus, it is usually tedded once or twice after it has lost some of its moisture. It is then raked as soon as it is dried enough to rake easily, and put up into cocks. When the quantity to be cured is not large caps are sometimes used to cover the cocks to shed the rain when the weather is showery. These are simply square strips of some kind of material that will shed rain, weighted at the corners to keep them from blowing away. The clover remains in the cocks for two or three days, or until it has gone through the "sweating" process. Exposure to two or three showers of rain falling at intervals while partially cured in the swath or winrow will greatly injure clover hay.

When the area to be harvested is large, clover is sometimes cured in the swath. When thus cured it is stirred with the tedder often enough to aid in curing the hay quickly. It is then raked into winrows and drawn from these to the place of storage. In good weather clover may be cured thus so as to make fairly good hay, but not so good as is made by the other method of curing. It is much more expeditiously made, but there is some loss in leaves, in color and in palatability.

Some farmers cure clover by allowing it to wilt a little after it is cut, and then drawing and storing it in a large mow. They claim that it must be entirely free from rain or dew when thus stored. This plan of curing clover has been successfully practised by some farmers for many years; others who have tried it have failed, which makes it evident that when stored thus, close attention must be given to all the details essential to success.

Clover may also be cured in the silo. While some have succeeded in making good ensilage, in many cases it has not proved satisfactory. The time may come when the conditions to be observed in making good silage from clover will be such that the element of hazard in making the same will be removed. In the meantime, it will usually be more satisfactory to cure clover in the ordinary way.

Grasses cure more easily and more quickly than clovers. Consequently, when these are grown together so that the grasses form a considerable proportion of the hay, the methods followed in curing the grasses will answer also for the clovers. For these methods the reader is referred to the book "Grasses and How to Grow Them" by the author. The influence that grasses thus exert on the growing of clovers furnishes a weighty reason for growing them together.

Storing.—Clovers are ready to store when enough moisture has left the stems to prevent excessive fermentation when put into the place of storage. Hay that has been cured in the cock is much less liable to heat when stored so as to produce mould, than hay cured in the swath or winrow. The former has already gone through the heating process or, at least, partially so. Some experience is necessary to enable one to be quite sure as to the measure of the fitness of hay for being stored. When it can be pitched without excessive labor it is ready for being stored, but the unskilled will not likely be able to judge of this accurately. If a wisp is taken some distance from the top of the winrow or cock and twisted between the hands, if moisture exudes it is too damp, and if the hay breaks asunder readily it is too dry. When no moisture is perceptible and yet the wisp does not break asunder, the hay is ready to be drawn. Care must be taken that the wisp chosen be representative of the mass of the hay. To make sure of this, the test should be applied several times.

Where practicable the aim should be to store clover hay under cover, owing to the little power which it has to shed rain in the stack. This is only necessary, however, in climates with considerable rainfall during the year and where irrigation is practised, as in the mountain States clover hay may be kept in the stack without any loss from rain, and it can be cured exactly as the ranchman may desire, since he is never embarrassed when making hay by bad weather. When storing clovers, the time of the day at which it is stored influences the keeping qualities of the hay. Hay stored at noontide may keep properly, whereas, if the same were stored while dew is falling it might be too damp for being thus stored.

Much care should be taken in stacking clover hay that it may shed rain properly. The following should be observed among other rules of less importance that may be given: 1. Make a foundation of rails, poles or old straw or hay that will prevent the hay near the ground from taking injury from the ground moisture. 2. Keep the heart of the stack highest from the first and the slope gradual and even from the center toward the sides. 3. Keep the stack evenly trodden, or it will settle unevenly, and the stack will lean to one side accordingly. 4. Increase the diameter from the ground upward until ready to draw in or narrow to form the top. 5. Aim to form the top by gradual rather than abrupt narrowing. 6. Top out by using some other kind of hay or grass that sheds the rain better than clover. 7. Suspend weights to some kind of ropes, stretching over the top of the stack to prevent the wind from removing the material put on to protect the clover from rain.

Feeding.—The clovers furnish a ration more nearly in balance than almost any other kind of food. If the animals to which they are fed could consume enough of them to produce the desired end, concentrated foods would not be wanted. They are so bulky, however, relatively, that to horses and mules at work, to dairy cows in milk and cattle that are being fattened, to sheep under similar conditions, and to swine, it is necessary to add the concentrated grain foods, more or less, according to the precise object. But for horses, mules, cattle, sheep and goats that are growing subsequent to the weaning stage, and for mature animals of these respective classes not producing, that is, not yielding returns, a good quality of clover hay will suffice for a considerable time at least without the necessity of adding any other food.

It is considered inferior to timothy as a fodder for horses. This preference is doubtless owing largely to the fact, first, that clover breaks up more and loses more leaves when being handled, especially when being transported; and second, that clover is frequently cured so imperfectly as to create dust from over-fermentation or through breaking of the leaves, because of being over-dried, and the dust thus created is prejudicial to the health of these animals. It tends to produce "heaves." This may in part be obviated by sprinkling the hay before it is fed. When clover is properly cured, it is a more nutritious hay than timothy, and is so far preferable for horses, but since timothy transports in much better form, it is always likely to be more popular in the general market than clover. The possibility of feeding clover to horses for successive years without any evils resulting is made very apparent from feeding alfalfa thus in certain areas of the West.

Clover hay is specially useful as a fodder for milk-producing animals, owing to the high protein content which it contains. Dairymen prefer it to nearly all kinds of fodders grown, and the same is true of shepherds. When very coarse, however, a considerable proportion of the stems is likely to be left uneaten, especially by sheep. Because of this it should be the aim to grow it so that this coarseness of stem will not be present. This is accomplished, first, by growing it thickly, and second, by growing the clovers in combination with one another and also with certain of the grasses.

Clovers are especially helpful in balancing the ration where corn is the principal food crop grown. The protein of the clover crop aids greatly in balancing the excess of carbo-hydrates in the corn crop, hence much attention should be given to the production of clovers in such areas.

Renewing.—Because of the comparatively short life of several of the most useful of the varieties of clover, no attempt is usually made to renew them when they fail, unless when growing in pasture somewhat permanent in character. To this, however, there may be some exceptions. On certain porous soils it has been found possible to maintain medium red clover and also the mammoth and alsike varieties for several years by simply allowing some of the seed to ripen in the autumn, and in this way to re-seed the land, a result made possible through moderate grazing of the meadow in the autumn, and in some instances through the absence of grazing altogether, as when the conditions may not be specially favorable to the growth of clover.

It is not uncommon, however, to renew alfalfa, by adding more seed when it is disked in the spring, as it sometimes is to aid in removing weeds from the land. The results vary much with the favorableness of the conditions for growing alfalfa or the opposite.

In pastures more or less permanent in character, clovers may be renewed by disking the ground, adding more clover seed, and then smoothing the surface by running over it the harrow, and in some instances also the roller. This work is best done when the frost has just left the ground for a short distance below the surface.

Some kinds of clover are so persistent in their habit of growth that when once in the soil they remain, and therefore do not usually require renewal. These include the small white, the yellow, the Japan, burr clover and sweet clover. In soils congenial to these respective varieties, the seeds usually remain in the soil in sufficient quantities to restock the land with plants when it is again laid down to grass. Nearly all of these varieties are persistent seed producers; hence, even though grazed, enough seed is formed to produce another crop of plants.

Clovers as Soil Improvers.—All things considered, no class of plants grown upon the farm are so beneficent in the influence which they exert upon the land as clovers. They improve it by enriching it; they improve it mechanically; and they aid plant growth by gathering and assimilating, as it were, food for other plants.

All clovers have the power of drawing nitrogen from the air and depositing the same in the tubercles formed on the roots of the plants. These tubercles are small, warty-like substances, which appear during the growing season. They are more commonly formed on the roots within the cultivable area, and therefore are easily accessible to the roots of the plants which immediately follow. Clovers are not equally capable of thus drawing nitrogen from the air, nor are the same varieties equally capable of doing this under varying conditions. The relative capabilities of varieties to thus deposit nitrogen in the soil is by no means equal, but up to the present time it would seem correct to say that relative capability in all of these has not yet been definitely ascertained. With reference to the whole question much has yet to be learned, but it is now certain that in all, or nearly all, instances in which clovers are grown on land, they leave it much richer in nitrogen than it was when they were sown upon the same.

They also add to the fertility of the surface soil by gathering plant food in the subsoil below where many plants feed. They have much power to do this, because they are deep rooted and they are strong feeders; that is, they have much power to take up food in the soil or subsoil. Part of the food thus gathered in the subsoil helps to form roots in the cultivable area and part aids in forming top growth for pasture or for hay. If grazed down or if made into hay and fed so that the manure goes back upon the land the fertility of the same is increased in all leading essentials. This increase is partly made at the expense of the fertility in the subsoil. But the stores of fertility in the subsoil are such usually as to admit of thus being drawn upon indefinitely.

Clovers improve soils mechanically by rendering them more friable, by giving them increased power to hold moisture, and by improving drainage in the subsoil. Of course, they have not the power to do this equally, but they all have this power in degree and in all the ways that have been named.

Clovers send down a tap root into the soil and subsoil as they grow. From the tap roots branch off lateral roots in an outward and downward direction. From these laterals many rootlets penetrate through the soil. When the plants are numerous, these roots and rootlets fill the soil. When it is broken up, therefore, particles of soil are so separated that they tend to fall apart, hence the soil is always made more or less friable, even when it consists of the stiffest clays. The shade furnished by the clover also furthers friability. This friability makes the land easier to work, and it is also more easily penetrated by the roots of plants. The influence on aeration is also marked. The air can more readily penetrate through the interstices in the soil, and, in consequence, chemical changes in the soil favorable to plant growth are facilitated.

The roots of clovers are usually so numerous that they literally fill the soil with vegetable matter. This matter, in process of decay, greatly increases the power of the soil to hold moisture, whether it falls from the clouds or ascends from the subsoil through capillary attraction. The moisture thus held is greatly beneficial to the plants that immediately follow, especially in a dry season and in open soils, and the influence thus exerted frequently goes on, though with decreasing potency, for two, three or four seasons.

Reference has already been made to the tap root which clover sends down into the soil and subsoil. In the strong varieties this tap root goes down deeply. When the crop is plowed up, the roots decay, and when they do, for a time at least, they furnish channels down which the surface water percolates, if present in excess. Thus it is that clover aids in draining lands under the conditions named. The channels thus opened do not close immediately with the decay of the clover roots, hence the downward movement of water in the soil is facilitated for some time subsequently.

It has been stated that clovers have more power than some other plants to gather plant food in the soil. In some instances they literally fill the soil with their roots. When other plants are sown after the clover has been broken up they feed richly on the decaying roots of the clover. Thus it is that clover gathers food for other plants which they would not be so well able to gather for themselves, and puts it in a form in which it can be easily appropriated by these. The nitrogen in clover is yielded up more gradually and continuously as nitrates than it could be obtained from any form of top dressings that can be given to the land. In this fact is found one important reason why cereal grains thrive so well after clover.

Since the roots of clovers act so beneficently on soils, it is highly important that they be increased to the greatest extent practicable. Owing to the relation between the growth of the roots of plants and the parts produced above ground, development in root growth is promoted much more when the clover is cut for hay than when it is fed off by grazing. Experiments have also demonstrated that the development of root growth is much enhanced in medium red clover by taking a second cutting for hay or seed. They have also demonstrated that more nitrogen is left in the soil by clover roots after a seed crop than after a crop of hay.

From what has been said, it will be apparent that the extent to which clovers enrich the soil will depend upon the strength of the growth of the plants and certain other conditions. It will not be possible to reduce to figures the additions in plant food which clovers add to the soil other than in a comparative way. Dr. Voelker has stated that there is fully three times as much nitrogen in a crop of clover as in the average produce of the grain and straw of wheat per acre. Dr. Kedzie is on record as having said that in the hay or sod furnished by a good crop of clover, there is enough nitrogen for more than four average crops of wheat, enough phosphoric acid for more than two average crops and enough of potash for more than six average crops. He has said, moreover, that the roots and stubble contain fully as much of these elements as hay.

It will also be apparent that where clover grows in good form no cheaper or better way can be adopted in manuring land, and that in certain areas the judicious use of land plaster on the clover hastens the renovating process. It is thought that in some instances the mere loading and spreading of barnyard manure costs more than the clover and plaster. Especially will this be true of fields distant from the farm steading. It is specially important, therefore, that in enriching these, clover will be utilized to the fullest extent practicable.

Clover as a Weed Destroyer.—Where clover is much grown, at least in some of its varieties, it becomes an aid in reducing the prevalence of many forms of weed growth. It is thus helpful in some instances, because of the number of the cuttings secured; in others because of its smothering tendencies, and in yet others because of the season of the year when it is sown and harvested or plowed under, as the case may be.

Alfalfa and medium red clover are cut more frequently than the other varieties and, therefore, because of this, render more service than these in checking weed growth. The former is cut so frequently as to make it practically impossible for most forms of annual weed life to mature seed in the crop. The same is true of biennials and also perennials. But there are some forms of perennial weeds which multiply through the medium of their rootstocks that may eventually crowd alfalfa. Medium red clover is usually cut twice a year, hence, in it annuals and biennials cannot mature seed, except in exceptional instances, and because of the short duration of its life, perennials have not time to spread so as to do much harm.

The clovers that are most helpful in smothering weeds are the mammoth, the medium and the alsike varieties. These are thus helpful in the order named. To accomplish such an end they must grow vigorously, and the plants must be numerous on the ground. When grown thus, but few forms of weed life can make any material headway in the clover crop. Even perennials may be greatly weakened, and in some instances virtually smothered by such growth of clover. To insure a sufficient growth of clover it may be advantageous to top dress the crop with farmyard manure sufficiently decayed, and in the case of medium red clover to dress the second cutting with land plaster. If the second growth is plowed under, subsequent cultivation of the surface will further aid in completing the work of destruction.

The crimson variety is sown and also harvested at such a time that the influence on weed eradication is very marked. The ground is usually prepared in the summer and so late that weeds which sprout after the clover has been sown cannot mature the same autumn. In the spring it is harvested before any weeds can ripen. When plowed under, rather than harvested, the result is the same.

When clover is grown in short rotations, its power to destroy weeds is increased. For instance, when the medium red or mammoth varieties are grown in the three years' rotation of corn or some root crop, followed by grain seeded with clover, the effects upon weed eradication are very marked, if the cultivation given to the corn or roots is ample. Under such a system weeds could be virtually prevented from maturing seeds at any time, especially if the medium variety of clover were sown, and if the stubbles were mown some time subsequent to the harvesting of the grain crop. Such a system of rotation faithfully carried out for a number of years should practically eradicate all, or nearly all, the noxious forms of weed life.

Clover Sickness.—On certain of the soils of Great Britain and probably on those of other countries in Europe, where clover has been grown quite frequently and for a long period, as good crops cannot be grown as previously, and in some instances the crop is virtually a failure. The plants will start from seed in the early spring and grow with sufficient vigor for a time, after which they will show signs of wilting and finally they die. Various theories were advanced for a time as to the cause before it was ascertained by experiment what produced these results. Some thought they arose from lack of water in the soil, others claimed that they were due to the presence of parasites, which in some way preyed upon the roots, others again attributed them to improper soil conditions. It is now just about certain that they arose from a deficiency of soluble potash in the subsoil. Such, at least, was the conclusion reached by Kutzleb as the result of experiments conducted with a view to ascertain the cause of clover wilt.

The cause being known, the remedy is not difficult. It is to grow clover less frequently on such soils. Sufficient time must be given to enable more of the inert potash in the subsoil to become available. Another way would be to apply potash somewhat freely to these soils, and subsoil them where this may be necessary.

It is thought that clover sickness is as yet unknown in the United States and Canada, although its presence had sometimes been suspected in some sections where clover has been much grown. This does not mean that it may not yet come to this country. Should the symptoms given above appear on soils on which clover has been grown frequently and for a long period, it would be the part of wisdom to take such indications as a hint to grow clover less frequently in the rotation.

Possible Improvement in Clovers.—Some close observers have noticed that there is much lack of uniformity in the plants found growing in an ordinary field of clover, especially of the medium red and mammoth varieties. Many of the plants vary in characteristics of stem, leaf, flower and seed; in the size and vigor of the plants; in the rapidity with which they grow; and in earliness or lateness in maturing. So great are these differences that it may be said they run all the way from almost valueless to high excellence. Here, then, is a wide-open door of opportunity for improving clover plants through selection. This question has not been given that attention in the past which its importance demands.

There may be a difference in view as to all the essential features of improvement that are to be sought for, but there will probably be agreement with reference to the following in desirable varieties: 1. They will have the power to grow quickly and continuously under average conditions. This power will render them valuable as pasture plants in proportion as they possess it. 2. They will produce many stems not too coarse in character. This will affect favorably the character of the hay and will also have a bearing on increase in the production of seed. 3. There should be an abundance of leaves. Such production will affect favorably palatability in the pasture and also in the hay. 4. The blossoms should be so short that the honey which they contain may be accessible to the ordinary honey bee. The importance of this characteristic cannot be easily overestimated. It would not only tend to a great increase in seed production through the favorable influence which it would have on fertilization, but it would greatly increase the honey harvest that would be gathered every year, and 5. They should be possessed of much vigor and hardihood; that is, they should have much power to grow under adverse conditions, as of drought and cold. The person who will furnish a variety of red clover possessed of these characteristics will confer a boon on American agriculture.

Bacteria and Clovers.—The fact has long been known, even as long ago as the days of Pliny, and probably much before those days, that clover, when grown in the rotation, had the power to bring fertility to the soil. This fact was generally recognized in modern agriculture and to the extent, in some instances, of giving it a place even in the short rotations. But until recent decades, it was only partially known how clover accomplished such fertilization. It was thought it thus gathered fertility by feeding deeply in the subsoil, and through the plant food thus gathered, the root system of the plants were so strengthened in the cultivated surface section of soil as to account for the increased production in the plants that followed clover. According to this view, the stems and leaves of the plants were thus equally benefited and, consequently, when these were plowed under where they had grown these also added plant food to the cultivated portion of the soil, in addition to what it possessed when the clover seed which produced the plants was sown upon it. In brief, this theory claimed that fertility was added by the clover plants gathering fertility in the subsoil and depositing it so near the surface that it became easily accessible to the roots of other plants sown after the clover and which had not the same power of feeding so deeply. This theory was true in part. The three important elements of plant food, nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, were and are thus increased in the soil, but this does not account for the source from which the greater portion of the nitrogen thus deposited in the soil was drawn, as will be shown below.

It was also noticed that when the seed of any variety of clover was sown on certain soils, the plants would grow with more or less vigor for a time and then they would fail to make progress, and in some instances would perish. It was further noticed that if farmyard manure was applied freely to such land, the growth made was more vigorous. Yet, again, it was noticed that by sowing clover at short intervals on such soils, the improvement in the growth of the plants was constant. But it was not understood why clover plants behaved thus under the conditions named. It is now known that ill success at the first was owing to the lack of certain micro-organisms, more commonly termed bacteria, in the soil, the presence of which are essential to enable clover plants to secure additional nitrogen to that found in the soil and subsoil on which to feed. When manure was applied, as stated above, the clover plants secured much or all of their nitrogen from the manure. Bacteria were introduced in very limited numbers at first, it may be through the medium of the seed or in some other way, and because of an inherent power which they possess to increase rapidly in connection with continued sowing of clover at short intervals, they came at length to be so numerous in the soil as to make possible the growth of good crops of clover where these could not be thus grown a few years previously.

Careful observers had noticed that certain warty-like substances were found attached to the roots of clover plants, and that the more vigorously the plants grew, the larger and more numerous were these substances, as a rule. It was thought by many that these warty substances, now spoken of as nodules, were caused by worms biting the roots or because of some unfavorable climatic influence or abnormal condition of soil. It is now known that they are owing to the presence of bacteria, whose special function is the assimilation of free nitrogen obtained in the air found in the interstices; that is, the air spaces between the particles of soil. This they store up in the nodules for the use of the clover plants and also the crops that shall follow them.

The nodules in clover plants vary in size, from a pin head to that of a pea, and they are frequently present in large numbers. Bacteria are present within them in countless myriads. They gain an entrance into the plant through the root hairs. The exact way in which benefit thus comes to the clover plants is not fully understood, but it is now quite generally conceded that the nitrogen taken in by these minute forms of life is converted into soluble compounds, which are stored in the tissues of the roots, stems and leaves of the plants, thus furnishing an explanation to the increased vigor. It cannot be definitely ascertained at present, if, indeed, ever, what proportion of the nitrogen in clover is taken from the air and from the soil, respectively, since it will vary with conditions, but when these are normal, it is almost certain that by far the larger proportion comes from the air. But it has been noticed that when soil is freely supplied with nitrogen, as in liberal applications of farmyard manure, the plants do not form nodules so freely as when nitrogen is less plentiful in the soil. The inference would, therefore, seem to be correct, that when plants are well supplied with nitrogen in the soil they are less diligent, so to speak, in gathering it from the air. In other words, clover plants will take more nitrogen from the air when the soil is more or less nitrogen hungry than when nitrogen abounds in the soil. And yet the plants should be able to get some nitrogen from the soil in addition to what the seed furnishes to give them a vigorous start.

This power to form tubercles, and thus to store up nitrogen, is by no means confined to clovers. It is possessed by all legumes, as peas, beans and vetches. It is claimed that some of these, as soy beans, cow peas and velvet beans, have even greater power to gather nitrogen from the air and store it in the soil than clover, since the nodules formed on the roots of these are frequently larger. In some instances, on the roots of the velvet bean they grow in clusters as large as an ordinary potato. With reference to all these leguminous plants it has been demonstrated that under proper conditions good crops may be grown and removed from the soil and leave it much richer in nitrogen than when the seed was sown. It is thus possible by sowing these crops at suitable intervals to keep the soil sufficiently supplied with nitrogen to grow good crops other than legumes, adapted to the locality, without the necessity for purchasing the nitrogen of commerce in any of its forms. They may be made to more than maintain the supply of nitrogen, notwithstanding the constant loss of the same by leeching down into the subsoil in the form of nitrates, and through the more or less constant escape of the same into the air in the form of ammonia, during those portions of the year when the ground is not frozen.

They will do this in addition to the food supplies which they furnish, hence they may be made to supply this most important element of fertility, and by far the most costly when purchased in the market, virtually without cost. The favorable influences which these plants thus exert upon crop production is invaluable to the farmer. They make it possible for him to be almost entirely independent of the nitrogen of commerce, which, at the rate of consumption during recent years, will soon be so far reduced as to be a comparatively insignificant factor in its relation to crop production. It is possible, however, and not altogether improbable, that by the aid of electricity a manufactured nitrate of soda or of potash may be put upon the market at a price which will put it within reach of the farmer. The power of legumes to increase the nitrogen content in the soil should allay apprehension with reference to the possible exhaustion of the world's supply of nitrogen, notwithstanding the enormous waste of the same in various ways.

The more common sources of loss in nitrogen are, first, through the leeching of nitrates into the drainage water; second, through oxidation; third, through the use of explosives in war; and fourth, through the waste of the sewerage of cities. When plant and animal products are changed into soluble nitrates, they are usually soon lost to the soil, unless taken up by the roots of plants. When vegetable matter on or near the surface of the ground is broken down and decomposed, in the process of oxidation, there is frequently much loss of nitrogen, as in the rapid decomposition of farmyard manure in the absence of some material, as land plaster, to arrest and hold the escaping ammonia. Through explosives used in war there is an enormous vegetable loss of nitrogen, as nitrate salts, which should rather be used to preserve and sustain life than to destroy it. The waste of nitrogen through the loss of sewerage is enormous, nor does there seem to be any practicable way of saving the bulk of it.

In many soils the germs which produce nodules are present when clovers are first grown on them. But where they are not present, the clover plants have no more power to gather nitrogen than wheat or other non-leguminous crops. But since in other soils they are almost entirely absent, how shall they be introduced? The process of introducing them is generally referred to as a process of inoculation, and soils when treated successfully are said to be inoculated.

Three methods have been adopted. By the first, as previously indicated, the grower perseveres in sowing clover at short intervals in the rotation. He may also add farmyard manure occasionally, and thus, through the inherent power of multiplication in the bacteria, they increase sufficiently to enable the land to grow good crops. By the second method, inoculating is effected through soil which is possessed of the requisite bacteria; and by the third, it is effected through the aid of a prepared product named nitragin.

When fields are to be inoculated by using soil it is obtained from areas which have grown clovers successfully quite recently, and which are, therefore, likely to be well filled with the desired bacteria. In some instances the seed is mixed with the soil and these are sown together. To thus mix the seed with the soil and then sow both together broadcast or with a seed drill is usually effective, and it is practicable when minimum quantities of soil well laden with germs are used. In other instances the soil containing germs is scattered broadcast before or soon after the seed is sown. Considerable quantities of earth must needs be applied by this method.

It should be remembered that each class of legumes has its own proper bacteria. Because of this, inoculation can only, or at least chiefly, be effected through the use of soils on which that particular class of legumes have grown, or which are possessed of bacteria proper to that particular species. In other words, bacteria necessary to the growth of vetches will not answer for the growth of clovers, and vice versa. Nor will the bacteria requisite to grow medium red clover answer for growing alfalfa. In other words, the bacteria proper to the growth of one member of even a family of plants will not always answer for the growth of another member of the same. But in some instances it is thought that it will answer. The study of this phase of the question has not yet progressed far enough to reflect as much light upon it as could be desired. It is certainly known, however, that alfalfa will grow on soils that grow burr clover (Medicago maculata) and sweet clover (Melilotus alba), hence the inference that soil from fields of either will inoculate for alfalfa.

Nitragin is the name given by certain German investigators to a commercial product put upon the market, which claims to be a pure culture of the root tubercle organism. These cultures were sold in the liquid form, and it was customary when using them to treat the seed with them before it was planted. Their use has been largely abandoned, because of the few successes which followed their use compared with the many failures. But it is now believed that these cultures can be prepared and used so as to be generally effective and without excessive cost to the grower.

In preparing cultures it has been found that by gradually reducing the amount of nitrogen in the culture of media, it is possible to increase the nitrogen fixing power in these germs from five to ten times as much as usually occurs in nature. It is now known that the bacteria thus grown upon nitrogen free media retain high activity if carefully dried and then revived in liquid media at the end of the varying lengths of time. Some absorbent is used to soak up the tubercle-forming organisms. The cultures are then allowed to dry, and when in that condition they can be safely sent to any part of the country without losing their efficacy. It is necessary to revive the dry germs by immersing them in water. By adding certain nutrient salts the bacteria are greatly increased if allowed to stand for a limited time—as short, in some instances, as 24 hours. The culture thus sent out in a dry form, and no larger than a yeast cake, may thus be made to furnish bacteria sufficient to inoculate not less than an acre of land. It is stated that the amount of inoculating material thus obtained is only limited by the quantity of the nutrient water solution used in increasing the germs, so that the cost of inoculating land by this process is not large. The culture may be applied by simply soaking the seed in it, by spraying the soil, or by first mixing the culture into earth, spreading it over the field and then harrowing it. Inoculations thus tried under the supervision of the United States Department of Agriculture have proved quite successful.

Where any legume is extensively grown surrounding soils come to be inoculated through the agency of winds and water. The increase brought to the yield of plants on various soils runs all the way from a slight gain to 1000-fold. And when soil is once inoculated it remains so for a long time, even though the proper legume should not be grown again on the same soil.

The amount of nitrogen that may thus be brought to many soils by growing clover and other legumes upon them is only hedged in practically by the nature of the rotation fixed upon. An acre of clover when matured will sometimes add 200 to 300 pounds of nitrogen to the soil under favorable conditions. Where the soil contains the requisite bacteria, the young plants begin to form tubercles when but a few weeks old, and continue to do so while the plant is active until mature. That the plants use much of the nitrogen while growing would seem to be clear, from the fact that toward the close of the growing season the tubercles become more or less broken down and shrunken.

CHAPTER III

MEDIUM RED CLOVER

Medium Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) is also known by the names Common Red Clover, Broad-Leaved Clover and Meadow Trefoil. The term medium has doubtless come to be applied to it because the plants are in size intermediate between the Mammoth variety (Trifolium magnum) and the smaller varieties, as the Alsike (Trifolium hybridum) and the small white (Trifolium repens). But by no designation is it so frequently referred to as that of Red Clover.

This plant is spreading and upright in its habit of growth. Several branches rise up from the crown of each plant, and these in turn frequently become branched more or less in their upward growth. The heads which produce the flowers are nearly globular in shape, inclining to ovate, and average about one inch in diameter. Each plant contains several heads, and frequently a large number when the growth is not too crowded. When in full flower these are of a beautiful purple crimson, hence, a field of luxuriant red clover is beautiful to look upon. The stems of the plants are slightly hairy, and ordinarily they stand at least fairly erect and reach the height of about one foot or more; but when the growth is rank, they will grow much higher, even as high as 4 feet in some instances, but when they grow much higher than the average given, the crop usually lodges. The leaves are numerous, and many of them have very frequently, if not, indeed, always, a whitish mark in the center, resembling a horseshoe. The tap roots go down deeply into the soil. Usually they penetrate the same to about 2 feet, but in some instances, as when subsoils are open and well stored with accessible food, they go down to the depth of 5 or 6 feet. The tap roots are numerously branched, and the branches extend in all directions. When they are short, as they must needs be in very stiff subsoils and on thin land underlaid with hard soil, the branches become about as large as the tap roots. It has been computed that the weight of the roots in the soil is about equal to the weight of the stem and leaves.

Medium red clover is ordinarily biennial in its habit of growth, but under some conditions it is perennial. Usually in much of the Mississippi basin it is biennial, especially on prairie soils. On the clay loam soils of Ontario, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and some other States, it is essentially biennial, but many of the plants will survive for a longer period. In the mountain valleys in the Northwestern States, and on the Pacific slope west of the Cascade Mountains, it is perennial. Medium red clover meadows in these have been cut for several successive years without re-seeding the crop. The duration of this plant is also more or less influenced by pasturing as compared with cutting for seed. Grazing the plants has the effect of prolonging the period of their growth, while maturing seed from them has the opposite effect.

Medium red clover is characterized by a rapid growth. Seed sown in the spring has in certain climates produced a crop of hay in 120 days from the date of sowing. It is also most persistent in its growth from spring until fall when sufficient moisture is present. In this property it far outranks any of the other varieties of clover. It comes into bloom in the South during the latter half of May and in the North during the month of June, early or later, according to location, and in about sixty days from the time that it is cut for hay. Ordinarily, a second cutting of hay may be taken from it and still later some pasture.

It furnishes excellent pasture, soiling food and hay for nearly all classes of live stock. While it is much relished by the stock, it is probably not exceeded in its capacity for quick and prolonged growth throughout the growing season by any pasture plant, except alfalfa. For a similar reason it stands high as a soiling food. No other variety of clover grown in America will furnish as much of either pasture or soiling food. For animals producing milk and for young animals, the pasture is particularly excellent. It is also the standard pasture for swine where it can be grown, and where alfalfa is not a staple crop. When the hay is well cured, it makes a ration in even balance for cattle and sheep, and for horses it is equally good. The prejudice which exists in some quarters against feeding it to horses has arisen, in part, at least, from feeding it when improperly harvested, when over-ripe, when damaged by rain, or by overcuring in the sun, or when it may have been stored so green as to induce molding. It may also be fed with much advantage to brood sows and other swine in winter.

As a soil improver, medium red clover is probably without a rival, unless it be in mammoth clover, and in one respect it exceeds the mammoth variety; that is, in the more prolonged season, during which it may be plowed under as a green manure. Its quick growth peculiarly adapts it to soil enrichment. For this reason, it is more sown than any of the other varieties in the spring of the year, along with the small cereal grains to be plowed under in the late autumn or in the following spring, after the clover has made a vigorous start, since it produces two crops in one season, the first crop may be harvested and the second plowed under after having made a full growth. This can be said of no other variety of clover. More enrichment is also obtained from the falling of the leaves when two crops are grown than from the other varieties.

The influence of this plant on weed destruction when grown for hay is greater than with the other varieties of clover. This is owing in part to the shade resulting from its rapid growth and in part to the two cuttings which are usually made of the crop. These two cuttings prevent the maturing of the seeds in nearly all annual weeds, and to a very great extent in all classes of biennials. The power of this crop to smother out perennials is also considerable, and when this is linked with the weakening caused by the two cuttings, it sometimes proves effective in completely eradicating for the time being this class of weeds.

Fig. 2. Medium Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)
Oregon Experiment Station

Distribution.—Medium red clover is thought to be native to Europe. It was probably introduced into England some time early in the seventeenth century. That it was attracting attention about the middle of the century or a little later, is rendered probable by the fact that it is discussed at considerable length in the third edition of Blyth's "Improver Improved," published in 1662, while it is not mentioned in the first edition, published in 1650. It was doubtless introduced into the United States by the early colonists and at sundry times.

Medium red clover will grow in good form only in the temperate zone, since it cannot stand excessive heat or excessive cold. The northerly limit of its successful growth in North America is somewhere about 50° north latitude on the wind-swept prairies, but on suitable soils, and protected somewhat by trees and winter snows, it will probably grow 10 degrees further to the north. In British Columbia, on the Pacific slope, it will probably grow as far north as Alaska. But on prairies eastward from the Rocky Mountains, it has not been grown with much success much further north than 48°, unless under the eastern shadow of the Rocky Mountains. Low temperatures in winter, where there is only a moderate covering of snow, are far less fatal to clover plants than exposure to the sweep of the cold winds. Even where the thermometer is not so low as in the areas just referred to, such winds are particularly damaging to the plants when they blow fiercely just after a thaw which has removed a previous covering of snow. In some instances, one cold wave under the conditions named has proved fatal to promising crops of clover over extended areas.

In a general way, the southerly limit of vigorous and reliable growth may be put at about 37°. But in some localities good crops may be grown further South, especially in some parts of Tennessee. Nor would it be correct to say that medium red clover grows at its best in many localities much south of 38°. On the plateaus it can be grown further South, where the soil is suitable.

This plant flourishes best in a moist climate. In fact, the abundance and continuance of the growth for the season are largely dependent on the amount of the precipitation, and on the distribution of the same throughout the season. In climates in which it is usual for a long spell of dry weather to occur in mid-summer, the plants will not make rapid growth after the first cutting of the season; but under conditions the opposite, they will grow continuously from spring until fall. Continuous growth may be secured through all the season on irrigated land. Although the plants root deeply, they will succumb under drought beyond a certain degree, and in some soils the end comes much more quickly than on others; on porous and sandy soils, it comes much sooner than on clays. On the latter, drought must be excessive to destroy clover plants that have been well rooted. White clover can withstand much heat when supplied with moisture. Moderate temperatures are much more favorable to its growth.

Spring weather, characterized by prolonged periods of alternate freezing and thawing, is disastrous to the plants on dry soils, possessed of an excess of moisture, when not covered with snow. They are gradually drawn up out of the soil and left to die on the surface. In some instances, the destruction of an otherwise fine stand is complete. In other instances, it is partial, and when it is, a heavy roller run over the land is helpful in firming the soil around the roots that have been thus disturbed.

Medium red clover can be grown with some success in certain parts of almost every State in the Union. But in paying crops it is not much grown south of parallel 37°. With irrigation it grows most vigorously in the mountain valleys between the Rocky and Cascade mountains, and between about 37° and 50° north latitude. In these valleys its habit of growth is perennial. Without irrigation, the highest adaptation, all things considered, is found in Washington and Oregon, west of the Cascades, except where shallow soils lying on gravels exist. East of the mountains, the best crops are in the States of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The soils of Northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, that have produced hardwood timber, have unusually high adaptation to the growth of this plant, and as the snow usually covers the ground in these areas in winter, the crop may be relied upon with much certainty. But on the sandy soils, which more or less abound in these areas, it does not succeed so well. It has not yet proved a marked success in Western Minnesota or in the Dakotas, owing in part probably to the lack of the proper bacteria in the soil. Its growth in these localities, however, is extending from year to year. Indiana and Ohio are great clover States, and the same is true of much of Illinois and Iowa; but southward in these States there is some hazard to the young plants from drought and heat in summer, and to an occasional frost in winter when the ground is bare.

East of the States named, it would probably be correct to say that the highest adaptation is found in New York and Pennsylvania, particularly the former, in many parts of which excellent crops are grown. In various parts of the New England States good crops may also be grown. Much of the soil in these is not sufficiently fertile to grow clover as it can be grown in the more Central States. The same is true of the States of Delaware, Maryland and Eastern Virginia, east of the Rocky Mountains, south from the Canadian boundary and west from Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri, but little success has heretofore attended the efforts to grow medium red clover. This statement does not apply equally to Eastern Nebraska and Kansas. Usually the climate is not moist enough in summer, the sweep of the cold winds is too great in winter, the snowfall is usually insufficient to protect the plants, and it may be also that the requisite bacteria is lacking in the soil. Sometime, however, these adverse conditions may in part be overcome by man's resourcefulness. In parts of States that lie south of the 37th parallel, it may be found profitable to grow crops of medium red clover; but in these, other legumes, as crimson clover, cow peas and soy beans, will probably furnish food more reliably and more cheaply.

In Canada the highest all-round adaptation for clover is in Ontario and Quebec, unless it be the mountain valleys and tide lands of British Columbia. Because of the high adaptation in the soil of the two provinces first named, and the plentifulness of the snowfall, clover in these is one of the surest of the crops grown. The maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward's Island, particularly the former, have soils a little too hungry to produce the highest returns in clover. On the open prairies between Ontario and the Rocky Mountains, not much success has attended the attempts to grow any kind of clover, owing probably to present uncongeniality in soils and more especially in climatic conditions. However, there are good reasons for believing that with the introduction of hardy varieties and through the use of Northern grown seed, an inoculated soil, where inoculation may be necessary, that medium red clover will yet be grown over wide areas in all the provinces of Northwestern Canada, south of and including the Saskatchewan valley.

Soils.—Fortunately, this most useful plant will grow in a considerable variety of soils, though, of course, not equally well. Highest in general suitability, probably, are clay loams underlaid with a moderately porous clay subsoil. They should at the same time be moist and reasonably well stored with humus. On such a soil, in a climate with sufficient rainfall and properly distributed, a stand of clover should be looked upon as reasonably certain any season when properly sown. It would also be correct to say that on the volcanic soils of the mountain States in the West, clover will grow equally well when supplied with moisture, and in these it is also very tenacious of life.

Next in adaptation are what may be termed loam soils, also underlaid with clay. The proportion of the clay in them will exercise an important influence on the growth of the clover. Loamy sands will grow clover better than sandy loams, although both are very suitable, the other conditions being right.

It would seem to be correct to assign third place to stiff clays, whether of the white or red cast. The better that these are supplied with vegetable matter, and the more moist the season, the better is the stand of the clover likely to be. In seasons that are generally favorable, excellent crops of clover may be obtained from such soils, but in dry seasons it is easy to secure a good stand of the plants. They are also considerably liable to heave in these soils in the spring of the year from the action of the frost. The more perfectly they are drained, the less will be the injury from this source, but it is scarcely possible to drain such lands so perfectly that there will be no loss of clover plants in these from the source named in the winters, characterized by frequent rains, accompanied by frequent alternations of freezing and thawing. The loss from this source in such lands varies from nothing at all to 100 per cent.

Nearly, if not equal to the former, are dark loam soils with a gravel or sand drainage underneath, providing, first, that the sand and gravel do not come too near the surface, and second, that the normal rainfall is sufficient. On such soils it seldom fails to grow, is not liable to heave in the winter or spring, and usually produces excellent crops when these soils are properly tilled. It has special adaptation for being grown on calcareous or limy soils. It also, usually, grows well on soils underlaid with yellow clay of more or less tenacity.

The black humus soils of the prairie vary much in their suitability for growing medium red clover. Much depends on the clay content in such soils. The more of this element in them and the nearer an underlying clay subsoil is to the surface, the better will this clover grow on them. In large areas of the prairie, red clover will grow more successfully on the subsoil when laid bare than when on the surface soil. It has been the experience in many instances that when the humus soils of the prairie, porous and spongy in character, were first tilled, clover grew on them so shyly that it was difficult to get a good stand of the same until it had been sown for several seasons successively or at intervals. Eventually, good crops were grown on these lands, and are now being grown on them. This was the experience that faced a majority of the first settlers on the prairie where excellent crops are now being grown, and it is the experience which faces many to-day, who are located on sections of the prairie but newly broken.

Two reasons may be given by way of explanation, but these may not furnish all the reasons for the experience just referred to. First, much of the land was so porous in its nature that in dry seasons the young plants perished for want of moisture. As such lands become worn through cropping, they lie more firmly and compactly; hence, there is less loss of moisture through the free penetration of the soil within a short distance of the surface of the dry atmosphere. And second, the requisite bacteria is not in these soils until it is brought to them by sowing seed repeatedly, more or less of which grows, and in growing increases the bacteria in the soil until that point is reached when good crops of clover can be grown with the usual regularity.

The suitability of sandy and gravelly lands for growing clover depends much on the amount of plant food which they contain, on the character of the climate, and on the subsoil. Such soils when possessed of some loam when underlaid with clay, and in a climate with 20 inches and more per annum of rainfall, usually grow good crops of clover; but when conditions the opposite prevail, the growth of this plant is precarious. However, when sandy or gravelly soils low in fertility are underlaid with the same and the rainfall is sufficient, good crops of clover may be grown if these soils are first sufficiently supplied with vegetable matter and then sufficiently fertilized.

Muck soils do not seem to have the proper elements for growing clover in the best form. But when these have in them some clay, and especially when they are underlaid with clay not distant from the surface, they will grow good crops of clover, especially of the alsike variety. Thus it is that lands which have grown black ash and tamarack generally make good clover lands also. But clover will not succeed well on unreduced peaty soils, since it is not able in these to gather food supplies. But when sufficiently reduced, some kinds of clover will succeed better on these than on some other soils.

Deposit soils, such as are found in the bottom lands of rivers and streams, vary much in the suitability for growing clover, owing to the great differences in the compositions; but since they are usually possessed of sufficient friability, fertility and moisture, good crops of clover may generally be grown upon them where the climatic conditions are suitable. The injury from overflow on such soils will depend on the depth of the same and its duration, also the season of the year when it occurs. Overflow in the spring season before growth has begun, or when it is about starting, will be helpful rather than harmful, especially if some deposit is left on the land by the subsiding waters. But if the overflow should be deep and of any considerable duration, and, moreover, if it should occur when the clover was somewhat advanced in growth, and in hot weather, the submergence of the clover would probably be fatal to it.

It may be proper to state here that the lands which grow hardwood timber will usually grow clover. By hardwood timber is meant such trees as maple, beech, birch, oak, elm, basswood, butternut and walnut. Where forests are found comprising one or more varieties of these trees anywhere on this continent, and especially comprising several of them, the conclusion is safe that medium red clover will grow, or, at least, can be grown, on such soils. If a considerable sprinkling of pine trees is found in the same, the indications are not changed in consequence. Where the forest is largely composed of maple and birch, excellent crops of clover may be looked for when the land has been cleared. But because of what has been said, the conclusion must not be reached that clover will not grow well under some conditions where soft woods abound, but rather that where the former abound the indications of suitability for clover production are more certain than where soft timbers abound.

Place in the Rotation.—Medium red clover may be made to precede or to follow almost any crop that is grown upon the farm. Notwithstanding, there are certain crops which it precedes or follows with much more advantage than others. Since it brings nitrogen to the soil from the air and deposits the same for the benefit of the crops that immediately follow, it is advantageous to plant such crops after it as require much nitrogen to make them productive, as, for instance, wheat. Since, through the medium of its roots, it stores the ground with humus, such crops should come after it as feed generously on humus, as, for instance, corn and potatoes. And since it tends to lessen weed growth through smothering, it may with advantage be followed by crops for which a clean seed bed is specially advantageous, as flax. It may, therefore, be followed with much advantage by wheat, oats or barley, corn and sorghum in all their varieties, flax, potatoes, field roots, vegetables and such small fruits as strawberries. Where wheat is a success it is usually first grown among the small cereal grains after clover, since it is less able to flourish under the conditions which become decreasingly favorable in the years that follow the breaking up of the clover. Whether wheat or flax, corn or potatoes should immediately follow the growing of clover, should be determined in great part by the immediate necessity for growing one or the other of these crops, but also to some extent by the crops that are to follow them.

Clover may follow such crops as require cultivation while they are growing, and of a character that will clean the soil. This means that it may with advantage be made to follow corn, sorghum, potatoes or field roots. It may also follow the summer fallow bare, or producing crops for being plowed under where these come into the rotation. Of course, since clover can to a considerable extent supply its own nitrogen, it may be successfully grown on lands that are not clean, and that may not possess high fertility, but when thus sown the nurse crop with which it is usually sown is not likely to succeed well, because of the presence of weeds in it, and from the same cause the quality of the first of the clover is likely to be much impaired. The conditions of the time of sowing are also less favorable for getting a stand of the seed.

There is probably no rotation in which clover may be grown with more advantage than when it is made to alternate with corn or potatoes and some small cereal grains, as wheat or oats, growing each crop for but one season. Of course the clover must be sown with the grain and harvested the following year, taking from it two cuttings. In no other form of rotation, perhaps, can clover be used to better advantage, nor would there seem to be any other way in which land may be made to produce abundantly for so large a term of years without fertilization other than that given to the soil by the clover. It would fully supply the needs of the crops alternating with it in the line of humus, and also in that of nitrogen. In time the supply of phosphoric acid and potash might run low, but not for a long term of years. The cultivation given to the corn and potatoes would keep the land clean. Fortunate is the neighborhood in which a rotation may be practised, and fortunate are the tillers of the soil who are in a position to adopt it.

Medium red clover may be followed with much advantage by certain catch crops sown at various times through the season of growth. It may be pastured in the spring for several weeks, and the land then plowed and sowed with millet or rape, or planted with corn, sorghum, late potatoes, or certain vegetables, or it may be allowed to grow for several weeks and then plowed, to be followed by one or the other of these crops. It may also be harvested for hay in time to follow it with millet or rape for pasture, and under some conditions with fodder corn. But when the stand of clover is good, it would usually be profitable to utilize the clover for food rather than the crops mentioned, since doing so would involve but little labor and outlay. After the second cutting for the season, winter rye may be grown as a catch crop by growing it as a pasture crop.

Preparing the Soil.—Speaking in a general way, it would be correct to say that it would not be easy to get soil in too friable a condition for the advantageous reception of medium red clover seed. In other words, it does not often happen that soils are in too fine tilth to sow seed upon them without such fineness resulting in positive benefit to the plants. The exceptions would be clays of fine texture in climates subject to rainfalls so heavy as to produce impaction. On the other hand, the hazard would be even greater to sow clover on these soils when in a cloddy condition. The rootlets would not then be able to penetrate the soil with sufficient ease to find enough food and moisture to properly nourish them. Some soils are naturally friable, and in these a tilth sufficiently fine can be realized ordinarily with but little labor. Other soils, as stiff clays, frequently require much labor to bring them into the condition required. Usually, however, if sufficient time elapses between the plowing of the land and the sowing of the seed, this work may be materially lessened by using the harrow and roller judiciously soon after rainfall.

When preparing prairie soils so open that they will lift with the wind, the aim should be to firm them rather than to render them more open and porous; otherwise they will not retain sufficient moisture to properly sustain the young plants, if prolonged dry weather follows the sowing of the seed. Plowing such land in the autumn aids in securing such density. The same result follows summerfallowing the land or growing upon it a cultivated crop after the bare fallow, or after the cultivated crop has been harvested prior to the sowing of the clover seed, otherwise the desired firmness of the land will be lessened, and weed seeds will be brought to the surface, which will produce plants to the detriment of the clover. In preparing such lands for the seed, cultivation near the surface is preferable to plowing.

When the clover is sown late in the season, as is sometimes the case, in locations where the winters are comparatively mild, the ground may be made reasonably clean before the seed is sown, by stirring it occasionally at intervals before sowing the seed. This is done with some form of harrow or weeder, and, of course, subsequently to the plowing of the land.

Sowing.—The time for sowing clover seed is influenced considerably by the climatic conditions. Under some conditions it may be sown in the early autumn. It may be thus sown in the Southern States and with much likelihood that a stand will be secured, yet in some instances an inauspicious winter proves disastrous to the plants: all things considered, it is probably safer to sow clover in the South at that season than the spring, when vegetation is beginning to start. It may also succeed in some instances in areas well to the North when sown in the early autumn, providing snow covers the ground all the winter, but should the snow fail to come the subsequent winter, or fail to lie when it does come, the clover plants would perish. The element of hazard, therefore, is too great in northerly areas to justify sowing the seed thus. But on the bench lands of the mountain valleys there may be instances in which the seed may be sown so late in the autumn that it will not sprout before winter sets in, but lies in the soil ready to utilize the moisture, so all important in those areas, as soon as the earliest growth begins in the spring.

The seed may be sown with no little assurance of success in the late summer. But this can only be done where moisture is reasonably plentiful from the time of sowing onward, and where the winters are not really severe. In some of the Central States this method of sowing may succeed reasonably well. Clover and timothy sown thus without any nurse crop will produce a full crop the next season. When the seed is sown thus, it may, of course, be made to follow a crop grown on the land the same season. It may also insure a crop the following season, when the clover seed sown the spring previously may for some reason have failed.

While medium red clover is frequently sown in the South and in some areas of the far West in the months of January and February on the snow, in the North it is usually sown in the early spring. This also is in a great majority of instances the best time for sowing. In many locations it may be sown with safety as soon as the winter snows have gone. On the whole, the earlier that it is sown in the spring the better, that the young plants may have all the benefit possible from the moisture, which is more abundant than later. But there are certain areas, as, for instance, in the northerly limits of the Mississippi basin, in which young clover plants perish by frost after they have germinated. This, however, does not happen very frequently. When the seed is sown on the snow, or while the ground is yet in a honeycombed condition from early frost, it must of necessity be sown early. But where the hazard is present that the young plants will be killed by frost, it will be safer to defer sowing the seed until it can be covered with the harrow when sown.

Whether it will be more advisable to sow the seed on bare ground earlier than the season when growth begins, or to sow later and cover with the harrow, will depend to a considerable degree upon the soil and the condition in which it happens to be. On timber soils newly cleaned the early sowing would be quite safe where the young plants are not liable to be killed after germination, because of the abundance of humus in them. On the same soils, early sowing would probably be preferable, even when much reduced in humus, providing they were in a honeycombed condition at the time of sowing. This condition is far more characteristic of clay and clay loam soils, than of those sandy in texture. To sow the seed on clay soils that are worn would be to throw it away, unless in a most favorable season for growth. The same would prove true of the sandy soils low in humus, since these do not honeycomb at any season. Seed sown on honeycombed ground falls into openings made in the soil, and is covered by the action of the frost and the sun on the same. The rule should be to defer sowing the seed where the ground does not honeycomb until it can be covered with the harrow.

In some instances the seed is sown successfully just after a light fall of snow in the spring. The seed is carried down into little crevices or fissures in the soil when these are present, but the seed should not be thus sown. Usually it is not quite safe to sow clover seed where the winter snow still lingers to any considerable depth, lest much of it should be carried down to the lower lands by the sudden melting of the snows. The chief advantage of sowing before the ground can be harrowed arises from the benefit which the young plants derive from the plentiful supply of moisture in the soil at that season. They are more firmly rooted than plants sown later, and, therefore, can better withstand the dry weather that frequently characterizes the later months of the summer. There is also the further advantage that the labor of harrowing at a season that is usually a busy one is dispensed with.

Various modes of sowing clover seed have been adopted. Sometimes it is sown by hand. In other instances a sower is used which is strapped to the shoulder and turned with a crank. Sometimes the seed is sown by a distributor, which is wheeled over the ground on a frame resembling that of a wheelbarrow. Again, it is sown with a seeder attachment to the ordinary grain drill or to the broadcast seeder, and yet again with the grain in the ordinary drill tubes, or scattered with the same by the broadcast seeder; which of these methods should be adopted will depend on such conditions as relate to season, climate and soil.

The seed may be sown by hand at almost any time desired, whether it is covered or not. The advantages of hand sowing are that it may be done under some conditions when no other method will answer as well, as, for instance, when it is sown upon snow or upon the ground honeycombed. The disadvantages are that it takes more time than some of the other methods, especially when the sower only scatters the seed with one hand, that it cannot be thus sown when the wind blows stiffly or fitfully, and most of all, only a limited number of persons who sow seed are thus able to sow it with complete regularity. A still time should, if possible, be chosen for hand sowing; such a time is usually found in the early morning. When one hand is used, the seed may be sown from a light dish or pail or sowing-bag, but when both hands are used a sowing-box or a sowing-sack suspended in front of the breast is necessary. Clover seed may be sown when a considerable breeze is blowing by having a due regard to the wind. When facing it, the cast of seed should be low; when going before the wind it should be high. But when the wind is blowing at right angles, much care must be observed by the sower as to where he walks, in relation to the cast that is being sown.

When the seed is sown on grain that has been drilled, the rows of grain will suffice to serve as a guide to the sower, and when the grain is not up, the drill marks may be made to serve the same end.

The advantages of the hand seeder held in place by straps are that the sowing may be done by an individual who cannot sow by hand, that the seed may be easily distributed and that it may be used with advantage in sowing seed among brush. The disadvantages are that it cannot be used when much wind is stirring, and when using it stakes are sometimes necessary for the guidance of the sower.

The advantages from using the seeder wheeled over the ground are that the work may be done by any one able to wheel the seeder, that the seed is distributed evenly, that it may be sown when a fairly stiff wind is blowing, and that stakes are not necessary for the guidance of the sower, as the distance of the cast may be gauged at least fairly well by the wheel marks made. One disadvantage is that it cannot be used with much satisfaction on certain soils when the ground is cloddy or frozen, or when it is wet. There is also the disadvantage to all three methods of sowing by hand, that it is frequently necessary to provide a covering for the seed by subsequently using the harrow.

The advantages from sowing with the seeder attachment to the grain drill are that the seed may be made to fall before or behind the tubes as may be desired, or it may be sown with the seed along with the grain, and that when sown by any of these methods there is much saving of time as compared with sowing by hand. In some sections of the prairie the seed is sown with the grain drill by driving the same across the newly sown grain rows. If necessary to insure sufficiently thin sowing, the seed should be first mixed with some substance such as common salt.

In the moist areas of the upper Atlantic coast, Ontario and the Puget Sound region, the seed is frequently made to fall behind the grain tubes on clay and clay loam soils, and is covered by running the roller over the ground subsequently; but in States more inland the seed is usually made to fall before the drill tubes, when, in some instances, the sowing of the grain will provide a sufficient covering; but in others the harrow is used in addition, and sometimes both the harrow and the roller. When clover seed is sown along with grain and by the same tubes, it will in some soils be buried too deeply, but in others the objection does not hold good. The young plants are also injured more by shade from the grain, since they grow only in the line of the row along with the grain, and yet this method of sowing clover seed in some localities seems to answer reasonably well.

When the broadcast seeder is used in sowing clover seed, time is also saved as compared with hand sowing, but the seed can only fall before the seeder, and must, therefore, be given the same covering as the grain, as, when the seed is sown with the grain drill, it will in some instances be buried too deeply. In other instances it is not so.

The depth to which the seed of medium and other clovers ought to be buried should vary with soil and climatic conditions, and with the season of sowing. The more stiff the soil, the more moist the climate, and the earlier that the seed is sown, the less the covering required, and vice versa. As has been shown, under certain conditions (see [page 22]), early sown clover seed does not require any covering artificially given, and sometimes when sown later, a reasonably copious rain will provide sufficient covering, providing it falls quite soon after the sowing of the seed. But in certain of the soft, open, spongy soils of the prairie, it may sometimes be buried to the depth of at least 3 inches, with apparent benefit. Lower than 5 or 6 inches in any soil, clover seed will not germinate till brought nearer the surface. On all soils that lift with the wind, the seed should, as a rule, be buried deeply. Ordinarily, from half an inch to an inch, or an approximation to these distances, is considered a proper depth to bury clover seed.

Some authorities recommend sowing medium and other clovers without any nurse crop. The advantages claimed are that more or less of a crop may be obtained the same season, and that a stand of clover is more certain when the seed is sown thus. The first claim is correct in the main. In some localities favored with long seasons for growth, as in certain areas of Missouri, for instance, good yields may be obtained from sowing the seed thus. This has happened even in Minnesota. But in other areas and under other conditions, the yield would be light. In some localities, as, for instance, the Willamette Valley, Oregon, satisfactory returns have been obtained by sowing clover seed and rape seed in May and then pasturing both.

The chief objections to sowing clover seed thus are, first, that in a great majority of instances a sufficient stand of the plants may be obtained when the seed is sown with a nurse crop; and second, that when it is not thus sown, the first cutting of the hay will contain more or less of weeds. That a stand is more assured when clover seed is sown alone in areas where adverse weather conditions prevail cannot be disputed. Nevertheless, the fact remains that whenever in order to get a stand of a short-lived crop, like clover, it is necessary to sow it alone, and in many instances get but little return the same season, it will be well to consider if there is not some more satisfactory way of securing a crop that will prove an equivalent. In northerly areas the stubbles of the nurse crop frequently render substantial service to the clover by holding the snow on the crop, and also by protecting it more or less from the effect of the cold winds. The old-time practice of sowing clover with a nurse crop is likely to be continued, notwithstanding that it has some disadvantages.

These disadvantages include the following: 1. The young plants are liable to be weakened by the crowding and by overmuch shading from the grain when it grows rankly and thickly, and to such an extent that they perish; 2. When the grain lodges, as it frequently does, on rich ground, the clover plants underneath the lodged portions succumb from want of light; 3. Where the supply of moisture is low, in the struggle for the same between the stronger plants of the nurse crop and the weaker plants of the clover, the former secures the larger share. As a result, when the nurse crop is harvested, should the weather prove hot and dry beyond a certain degree, the clover plants will die. This is an experience not at all uncommon on the loose prairie soils of the upper Mississippi basin.

Injury from crowding and overshading may be prevented, or at least lessened, by pasturing the nurse crop with sheep for a time, at an early stage in its growth. The lodging of the grain may also be prevented by the same means. Injury from drought may also be lessened by cutting the crop at the proper stage of advancement, and making it into hay, as in the ripening stage of growth it draws most heavily on the moisture in the soil. The oat crop is the most suitable for being thus dealt with.

Clover seed may be sown with any of the small cereal grains as a nurse crop, but not with equal advantage. Rye, barley, wheat and oats are probably suitable in the order named. Rye shades less than wheat and oats and is harvested early; hence, its suitability for a nurse crop. Winter rye and winter wheat are more suitable than spring varieties of the same, since, on these the crop may usually be sown earlier, and the soil is likely to lose less moisture from surface evaporation. The marked suitability of barley as a nurse crop arises chiefly from the short period which it occupies the ground. Nor is the shade so dense as from grains that grow taller. Oats are the least suitable of all the crops named as a nurse crop, since they are characterized by a dense growth of leaves, which shut out the sunlight too much when the growth is rank. Notwithstanding, the oat crop may well serve such an end when sown thinly and cut for hay. Mixed grains grown together, as, for instance, wheat and oats, or a mixture of the three, answer quite as well for a nurse crop as clover and oats. The objection to them for such use arises from the fact that they are frequently sown more thickly than grain sown alone.

Clover may also be sown with flax or millet or mixed grains grown to provide soiling food. When the weather is moist, it is likely to succeed well with flax, as the latter does not form so dense a shade when it is growing as some other crops. But flax is usually sown so much later than these crops, that in some climates the dry weather following injures and in some instances destroys the young plants. The dense shade furnished by millet is also detrimental to the clover plants; nevertheless, owing to the short period which the former occupies the ground, under favorable conditions a stand of clover may be secured. But since millet is sown later than flax, it frequently happens that there is not sufficient moisture in the soil to sustain both crops. Mixed grains sown as soiling food are usually sown reasonably early, and as they are cut before maturity, the danger is so far lessened that the young plants will perish from want of moisture, but since these crops are usually grown thickly and on rich land, owing to the dense character of the growth, the plants are much more likely to be injured by the dense shade thus provided.

Clover seed may also be sown with corn and certain other crops that are usually grazed down, as rape and mixed grains. When sown with corn, the seed is usually scattered over the ground just before the last cultivation given to the corn. Attention is now being given to the introduction of cultivators which scatter such seeds as clover and rape in front of them, and so preclude the necessity for hand sowing. From Central Ohio southward, this method of securing a stand of clover will succeed in corn-growing areas, the other conditions being right. North from the areas named, the young clover plants may be winter killed when the seed is sown thus. The less dense the shade furnished by the corn, and the less dry the weather subsequently to sowing the seed, the better will be the stand of the plants secured.

When sown with rape that has been broadcast, clover usually makes a good stand, providing the rape crop is not sown too late in the season. When the rape is grazed down, the grazing does not appear to materially injure the clover, and when the shade has been removed by such grazing, the clover plants may be expected to make a vigorous growth on such land. In northerly areas, clover seed may be sown along with rape seed as late as the end of May. If sown later than that time, the season may prove too short subsequently to the grazing of the rape to allow the plants to gather sufficient strength to carry them safely through northern winters. When clover seed is sown with rape, the seeds may be mixed and sown together.

Clover seed in several of the varieties may be successfully sown on certain grain crops grown to provide grazing, especially when these are sown early. Such pastures may consist of any one of the small cereal grains, or more than one, or of all of them.

The seed may be sown in these the same as with any crop sown to furnish grain. A stand of clover may thus be secured under some conditions in which the clover would perish if sown along with the grain to be harvested; under other conditions it would not succeed so well. The former include soils so open as to readily lose moisture by surface evaporation. The tramping of the animals on these increases their power to hold moisture, the grazing down of the grain lessens its demands upon the same, thus leaving more for the clover plants, and they are further strengthened by the freer access of sunlight. The latter include firm, stiff clays in rainy climates. To pasture these when thus sown, if moist beyond a certain degree, would result in so impacting them that the yield of the pasture would be greatly decreased in consequence.

Medium red clover is quite frequently sown alone; that is, without admixture with clovers or grasses. It is always sown thus when it is to be plowed under, as green manure. It is also usually sown alone in rotations where it is to be cropped or grazed for one year. But when grown for meadow, which is to remain longer than one season, it is commonly sown along with timothy. The first year after sowing, the crop is chiefly clover, and subsequently it is chiefly timothy. Orchard grass or tall oat grass, or both, may also be sown along with medium red clover, since these are ready for being cut at the same time as the clover.

When medium red clover is sown to provide pasture for periods of limited duration, it is frequently sown along with alsike clover and timothy. Sometimes a moderate amount of alfalfa seed is added. But in arable soils in the semi-arid West, these will provide pastures for many years in succession, if supplied with moisture. The same is true of much of the land west of the Cascades, and without irrigation. East from the Mississippi and for some distance west from it, much of the medium red clover will disappear after being grazed for one season, but the alsike, timothy and alfalfa will endure for a longer period.

In permanent pastures, whether few or many varieties of seed are sown, medium red clover is usually included in the mixture. It is sown because of the amount of the grazing which it furnishes the season after sowing, and with the expectation that it will virtually entirely disappear in the pastures in two or three seasons after it has been sown.

When medium red clover is sown for being plowed under as green manure, it is always sown with a nurse crop. Some farmers, in localities well adapted to the growth of clover, sow more or less of the medium red variety on all, or nearly all, of the land devoted to the growth of such cereals as rye, wheat, barley and oats, when the land is to be plowed the autumn or spring following. Reduced quantities of seed are used. They believe that the benefit from the young clover plants to the land will more than pay for the cost of the seed and the sowing of the same.

The amount of seed to sow will depend on the degree of suitability in the conditions for growing medium red clover. The more favorable these are, the less the necessity for using maximum quantities of seed, and vice versa. More seed is required when the clover is not grown with other grasses or clovers than when it is grown with these. When grown without admixture, 16 pounds of seed per acre may be named as the maximum quantity to sow and 8 pounds as the minimum, with 12 pounds as an average. With all the conditions quite favorable, 10 pounds should suffice. In New England and some of the Atlantic States, many growers sow much more seed than the quantities named, and it may be that the necessities of the land call for more. In Great Britain also, considerably larger quantities are sown.

When sown in grass or clover mixtures, the amount of the seed required will vary with the other factors of the mixture, and the amount of each that is sown; that is, with the character of the hay or pasture that is sought. The seed is much more frequently sown with timothy than with any other kind of grass, and the average amount of each of these to sow per acre may be put at 8 pounds of clover and 6 pounds of timothy. When other clovers are added, as the mammoth or the alsike, for every pound of the seed of the former added, the seed of the medium red may be reduced by one pound, and for every pound of the alsike added it may be reduced by 1½ pounds. In mixtures for permanent pastures, 6 pounds may be fixed upon as the maximum quantity of medium red clover seed to sow, and 3 pounds as the average quantity. When sown to provide green manure, maximum quantities of seed are used when it is desired to improve the soil quickly. Usually not less than 12 pounds per acre are sown, and quite frequently more. But when the gradual improvement of the land is sought, by sowing the seed on all land devoted to the small cereal grains, not more than 6 pounds per acre are used, and frequently even less than 4 pounds. The greater the hazard to the plants in sowing the seed thus, the less the quantities of the seed that are usually sown, with a view to reduce the loss in case of failure to secure a stand of the clover.

A stand of medium red clover is sometimes secured by what may be termed self-sowing. For instance, where clover has been cut for hay and then allowed to mature even but a portion of the seed before being plowed under the same autumn, the seed thus buried remains in the ground without sprouting. When the land is again plowed to the same depth and sown with some kind of grain, the clover seed thus brought to the surface will germinate. If the plowing last referred to is done in the autumn, it ought to be done late rather than early, lest the seed should sprout in the autumn and perish in the winter, or be destroyed by the cultivation given in sowing the grain crop that follows. The same result may be obtained from clover pastured after the first cutting for the season, when the pasturing is not close.

When medium red clover is much grown for seed, many of the ripe heads are not cut by the mower, since they lie near the ground, and many break off in the curing process. The seed thus becomes so distributed in the ground, that many plants come up and grow amid the grain every season. These may, of course, be grazed or plowed under for the enrichment of the land, as desired. Seed thus buried is, therefore, not lost by any means. The plants which grow will render much assistance in keeping the land in a good condition of tilth, as well as in enhancing its fertility.

When clover seed is much grown, therefore, on any piece of land, the quantity of seed sown may be reduced materially. In fact, it may be so much reduced that it has been found possible to grow clover in rotation for many years without adding seed. The first growth of the clover was taken as hay, and the second growth as seed. The ground was then plowed and a crop of corn was taken. The corn land was then plowed and sown with some cereal, such as wheat, oats or barley.

Pasturing.—Medium red clover will furnish grazing very suitable for any kind of live stock kept upon the farm. All farm animals relish it, but not so highly as blue grass, when the latter is tender and succulent. No plant is equally suitable in providing pasture for swine, unless it be alfalfa; hence, for that class of stock, it has come to be the staple pasture outside of areas where alfalfa may be readily grown. When desired, the grazing may begin even at a reasonably early stage in the growth of the plants, and it may continue to the end of the pasturing season.

Usually it is considered unwise to pasture medium red clover the same season in which it has been sown when sown with a nurse crop. It has been noticed that when so pastured, it does not winter so well, and that the later and more close the pasturing and the colder the winter following, the greater is the hazard from pasturing the clover. This hazard arises chiefly from the exposure of the roots to the sweep of the cold winds. It should be the rule, therefore, not only to refrain from pasturing clover thus, but also to leave the stubbles high when pasturing the grain. Where the snowfall is light and the cold is intense, to leave the stubbles thus high is important, since they aid in holding the snow. But there may be instances when the clover plants grow so vigorously that in places of heavy snowfall, smothering may result unless the mass of vegetation is in some way removed. In such instances, pasturing may be in order; but when practised, the grazing should be with cattle rather than sheep or horses, and it should cease before the covering is removed. There may also be locations where much benefit follows in several ways close, or reasonably close, cutting of the stubbles quite soon after the nurse crop has been harvested.

When clover is sown without a nurse crop, it may be not only proper, but advantageous, to pasture it. The grazing should not, however, be continued so late that the plants will not have time to make a sufficiency of growth to protect them in winter. Such grazing is better adapted to areas in which the season of growth is long, rather than short; where weed growth is abundant, as on certain of the soils of the prairie, it may be necessary to call in the aid of the mower once or even twice during the season of growth.

When a crop of medium red clover is desired, the surest way to obtain it in good form is to pasture the field during the early part of the season, and closely enough to have the clover eaten down on every part of the field. When it is not so eaten, the mower should be so used that the growth and maturing of the seed crop may be even and uniform. The season for removing the live stock will depend upon latitude and altitude, but it will be correct to say that it ought to be from two to three weeks earlier than the proper season for cutting clover for hay.

When clover is not grazed the year that it is sown, in some seasons the stronger plants will bear seed, if allowed. To such an extent does this follow under certain conditions and in certain areas, that a considerable crop of seed could be obtained if this were desired, even as many as 4 or 5 bushels per acre in some instances. But it has been noticed that if thus allowed to produce seed, the effect upon the growth of the crop the next season is decidedly injurious. To prevent such a result the mower should be run over the field as soon as much hazard is certainly apparent, and the earlier in the season that this can be done the better, for the reason that all weeds growing are clipped off, and the clover has also a better chance to provide protection for the winter by growth subsequently made. When there is an over-luxuriant growth in the plants, it may be well to thus mow the field, even though seed should not be produced. The growth made by the plants and the mulch provided by the portion cut make an excellent preparation for entering the cold season.

But few pasture crops grown will furnish as much grazing in one season as medium red clover. It will probably furnish the most grazing if allowed to grow up before it is grazed until the stage of bloom is approached or reached, but since it is seldom practicable to graze it down quickly enough after that stage has been reached, and since there is frequently waste from tramping, grazing usually begins, and properly so, at an earlier period.

When cattle and sheep graze upon young clover, there is some danger that hoven or bloating may result to the extent of proving quickly fatal if not promptly relieved. The danger is greater if the animals are hungry when turned in upon the clover, and when it is wet with dew or rain, or in a more than ordinarily succulent condition. Such danger may be lessened, if not, indeed, entirely eliminated, by giving the animals access to other food, as dry clover hay, for instance, before turning them in on the pasture, and the danger is always less in proportion as grasses are abundant in the pasture.

Should bloating occur, relief must usually be prompt to be effective. In mild cases, certain medicines may bring relief. One of the most potent is the following: Give spirits of turpentine in doses of 1 to 5 tablespoonfuls, according to the size of the animal. Dilute with milk before administering. In bad cases, the paunch should be at once punctured. The best instruments are the trocar and canula, but in the absence of these a pocket knife and goose quill may be made to answer. The puncture is made on the left side, at a point midway between the last rib and hook point, and but a few inches from the backbone. The thrusting instrument should point downward and slightly inward going into the paunch. With much promptness the canula or the quill should be pushed down into the paunch and held there till the gas escapes. Before the tube is withdrawn the contents of the paunch that have risen in the same should be first pushed down.

Harvesting for Hay.—Medium red clover is at its best for cutting for hay when in full bloom, and when a few of the heads which first bloomed are beginning to turn brown; that is to say, in the later rather than in the earlier stage of full bloom. If cut sooner, the curing of the crop is tedious. If cut later the stalks lose in palatability. But when the weather is showery it may be better to defer cutting even for several days after the clover has reached the proper stage for harvesting, as the injury from rain while the crop is being cured may be greater than the injury from overmaturity in the same before it is mown.

When curing the crop, the aim should be to preserve to the greatest extent practicable the loss of the leaves. To accomplish such a result, the clover ought to be protected as far as possible from exposure to dew or rain, and also from excessive exposure to sunshine. Dew injures more or less the color of the hay and detracts from its palatability. Rain intensifies such injury in proportion as the crop being harvested is exposed to it. It also washes out certain substances, which, when present, affect favorably its aroma.

The injury from such exposure increases with the interval between cutting and storing the crop. Exposure to successive showers may so seriously injure the hay as to render it almost valueless for feeding. After the mown clover has been exposed in the swath to the sunlight beyond a certain time, it turns brown, and if exposed thus long enough the aroma will be lost. The aim should be, therefore, to cure the clover to the greatest extent practicable by the aid of the wind rather than by that of the sun.

The method of procedure to be followed is in outline as given below: Mow as far as possible when the meadow is not wet with rain or dew. Mow in the afternoon rather than the forenoon, as the injury from dew the night following will be less. Stir with the tedder as soon as the clover has wilted somewhat. The tedder should be used once, twice or oftener as the circumstances may require. The heavier the crop and the less drying the weather, the more the tedding that should be given. Sometimes tedding once, and in nearly all instances twice, will be sufficient. The hay should then be raked. It is ready for being raked as soon as the work can be done easily and in an efficient manner. When clover is not dry enough for being raked, the draught on the rake will be unnecessarily heavy, the dumping of the hay will be laborious, and it does not rake as clean as it would if the hay were in a fit condition for being raked.

The aim should be to have the crop put up in heaps, usually called "cocks," but sometimes called "coils," before the second night arrives after the mowing of the clover; and in order to accomplish this, it may be necessary to work on until the shades of evening are drawing near.

When there is a reasonable certainty that the weather shall continue dry, it is quite practicable to cure clover in the winrow, but in showery weather to attempt to do so would mean ruin to the clover. In no form does it take injury so quickly from rain as in the winrow, and when rain saturates it, much labor is involved in spreading it out again. Nor is it possible to make hay quite so good in quantity when clover is cured in the winrow, as the surface exposed to the sunshine is much greater than when it is mixed with timothy or some other grass that purpose, nevertheless, to cure it thus, especially when it is mixed with timothy or some other grass that cures more easily and readily than clover. It may also be taken up with the hay-loader when cured thus, which very much facilitates easy storing. But when it is to be lifted with the hay-loader, the winrows should be made small rather than large.

When the clover is to be put up into cocks, these should be small rather than large, if quick curing is desired. In making these, skilled labor counts for much. The cocks are simply little miniature stacks. The part next to the ground has less diameter than the center of the cock. As each forkful is put on after the first, the fork is turned over so that the hay spreads out over the surface of the heap as it is being deposited. Smaller forkfuls are put on as the top is being reached. The center is kept highest when making the cock. Each one may be made to contain about 100 pounds and upward of cured hay, but in some instances they should not contain more than half the amount to facilitate drying. When the heap has become large enough, the inverted fork should be made to draw down on every side the loose portions, which in turn are put upon the top of the cock. Such trimming is an important aid to the shedding of rain. An expert hand will put up one of these cocks of hay in less time than it takes to read about how it is done.

A light rain will not very much injure a crop of clover after it has been put up into cocks, but a soaking rain will probably penetrate them to the bottom. To guard against this, in localities where the rainfall may be considerable in harvest time, hay caps are frequently used. These may be made from a good quality of unbleached muslin or strong cotton, or they may be obtained from some of those who deal in tent awnings and stack covers. When of good quality and well cared for they should last for 10 to 20 years. Care should be taken in putting them on lest the wind which frequently precedes a thunder storm should blow them away. The pins used at the corners of the caps should be carefully and firmly inserted in the hay or the ground, or the caps should have sufficiently heavy weights attached to them at the corners to prevent their lifting with the wind. In putting up the hay the size of the cocks should be adjusted to the size of the covers used. One person should apply the covers as quickly as two will put up the hay.

When clover hay is put up into cocks, it undergoes what is termed the "heating" process; that is, it becomes warm in the center of the heaps up to a certain point, after which the heat gradually leaves it. The heat thus generated is proportionate to the size of the cocks and the amount of moisture in the clover. The sweating process usually covers two or three days, after which the hay is ready for being stored. When clover is cured in the winrow, it does not go through the sweating process to the same extent as when cured in the cock; hence, it is liable to sweat in the mow, and to such an extent as to induce mold, if it has been stored away with moisture in it beyond a certain degree. If a wisp of clover is taken from the least cured portion of the winrow or cock, and twisted between the hands, it is considered ready for being stored if no liquid is discernible. If overcured, when thus twisted it will break asunder. A skilled workman can also judge fairly well of the degree of the curing by the weight when lifted with the fork.

Under some conditions, it may be advisable to "open out" the cocks two or three hours before drawing them, that the hot sunshine may remove undue moisture. When this is done, if the cocks are taken down in distinct forkfuls, as it were, each being given a place distinct from the others, the lifting of these will be much easier than if the clover in each cock had been strewn carelessly over the ground. The lowest forkful in the cock should be turned over, since the hay in it will have imbibed more or less of dampness from the ground. But in some instances the weather for harvesting is so favorable that the precaution is unnecessary of thus opening out the cocks or even of making them at all.

Storing.—Storing clover under cover is far preferable to putting it up in stacks, except in rainless climates. With the aid of the hay-loader in lifting it from winrows in the field, and of the hay fork in unloading, the hand labor in storing is greatly reduced, but when it is unloaded with the horse fork, the aim should be to dump the hay from the fork on different parts of the mow or stack, lest it should become too solidly pressed together under the dump, and heat and mold in consequence.

When the hay is stacked, especially in climates of considerable rainfall, a bottom should be prepared on which to stack it. This may be made of poles or rails. A few of these should first be laid one way on the ground and parallel, and others across them. Where such material cannot be had, old straw or hay of but little value should be spread over the stack bottom to a considerable depth. Where these precautions are not taken, the hay in the bottom of the stack will be spoiled for some distance upward by moisture ascending from the ground. In building the stack, the center should be kept considerably higher than the outer edges, that rain may be shed, and the width of the same should increase up to at least two-thirds of the height, the better to protect the hay underneath. The tramping should be even, or the hay in settling will draw to one side, and the topping out should be gradual rather than abrupt.

In topping out a clover stack some hay should be used not easily penetrated by rain, as, for instance, blue grass obtained from fence corners, or slough hay obtained from marshes. The last-named is better put on green. If the clover is not thus protected, a considerable quantity will spoil on the top of the stacks. It is not a good hay to turn rain. The shape of the stack should in a considerable degree be determined by its size. It is probably preferable to make small stacks round, since they are more easily kept in shape, but large stacks should be long rather than round, as large, round stacks call for undue height in bringing them to a top. Because of the ease with which rain penetrates clover, it is very desirable to have it put under a roof. Where it cannot be protected by the roof of a barn or stable, the aim should be to store it in a hay shed; that is to say, a frame structure, open on all sides and covered with a roof. Such sheds may be constructed in a timber country without great cost.

Should the clover hay be stored a little undercured, some growers favor sowing salt, say, from 4 to 8 quarts over each load when spread over the mow. They do so under the conviction that its preservative qualities will be to some extent efficacious in preventing the hay from molding, and that it adds to the palatability of the hay. While it may render some service in both of these respects, it would seem probable that the benefits claimed have been overrated.

The more frequently clover hay is handled, the more is its feeding value impaired, because of the loss of heads and leaves which attend each handling of the crop. Because of this, it is not so good a crop for baling as timothy, and also for other reasons. It should be the aim when storing it for home feeding to place it where it can be fed as far as possible directly from the place of storage. In the location of hay sheds, therefore, due attention should be given to this matter.

In climates that are moist, some growers store clover in a mow when it has only reached the wilting stage in the curing process. When thus stored it is preserved on the principle which preserves silage. The aim is when storing to exclude the air as far as possible by impacting the mass of green clover through its own weight, aided by tramping. It should be more or less wilted before being stored, according to the succulence in it, and it is considered highly important that it shall also be free from external moisture. When thus stored it should be in large mows, and it should be well tramped, otherwise the impaction may not be sufficient. To this method of storage there are the following objections: 1. The hay has to be handled while it is yet green and wet. 2. There is hazard that much of the hay will be spoiled in unskilled hands. 3. Under the most favorable conditions more or less of the clover is pretty certain to mold near the edges of the mass. Where clover can be made into hay in the ordinary way without incurring much hazard of spoiling, the practice of storing it away in the green form, except in a silo, would seem of questionable propriety. The making of clover into ensilage is discussed in the book "Soiling Crops and the Silo" by the author.

Securing Seed.—As a rule, seed is not produced from the first cutting for the season of medium red clover. It is claimed that this is due to lack of pollenization in the blossoms, and because they are in advance of the active period of working in bumble bees, the medium through which fertilization is chiefly effected. This would seem to be a sufficient explanation as to why medium red clover plants will frequently bear seed the first year, if allowed to, though the first cutting from older plants will have little or no seed. But it is claimed that the ordinary honey bee may be and is the medium for fertilizing alsike and small white clover, but not that through which the mammoth variety is fertilized.

Experience has shown, further, that, as a rule, better crops of clover seed may be obtained from clover that has been pastured off than from that which has been mown for hay, although to this rule there are some exceptions. This arises, in part, from the fact that the energies of the plant have been less drawn upon in producing growth, and, therefore, can produce superior seed heads and seed, and in part from the further fact that there is usually more moisture in the soil at the season when the plants which have been pastured off are growing. There would seem to be some relation between the growing of good crops of clover seed and pasturing the same with sheep. It has been claimed that so great is the increase of seed in some instances from pasturing with sheep till about June 1st, say, in the latitude of Ohio, that the farmer who has no sheep could afford to give the grazing to one who has, because of the extra return in seed resulting. The best crops of seed are obtained when the growth is what may be termed medium or normal. Summers, therefore, that are unusually wet or dry are not favorable to the production of clover seed.

If weeds are growing amid the clover plants that are likely to mature seed, they should, where practicable, be removed. The Canada thistle, ragweed, plantain and burdock are among the weeds that may thus ripen seeds in medium clover. When not too numerous they can be cut with the spud. When too numerous to be thus cut, where practicable, they should be kept from seeding with the aid of the scythe. To prevent them from maturing is important, as the seeds of certain weeds cannot be separated from those of clover with the fanning mill, they are so alike in size.

The crop is ready for being cut when the heads have all turned brown, except a few of the smaller and later ones. It may be cut by the mower as ordinarily used, by the mower, with a board or zinc platform attachment to the cutter bar, by the self-rake reaper, or by the grain binder. The objection to the first method is that the seed has to be raked and that the raking results in the loss of much seed; to the second, that it calls for an additional man to rake off the clover; and to the third, that the binder is heavier than the self-rake reaper. The latter lays the clover off in loose sheaves. These may be made large or small, as desired, and if care is taken to lay them off in rows, the lifting of the crop is rendered much easier.

When the clover is cut with the mower, it should be raked into winrows while it is a little damp, as, for instance, in the evening. If raked in the heat of the day many of the heads will break off and will thus be lost. From the winrows it is lifted with large forks. When the crop is laid off in sheaves it may be necessary to turn them once, even in the absence of rain, but frequently this is not necessary. In the turning process gentle handling is important, lest much of the seed should be lost. The seed heads of a mature crop break off very easily in the hours of bright sunshine. Rather than turn the sheaves over, it may be better, in many instances, just to lift them with a fork with many tines, and set them down easily again on ground which is not damp under them, like unto that from which they have been removed.

Clover seed may be stored in the barn or stack, or it may be threshed directly in the field or from the same. The labor involved in handling the crop is less when it is threshed at once than by any other method, but frequently at such a busy season it is not easily possible to secure the labor required for this work. It is usually ready for being threshed in two or three days after the crop has been cut, but when the weather is fair it may remain in the field for as many weeks after being harvested without any serious damage to the seed. If, however, the straw, or "haulm," as it is more commonly called, is to be fed to live stock, the more quickly that the threshing is done after harvesting, the more valuable will the haulm be for such a use.

When stored in the barn or stack, it is common to defer threshing until the advent of frosty weather, for the reason, first, that the seed is then more easily separated from the chaff which encases it; and second, that farm work is not then so pressing. When threshed in or directly from the field, bright weather ought to be chosen for doing the work, otherwise more or less of the seed will remain in the chaff.

In lifting the crop for threshing or for storage, much care should be exercised, as the heads break off easily. The fork used in lifting it, whether with iron or with wooden prongs, should have these long and so numerous that in lifting the tines would go under rather than down through the bunch to be lifted. The wagon rack should also be covered with canvas, if all the seed is to be saved. If stored in stacks much care should be used in making these, as the seed crop in the stack is even more easily injured by rain than the hay crop. The covering of old hay of some kind that will shed rain easily should be most carefully put on.

Years ago the idea prevailed that clover seed could not be successfully threshed until the straw had, in a sense, rotted in the field by lying exposed in the same for several weeks. The introduction of improved machinery has dispelled this idea. The seed is more commonly threshed by a machine made purposely for threshing clover called a "clover huller." The cylinder teeth used in it are much closer than in the ordinary grain separator. The sieves are also different, and the work is less rapidly done than if done by the former. During recent years, however, the seed is successfully threshed with an ordinary grain threshing machine, and the work of threshing is thus more expeditiously done. Certain attachments are necessary, but it is claimed that not more than an hour is necessary to put these in place, or to prepare the machine again for threshing grain.

Since the seed is not deemed sufficiently clean for market as it comes from the machine, it should be carefully winnowed by running it through a fanning mill with the requisite equipment of sieves. It is important that this work should be carefully done if the seed is to grade as No. 1 in the market. If it does not, the price will be discounted in proportion as it falls below the standard. A certain proportion of the seed thus separated will be small and light. This, if sold at all, must be sold at a discount. If mixed with weed seeds it should be ground and fed to some kind of stock.

The haulm, when the seed crop has been well saved, has some feeding value, especially for cattle. If not well saved it is only fit for litter, but even when thus used its fertilizing value is about two-thirds that of clover hay. More or less seed remains in the chaff, and because of this the latter is sometimes drawn and strewn over pastures, or in certain by places where clover plants are wanted. Seed sown in the chaff has much power to grow, owing, it is thought, to the ability of the hull enclosing the seed to hold moisture. The yields in the seed crops of medium red clover vary all the way from 1 to 8 bushels per acre. The average yields under certain conditions are from 3 to 4 bushels per acre. Under conditions less favorable, from 2 to 3 bushels.

Within the past two decades the seed crop has been seriously injured by an insect commonly spoken of as the clover midge (Cecidomyia leguminicola) which preys upon the heads so that they fail to produce. A field thus affected will not come properly into bloom. The remedy consists in so grazing or cutting the clover that the bloom will come at that season of the summer when the insects do not work upon the heads. This season can only be determined by actual test. In Northern areas it can usually be accomplished by pushing the period of bloom usual for the second crop two to four weeks forward.

Renewing.—When clover is grown for hay, it is not usual to try to renew the crop, because of the short-lived period of the plant. But in some instances it has been found advantageous. On light prairie soils sandy in texture, located in the upper Mississippi basin, it has been found possible to grow timothy meadow for several years in succession with a goodly sprinkling of clover in it without re-seeding. In such instances, the land is not pastured at all, except in seasons quite favorable to growth, and in these the pasturing is not close. The clover plants that grow after the crop has been cut for hay produce seed. The heads in due time break off and are scattered more or less over the soil by the winds. In time they disintegrate, and more or less of the seed germinates, thus forming new plants, some of which, especially in favorable seasons, retain their hold upon the soil. This method may be worthy of imitation in localities where it has been found difficult to get a stand in dry seasons on this class of soils.

When the stand of clover secured is variable, that is to say, partial, as when the clover is abundant in the lower portions of the land and entirely absent on the higher ground, it may be worth while to re-sow the seed on the latter early the following spring. But before doing so, the land should be carefully disked in the fall, and the clover seed harrowed or otherwise covered in the spring. Should the summer following prove favorable, the seed thus sown may produce hay, but not likely in time to be harvested with the other portions of the field. But though it should not produce much hay the seed is likely to be benefited to an extent that will far more than repay the outlay involved in labor and seed.

If the clover has been sown for pasture, the renewal of the same on higher ground may be made as stated above, but with the difference that the same kind or kinds of grain may also be sown at the same time as the clover is becoming rooted.

In pastures, medium red clover may be renewed whenever the attempt is made to renew the pastures, as by disking them and then sowing upon them the seeds of certain grasses or clovers or both. The disking is usually done in the spring and while the frost is out for only a short distance below the surface. The amount of seed to sow need not be large, usually not more than 2 or 3 pounds per acre, especially when seed of other varieties is sown at the same time. One stroke of the harrow following will provide a sufficient covering for the seed.

Clover as a Fertilizer.—It would probably be correct to say that no plant has yet been introduced into American agriculture that has been found so generally useful as clover in fertilizing land and in improving the mechanical condition. Some who have investigated claim that there is more nitrogen in a clover sod after the removal of a good crop of clover than will suffice for four average farm crops, more phosphoric acid than will suffice for two, and more potash than will suffice for six. It begins to draw nitrogen from the air as soon as the tubercles commence to form and continues to add thus to the enrichment of the land during all the succeeding period of active growth. As previously stated, the nitrogen is drawn in great part from the air; consequently, soil from which a bountiful crop of clover has been removed will be considerably richer in nitrogen than before it grew the same, and this will hold true as intimated above, even though the crop should be removed and sold. Under the same conditions it will also be true in available phosphoric acid and potash. But the latter are gathered from the soil and subsoil while the plants were growing. Consequently, if crops of clover are grown in short rotation periods and if no fertilizer is given to the land other than the clover brings to it, while it will be abundantly supplied with nitrogen, a time will come when the supply of phosphoric acid and potash may be so reduced that the soil will not grow even good crops of clover. When this point is reached the soil is spoken of as "clover sick." Happily, however, nearly all soils are so well stored with phosphoric acid and potash that this result is not likely to follow for many years. But lest it should, attention should be given to fertilizing the land occasionally with farmyard manure, or with phosphoric acid and potash applied as commercial fertilizers. Because of this, and also for other reasons, it is usually considered more profitable in the end to feed clover on the farm and return it to the land in the form of manure. But clover may cease to grow on land where once it grew well, because of other reasons, such as changes in the mechanical condition of the soil caused by the depletion of its humus and changes in its chemical condition, such as increased acidity. The remedy is the removal of the cause.

The roots also put large quantities of humus in the soil. Where crops are regularly grown in short rotations they will suffice to keep it amply supplied for ordinary production. Because of this it is usually considered more profitable to cut both the crops which medium red clover produces in one season, or to pasture off one or both, than to plow under either as green manure. But when soils are too stiff or too open in character it may be advantageous to bury clover to restore the equilibrium. It may also be necessary to bury an occasional crop in order to put the land quickly in a condition to produce some desired crop, the growth of which calls for large supplies of humus. When clover is plowed under it will usually be found more profitable to bury the second growth of the season than the first. The crop is in the best condition for being plowed under when the plants are coming into bloom. If left until the stems lose their succulence the slow decay following in conjunction with the bulkiness of the mass plowed under might prove harmful to the crop following the clover. The influence of the roots upon the mechanical condition of the soil is most beneficial. The roots go down deep into the subsoil and also abound in fibrous growth. The tap roots in their decay furnish openings through which the superfluous water may go down into the subsoil. The fibers adhering to the main roots so ramify through the soil that when even stiff land is filled with them it is rendered friable, and is consequently brought into a good mechanical condition.

While all varieties of clover may be utilized in producing food and in enriching land, none is equal to the medium red for the two purposes combined. This arises from the fact that none save the medium red grows two crops in one season under ordinary conditions. Though the first crop should be taken for food, as it generally is, there is still ample time for a second crop to grow for plowing under the same season. This second growth is ready for being plowed under when time is less valuable than it would be when the mammoth or alsike varieties would be in season for being thus covered. And yet the work may be done sufficiently early to admit of sowing fall or winter crops on the land which produced the clover.

CHAPTER IV

ALFALFA

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) previous to its introduction into California, from Chili, about the middle of the last century, was usually known by the French name Lucerne. The name Alfalfa is probably Arabic in its origin, and the term Lucerne has probably been given to it from the Canton Lucerne in Switzerland. It has followed the plant into Spain and South America, and now it seems probable that soon it will be known by no other name over all the United States and Canada. It has also been known by names applied to it from various countries for which it has shown high adaptation, as, for instance, Sicilian Clover, Mexican Clover, Chilian Clover, Brazilian Clover, Styrian Clover and Burgundy Clover. In yet other instances, names have been applied to it indicative of some peculiarity of growth, as, for instance, Branching Clover, Perennial Clover, Stem Clover and Monthly Clover.

Alfalfa is upright and branching in its habit of growth, more so than the common varieties of clover. It usually grows to the height of 2 to 3 feet, but it has been known to reach a much greater height. Although possessed of a single stem when the plants are young, the number of the stems increases up to a certain limit, with the age of the plants and the number of the cuttings. Forty to fifty stalks frequently grow up from the crown of a single plant where the conditions are quite favorable to growth, and in some instances as many as a hundred. The leaves are not large, but numerous, and in the curing of the plants they drop off much more easily than those of the more valuable of the clovers. The flowers are borne toward the top of the stems and branches, and they are in a long cluster, rather than in a compact head. They are usually of a bluish tint, but the shades of the color vary with the strain from blue to pink and yellow. The seeds are borne in spirally coiled pods. They resemble those of red clover in size, but are less uniform in shape. The color should be a light olive green. The tap roots go down deeply into the soil and subsoil where the conditions as to texture and moisture are favorable. It has been claimed that alfalfa roots have gone down into congenial subsoils 40 to 50 feet, but usually less, probably, than one-fourth of the distances mentioned would measure the depths to which the roots go. And with decreasing porosity in the subsoil, there will be decrease in root penetration until it will reach in some instances not more than 3 to 4 feet. But where the roots are thus hindered from going deeper, they branch out more in their search for food.

Fig. 3. Alfalfa (Medicago sativa)
Oregon Experiment Station

Alfalfa is perennial. In the duration of its growth, no fodder plant grown under domestication will equal it. It has been known, it is claimed, to produce profitable crops for half a century. In some of the Western States are meadows from 25 to 40 years old. Ordinarily, however, the season of profitable growth is not more than, say, 6 to 12 years when grown on upland soils. The meadows usually become more or less weedy or possessed by various grasses, and some of the plants die. The plants at first send up a single stem. When this matures or is cut back the uncut portion of the stem dies down to the crown of the plant, which then sends out other stems. This is repeated as often as the stems are cut down until many stems grow up from one plant as indicated above, unless the plants are so crowded that such multiplication is more or less hindered. The plants grow rapidly as soon as spring arrives, and as often as cut off they at once spring again into vigorous life, where the conditions are favorable to such growth; hence, from one to twelve cuttings of soiling may be obtained in a single season, the former result being obtained in arid climates, where the conditions are unpropitious, and the latter being possible only in congenial soils, where the winters are very mild and where the soils are irrigated. Usually, however, even on upland soils and in the absence of irrigation, not fewer than 3 to 5 cuttings of soiling food are obtained each year and not fewer than 2 to 4 crops of hay.

A number of varieties so called are grown in this country. They differ from each other more, however, in their adaptation in essential properties relating to the quality of the pasture and fodder produced, than in the quality of food product obtained from them. The variety commonly grown from seed produced in the West is usually spoken of simply as alfalfa, while that grown from seed European in origin has been more commonly called Lucerne. The former of these has a tendency to grow taller than the latter and to send its roots down to a greater depth. In addition to these, such strains as the Turkestan, the Rhenish, the Minnesota and Sand Lucerne have been introduced.

The Turkestan variety was introduced by the United States Department of Agriculture during recent years. It was brought from provinces beyond the Caspian in Russia, Asia. The object sought was to introduce a variety that would better withstand the rigors of a climate dry in summer and cold in winter than the variety commonly grown. Some strains of this variety have proved drought resistant to a remarkable degree. It has also shown itself capable of enduring without injury temperatures so low as to result in the destruction of plants of the common variety. In trials made by growers in North Dakota and Northern Minnesota, it has been found able to endure the winter's cold in these areas. But it has also been found that while the plants produced some seed in the Central Mountain States, they did not produce much seed when grown in the Northern States. Unless seed can be secured from plants grown in the latter in sufficient quantities to meet the needs of growers, it is feared that in time some of the hardy characteristics of this variety will be lost if the Central and Southern Mountain States must be relied upon as the American sources of seed supplies.

The Rhenish strain comes from Central Europe. It has been highly commended by some European seedsmen for its hardihood, but it has been as yet grown to only a limited extent in America. The Minnesota strain was doubtless brought to Carver County by German farmers, by whom it has been grown in the neighborhood of Lake Waconia for nearly 20 years. It has been found much hardier than the common variety when grown in that neighborhood, and the endurance of plants grown from seed of this strain far northward has been very pronounced. As this variety produces reasonably good seed crops in Central Minnesota, it would seem reasonable to expect that it will become popular in Northern areas. Sand Lucerne, which comes from Central Europe, has considerable adaptation for poor and light soils, and in trials made at the Michigan experiment station was found possessed of distinctive merit for such soils.

Where alfalfa can be grown freely, it is unexcelled as a pasture for swine, and is in favor also as a pasture for horses. While cattle and sheep grazed upon it are exceedingly fond of it, the danger that it will produce bloat in them is so frequently present as to greatly neutralize its value for such a use. It is a favorite pasture for fowls. In furnishing soiling food where it produces freely, it is without an equal in all the United States. It is highly relished by all kinds of farm animals, not excluding rabbits and goats, and when fed judiciously may be fed in this form with perfect safety. Its high value in producing such food rests on its productiveness, its high palatability and the abundant nutrition which it contains. As a hay crop, it is greatly prized. Even swine may be wintered in a large measure on cured alfalfa hay.

As a fertilizer, the value of alfalfa will be largely dependent on the use that is made of the plants. When pastured or fed upon the farm, the fertility resulting being put back upon the land, it ranks highly as a producer of fertility. But this question is further discussed on page 191. As a destroyer of weeds much will depend upon the way in which it is grown. This question also is discussed again. (See [page 185.])

Distribution.—It is thought that alfalfa is more widely distributed over the earth's surface, furnishes more food for live stock, and has been widely cultivated for a longer period than any other legume. It is grown over wide areas of Asia, Europe, North and South America, and its cultivation is constantly extending. It was grown on the irrigated plains of Babylon long before the days of Nebuchadnezzar. It was the principal fodder used in the stables of the kings of Persia. From Persia, it is thought, it was brought to Greece about 470 B. C., and that its cultivation in Italy began at least two centuries before the Christian era. Several Roman writers, as Virgil, Columella and Varro, mention it. From Italy it was introduced into Spain and from Spain it was doubtless carried by missionaries of the Roman Catholic Church to Mexico and the South American States which lie west of the Andes, as Peru and Chili. In the arid and semi-arid regions of the Andes, the conditions were found so favorable to the growth of alfalfa that it is now the principal forage crop grown. It is almost certain that it was brought from Chili to California, from which it has spread over much of the cultivated portion of the arid and semi-arid west. Western grown seed is also the chief source of supply at the present time for all the States of the Union.

Fully a century ago attempts were made by Chancellor Livingstone and others to introduce it into the Eastern States, but without much success, owing, probably, to the lack of knowledge on the part of the people as to how it should be grown. The seed at that time was doubtless brought from European sources, probably France. It has been noticed by more recent growers in these States that the results from sowing such seed do not prove as satisfactory as those from American grown seed, but that alone should not sufficiently explain why the attempts to grow alfalfa just referred to were not successful.

But it is not alone in the areas named that alfalfa has proved so helpful to agriculture. In Central Asia and northward it has for long centuries furnished the Tartars with the principal forage crop grown. In Turkestan and other places it will grow under conditions so dry as to forbid the vigorous growth of many hardy grasses. In Southern Asia, from India to Arabia, it has lost none of the popular favor accorded to it long centuries ago. In Southern Russia it is extensively grown, and up and down the basin of the Danube. In the Mediterranean provinces of Southern Europe it is still one of the leading forage crops. In France it stands high in the popular estimate, and also in some parts of Germany. And even in humid England it is grown more or less freely on dry, calcareous soils. And the day is doubtless near when in many parts of Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Eastern South America this great fodder plant will be found capable of yielding abundant harvests. In some parts of Argentina it has been claimed that it grows like a weed.

It is believed by many that alfalfa if exposed to very low temperatures will perish and that it cannot stand as much winter exposure as medium red or alsike clover. This is only true of some varieties. Other varieties, as the Turkestan, for instance, will endure lower temperatures and more exposure than the clovers named. Alfalfa has been grown with some success at the government experiment station, Indian Head, Sask, Canada, and yet it sometimes winter kills in Texas. As with clover, it is injured most by exposure to sweeping winds blowing over it in winter when the mercury is low, and the injury is more fatal just after the removal of a snow covering and when the plants are young. Ice forming over the fields after a sudden thaw and remaining for a time is very liable to kill the plants. It can stand considerably more summer heat than any of the clovers grown northward, as witnessed in the good crops grown in some parts of Louisiana during the hottest weather of summer. Nevertheless, with reference to temperatures, what may be termed a mild climate, such as characterizes Southern France in Europe and Western California in the United States, is best adapted to its growth.

It is better adapted to climates that are dry, where the plants can be irrigated, as then rains do not interfere with the harvesting of the hay. Even in the absence of irrigation, a climate that is reasonably dry is preferable to one where drenching rains frequently fall, which wash away the soil when sandy, or which fill it full of water when composed of clay. But where rains fall frequently and in moderation, as in the northern Puget Sound region, the effect is helpful to the growth of the alfalfa plants, although it may add somewhat to the labor of making alfalfa hay, and to the hazard in curing it. Alfalfa will maintain its hold for years on some portions of the table lands of the mountain States under conditions so dry that the plants can only furnish one cutting of hay in a season. It is safe to assume, therefore, that alfalfa can be grown under a wider range of climatic conditions than any other legume grown in the United States. But the influence which climate should be allowed to exercise on the use that is to be made of it should not be lost from view. In climates much subject to frequent rains in summer, it should be grown rather for soiling food and pasture than for hay, whereas in dry climates, and especially where it can be irrigated, it should be grown for hay, soiling food and pasture, but especially the former.

While alfalfa can be successfully grown in one or the other of its varieties in some portion of every State in the Union, it has its favorite feeding grounds. The best conditions for growing it are found in the valleys of all the Rocky Mountain States, where the growth can be regulated by the application of irrigating waters. In these the conditions southward are superior to those northward, because of the milder climate, which precludes the danger of winter killing by exposure, which occasionally happens in the more northerly of the mountain States, and because of the more prolonged season for growth, which adds to the number of the cuttings. This does not mean that the river bottoms in other parts of the United States will not be found good for growing alfalfa. It can be grown in many of these; in fact, in nearly all of them, and to some extent by the aid of irrigation, if the waste waters were stored, but the deposit soil in these valleys being of much closer texture than that in the western valleys, is, on the whole, lower in adaptation than the soil in the latter.

In the western valleys of the mountain States, alfalfa is the crop around which it may be said that agricultural production centers. It is the principal hay crop of those States. The extent to which it may be grown there is revolutionizing the production of live stock on the ranges, as it is providing food for them in winter, which is fast removing, and will probably soon entirely remove, the element of hazard from live stock dependent on the range pastures for support in that season. The dairy and swine industries in those valleys must largely depend upon it. Fruit orchards must ultimately grow on buried alfalfa meadows, and the rotation of all crops in the same will be largely dependent upon the growing of alfalfa. Next in adaptation to the mountain States are, it is thought, certain soils that lie between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi, especially such as are in proximity to rivers, or are underlaid with sheet water not far distant from the surface. But an unusually large proportion of the upland soil in these States, from Central Minnesota southward, have high adaptation for the growth of this plant. Particularly is this true of the soils of Nebraska and Kansas and of considerable portions of Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana.

In States east of the Mississippi, the adaptation is not so general, and is more dependent on soil conditions than on those that are climatic. In nearly all of the river bottoms of these States it will grow with more or less success. On nearly all upland soils it will also grow well, where the subsoil furnishes naturally good drainage. For the exception, see [page 132]. But in no State east of the Mississippi, is such a proportion of the area so highly adapted to growing alfalfa as in many of the States west of that river. In other States areas are found in which alfalfa will produce excellent crops, but usually these do not embrace the larger portion of the entire area in any State. In a considerable number of the States such areas are more or less limited, and usually they are distributed variously in the different States; that is, they do not lie side by side. The favorite soil conditions in these are a good loam, preferably more or less sandy and resting upon a porous subsoil.

A more exact idea will be given of relative adaptation in various States in what is now submitted. In California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico, alfalfa is now grown chiefly by the aid of irrigation, and all of these States have highest adaptation for its growth. In some parts of California 6 to 10 tons of cured hay are obtained in one year, with pasture in winter additional. In Utah, good crops have been grown successively on the same land for more than a quarter of a century. In Colorado two cuttings are obtained the first season, and it is said that there the plants are not easily destroyed. It yields enormously in the irrigated valleys of New Mexico and Arizona.

In Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, it is grown with and without irrigation. In large areas in all these States, excellent crops are and may be grown, but the season of growth being shorter, not so many cuttings are obtained per year as in the mountain States further south. In Northern Idaho two cuttings may be obtained per year, even on high, dry land.

In North Dakota, especially westward, alfalfa gives promise of successful growth. It will grow well in much of South Dakota, especially on sandy soils not too distant from water. In Minnesota it has been grown successfully in Carver County since 1886. Good success is being obtained from growing it in other parts of the State, even in some parts of the Red River valley. In Western Iowa it is being grown with much success, and in some portions of Eastern Iowa. In Missouri, the two important centers for growing it are the northwest and the southeast, but in other areas it has also done well. In Kansas it will grow well in all parts of the State where the subsoil is porous. It has been cut for hay in that State in less than 60 days from the date of sowing. It grows equally well over at least two-thirds of Nebraska, especially the eastern half, and its growth in Nebraska is rapidly extending. In the Arkansas valley it luxuriates, and it is also being grown in Oklahoma. In Louisiana immense fields are being grown along the Red River and in other parts of the State. In Texas it is being grown more or less north, east and south, and especially in the valley of the Brazos.

In the Southern States alfalfa has not in many instances been given a good chance where tried. The plants have too frequently had to contend there as elsewhere with ill-prepared and weedy soils and imprudent pasturing. Yet it is being grown with considerable success, though as yet in limited areas, in all the Southern States. It has done well in parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama, and in Georgia are some alfalfa meadows 25 years old. In the other Southeastern States, viz., Virginia, the Carolinas and Florida, it does well only in areas more or less circumscribed, but it has been grown with some success even in the rainy climate of Southern Florida.