=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 1-1/2 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.

[Illustration: 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.

In the States northward from the Ohio River, that is, Illinois, Indiana,

Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, the necessity for growing alfalfa has not

been so much felt as in some other States, because of the excellence of

the crops of clover grown in these. Its growth, however, is extending in

all of these States. Much of the soil in Illinois, it is said, must

first be inoculated with the bacteria proper to alfalfa before vigorous

crops can be grown, and this is probably true of sections of Indiana

soil. Some sections of Ohio are becoming noted for the crops of alfalfa

which they have grown, and in Wisconsin Hon. W. D. Hoard succeeded in

securing 5.7 tons of alfalfa hay in one season from four cuttings made

on three-fifths of an acre.

In all the Eastern and New England States, alfalfa is being grown to

some extent. In some counties of New York, as Onondaga and Madison, it

is becoming the leading soiling and hay crop. In Massachusetts it has

borne cuttings year after year on sandy loam soil. On Long Island three

to four cuttings each season have been obtained for a series of years.

It is believed that it will grow over nearly the whole of Southern

Maryland and also in much of the eastern part of that State, and its

growth has been quite successful in parts of Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Alfalfa will grow well in considerable areas in Canada. The statement

would seem safe that at the present time profitable crops could be grown

in some parts of every province of Canada in which the land is tilled.

In Quebec, even on high land, it usually endures the winters. Near

Montreal it has been cut for soiling food at the height of 30 inches as

early as May 15th. In some parts of Eastern Ontario good crops can be

grown, and also over considerable areas of Western Ontario. The author

grew it with much success at the experiment station at Guelph in 1890

and subsequently, and during recent years considerable areas are being

grown in several of the Lake Erie counties and in those that lie north

from them. But in no part of Ontario are the conditions for growing

alfalfa better than in some of the mountain valleys of British Columbia.

But few crops, if, indeed, any, are being experimented with at the

present time to so great an extent as alfalfa; hence, the expectation is

reasonable that there will be an enormous increase in the area grown in

the future that is near. The two chief causes of failure in the past

were want of knowledge in growing and caring for it on the part of the

growers, and the absence of the proper bacteria in the soil. Acidity in

some soils and want of drainage in others are also responsible for many

of the failures referred to. But even where it does grow reasonably

well, some trouble is found from the alfalfa failing in spots. In some

instances the cause can be traced, as when coated with ice in winter, or

where the soil is not uniform, but in other instances the precise causes

have not been determined. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, however,

greatly increased areas will be grown in the future, especially in

States in which the dairy interest is paramount or even important.

=Soils.=--It was formerly thought by many that alfalfa would only grow

vigorously on soils and subsoils sandy in character, and underlaid at

some distance from the surface with water. It is now being ascertained

that it will grow on a great variety of soils, providing they are

reasonably fertile, free from acidity, sufficiently porous below to

carry away water with reasonable quickness, and not underlaid with hard

pan or a subsoil so tenacious that it is almost impervious to water.

The best soils for alfalfa are those of the Western mountain States, and

in these the deposit soils of the river valleys stand among the

foremost. These soils are usually of much depth. Many of them have water

underneath, and the subsoil is usually so porous that the roots can go

far down in them, such is the character of nearly all the bottom land

west of the Mississippi. But in nearly all of the mountain region of the

West, from Banff in British Columbia to Mexico, alfalfa will grow well

under irrigation, or in the absence of irrigation, if ground water is

not too distant from the surface. In this region alfalfa grows more

vigorously and more persistently than in almost any other portion of the

United States.

In regions where alfalfa is not dependent upon irrigation, the best

soils probably are deep, rich calcareous loams, clay or sandy, and

underlaid with what may be termed a mild or reasonably porous clay

subsoil. With such soils the plants may be in no way influenced by sheet

water below, as on some of these in Nebraska, for instance, such water

is fully 150 feet below the surface. These soils are usually possessed

of abundant food supplies to nourish the plants, and the roots can go

far down into the subsoils to gather food and moisture. Such lands are

found more or less in nearly all the States of the Union east from the

Rocky Mountains; hence, when the requisite bacteria are present, good

crops can be grown on them in every State in the Union.

On the ordinary black soils of the prairie, alfalfa will usually grow

reasonably well if underlaid with clay not too distant nor too

tenacious. When the roots get down into the subsoil, they can usually

find much food in the same, and unless in very dry areas a sufficiency

of moisture, but in many instances it may be necessary to introduce the

requisite bacteria, and to apply farmyard manure to encourage sufficient

growth to carry the roots down quickly to the subsoil. In some prairie

soils the growth will be vigorous from the start, but usually these are

lands that have grown hardwood timber, and that have in them more or

less clay.

In climates where the rainfall is considerable, alfalfa will frequently

grow well on gravelly soils and on those that are stony. Some of the

best alfalfa soils in the State of New York, New England States, and in

the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario are of this character.

Alfalfa will frequently grow fairly well even on stiff clays, and in

some instances on gumbo soils. But these soils must not be so retentive

as to collect and hold water for any considerable time within a few feet

of the surface. Such lands have usually much staying power; hence,

alfalfa grown on them frequently improves for years after it has been

sown. On the reddish soils that cover much of the South, it has been

found, as in growing alfalfa on stiff clays in the North, that where

deep subsoiling is practiced alfalfa is not only more easily

established, but it also grows with added vigor.

On upland soils sandy or gravelly in character where the rainfall is

much less than normal and where the subsoil is not underlaid with sheet

water, alfalfa will not usually succeed, notwithstanding that it may

grow well on these soils where the rainfall is normal. On such soils it

is not easy to get a stand of the plants, as they are much apt to perish

in the dry weather of the first season, but if once established on such

soils the plants have much power to grow even where the rainfall is

considerably less than normal.

Alfalfa will not grow well in soils naturally wet until they are

drained. And when drained it will not grow with normal vigor, on what

may be termed slough soils, where the subsoil is far down and covered

with a deep covering of vegetable mold. What are termed slough soils in

the Western prairies, therefore, are not well fitted for the growth of

alfalfa. On these it may not succeed well, when it may grow with much

vigor on the adjoining upland. When some wet soils are drained, alfalfa

may not succeed well on them for a time and later may grow luxuriantly.

This may arise from the lack of time for proper aeration after being

drained, or from the want of lime to further correct acidity in the

soil, or from the want of the proper bacteria. Notwithstanding that

alfalfa will not grow well on undrained lands that are naturally wet,

and notwithstanding that it will perish if the roots reach standing

water at a distance too near the surface, the best crops by far are

usually grown on irrigated lands. This arises, first, from the ability

to adjust the supplies of water to meet the needs of the plants, and

second, from the congenial character of the soil and subsoil. Next to

these the best crops are grown where congenial soils are underlaid with

ground water, not too near nor too distant from the surface. On these

soils the plants are largely supplied with moisture from the water below

ascending on the principle of capillary attraction. How near or how

distant such water should be will depend somewhat on subsoil conditions.

It would seem correct to say that it ought never to come nearer to the

surface than 3 feet, nor should it be more than 20 feet down. The most

suitable distance would be, say, 8 to 16 feet. When the roots of alfalfa

reach water at too short a depth they will die.

Alfalfa may sometimes be grown satisfactorily on soils subject to

overflow, but usually there is hazard in growing it on these. If the

overflow occurs comparatively early in the season, if it is not of great

depth, if it is of short duration, and if the waters quickly drain out

of the subsoil possessed by the alfalfa, it may receive little or no

harm from such overflow. Instances are on record wherein ice has formed

on alfalfa and yet the plants survived, but such a condition will

usually prove fatal to them. But should the overflow take place in hot

weather, usually it will injure the plants seriously, and may, indeed,

completely destroy them. So great is such hazard, that care must be

taken against the application of an excess of irrigating waters under

such conditions. Overflow waters that are stagnant are more injurious

probably than those that are in motion, owing, it may be, to the less

supply of dissolved oxygen in the former.

Soils suitable in themselves, but lying on stiff clay bottoms or

underlaid with hard pan within two or three feet of the surface, will

not maintain a good stand of alfalfa. The plants in these may grow well

for a time, probably a year or two, after which they will fail. The

roots are not able to go down to gather food. When the subsoils are

simply stiff clays, deep subsoiling, as already intimated, may render

much service, but when composed of hard pan this may not be practicable.

In moist climates, however, reasonably good crops have been obtained

from soils with underlying rock not more than four feet below the

surface.

The fact should not be overlooked that soils may have the requisite

physical conditions for growing alfalfa, and they may possess in fair

supply the essential elements of plant food, and yet alfalfa will not

succeed at the first when sown on these, because of the absence of the

soil bacteria, the presence of which is essential to the vigorous growth

of the plants. Because of this, growers should be slow to conclude that

alfalfa will not flourish on the soils on which they sow it until they

have first tried to grow it on those soils that have been inoculated

with the requisite alfalfa bacteria. For the methods of procedure in

such cases see page 53. Some persons claim that soils which will grow

medium red clover in good form will also grow alfalfa in good form.

This does not necessarily follow. While there is much of similarity in

the soils suitable for the growth of both, alfalfa may fail on lands

that grow red clover luxuriantly until the bacteria proper to alfalfa

have been introduced. Soils may be tested for bacteria, and even in

winter, by sowing some seed in pots and treating them like

well-cared-for house plants. When the plants are 2 to 3 months old, if

tubercles are found on the roots, the conclusion would seem safe that

such soil does not require inoculation.

=Place in the Rotation.=--In a certain sense it can scarcely be said of

alfalfa that it is a rotation plant, because of the long term of years

for which it is grown in an unbroken succession. Nevertheless, in all

places it cannot always be maintained for a long term of successive

years without renewal. In the Eastern States it is frequently, though

not always so crowded by various grasses, that the fields in which it

grows are broken up at some period short of ten years, and not

infrequently at the end of five or six years. When thus grown, it

becomes a rotation plant, though grown in what may be termed long

rotations. But even in the West, where, under irrigation, it may be

grown for a quarter of a century or even for a longer period without

renewal, it may be used when desired in short rotations. In such

situations it grows so readily and becomes established so quickly, that

the fields may be broken with a view to alternate with other crops at

the end of the second year, or of any year subsequently from the sowing

of the seed that may be desired. Alfalfa in these soils will serve even

better than medium red clover in such situations, since while it is

growing, it will produce more hay or soiling food, and consequently

should excel the former in the fertility which it makes available.

East of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio River, alfalfa will

frequently follow cultivated crops, as corn, potatoes and field roots,

and when the fields are broken, it will be followed by crops other than

legumes. On many soils the influence which this crop has on relieving

the surface soil from excessive moisture, through channels opened into

the subsoil by the decaying roots, is so helpful as to considerably

stimulate production in addition to the fertilizing influence which it

exerts directly. Particularly good crops of corn, the small cereal

grains, and even field roots may be grown after alfalfa.

On soils east of the Mississippi and south of the Ohio, the rotation

will be somewhat similar. But on Southern soils alfalfa will frequently

follow immediately crops especially grown to be plowed under as green

manures for the benefit of the alfalfa. These crops include cow peas,

soy beans, crimson clover, and to a limited extent, burr clover. It will

also be followed frequently by crops of cotton and other non-leguminous

plants, the growth of which in the United States is confined to the area

now being considered.

In the area west of the Mississippi and east of the semi-arid region

beside the mountains, alfalfa may follow the small cereal grains, and

may in turn be followed by them and also by millets. It may also follow

and precede corn, or the non-saccharine sorghums, where the climatic

conditions are suitable for growing the latter.

In the irrigated regions of the West, alfalfa may be made to serve

almost any purpose in the rotation that may be desired. By growing it as

a rotation crop in these valleys it may be made to furnish the soil

indefinitely with supplies of nitrogen and humus. In these soils it may

be made to follow directly almost any crop grown on them, and similarly

it may be made to precede the growth of almost any crop for which the

locality has marked adaptation. Small cereal grains, timothy,

vegetables, field roots, potatoes, corn, small fruits and orchards may

be profitably grown on buried alfalfa meadows. This does not imply,

however, that alfalfa meadows should not, as a rule, be maintained for a

long term of years.

=Preparing the Soil.=--In preparing the soil for alfalfa the aim should

be to make a seed-bed clean, rich, fine, moist, even, and sufficiently

firm or friable, according to the conditions. The subsoil should also be

made sufficiently dry and open. From what has just been said, it will be

apparent that in properly preparing the seed-bed, it will be necessary

to study closely the requisite conditions.

The advantage from having a clean seed-bed will be apparent when it is

called to mind that alfalfa is a somewhat delicate plant when young, and

that because of this, it is ill able to overcome in the fight with

weeds. Cleanness in the surface soil may be obtained by summerfallowing

the land, by growing a root crop or a crop of corn or any of the

non-saccharine sorghums. When the seed is spring sown, this preparation

must be given the year previously, but when autumn sown, it may be given

the same season. In preparing the land thus, the aim should be to make

the surface as clean as possible, rather than to get weed seeds out of

the lower strata of the cultivated soil, in which they will likely

perish before the field sown to alfalfa is broken up again.

Summerfallowing makes an excellent preparation for the land, because of

the fine opportunity which it furnishes for cleaning the same perfectly

and leveling it off properly. The excellent condition in which it puts

the seed-bed, viewed from the standpoint of the duration of the years of

cropping that are likely to follow, would seem to more than justify such

preparation of the land. The outcome may more than justify the loss of

the crop for one season when thus summerfallowing the land. But it may

not be necessary to lose the production of one season whether the seed

is sown spring or autumn, as the summerfallowing in the North may follow

the pasturing off of some crop, and in the South the interval for

fallowing the land may be sufficiently long after the harvesting of an

early winter grain crop, before sowing the seed in the autumn. (See page

136.)

When sowing the seed autumn or spring, on land that is filled with weed

seeds near the surface, it is frequently better to defer sowing the seed

for some weeks to give time for sprouting many of these than to sow at

once. This suggestion is specially applicable to spring sowing. It

should also be mentioned that when the weeds infesting the soil are

annual or even biennial in character, the harm done to the alfalfa by

these will be much less than when the land is infested with perennials

at the time of sowing. The former may be prevented from seeding by

clipping back frequently, while the latter remain in the soil, increase

from year to year, and injure the plants by crowding. Where crab grass

grows abundantly, as in some parts of the South, unless the alfalfa is

sown and cultivated, spring sowing ought to be avoided. But it is less

objectionable to sow alfalfa on land that is weedy when the adaptation

of the land for the crop is high than when it is low, as the alfalfa in

the former instance has so much more power to fight its own battle. On

good alfalfa soils, therefore, it may be wiser in some instances to sow

alfalfa in weed-infested land than to defer sowing for a whole year in

order to clean the land.

It is greatly important that the land shall be rich in available plant

food on which the seed is sown. If naturally poor, it should be well

fertilized before sowing. When this cannot be done, it is better not to

sow. A vast preponderance of the land in the Rocky Mountain region, when

first broken, would seem to possess abundantly all the essential foods

required by alfalfa; hence, for a time, at least, it is not necessary to

enrich these before sowing the seed. The sandy and hungry gravelly

soils, which are considerable in the South, in the Atlantic States, and

in some of the Central and Northern States, should be fertilized before

laying them down to alfalfa. Such fertilization usually calls for both

humus and readily available plant food, and these are most cheaply

supplied by growing certain green crops and plowing them under, or by

applying farmyard manure. These may be supplemented when necessary by

commercial fertilizers. Some precede alfalfa on such soils by growing

cow peas or soy beans, followed by crimson clover, both crops being

plowed in, and shortly before sowing the alfalfa they apply more or less

of phosphoric acid and potash, which is usually incorporated in the

surface soil by the harrow. On some soils, as in some parts of Florida,

two successive crops of cow peas should be plowed under before sowing

alfalfa. When farmyard manure can be used in fertilizing those leechy

soils it is well when it can be applied on the surface in a somewhat

decomposed form and also kept near the surface during the subsequent

cultivation given when preparing the seed-bed. In the North it is best

applied in the autumn or winter, and in the South in the summer. But on

loam soils with a reasonably retentive subsoil, the better way to apply

farmyard manure is to make a heavy application of the same to the crop

preceding the alfalfa. It has thus become incorporated with the soil,

and many weed seeds in it will have sprouted before sowing the alfalfa.

The results from applying manure on soil somewhat stiff and not highly

productive have been noticeably marked. This may have been owing in part

to the mechanical influence of the manure on the land. The relation

between the free application of farmyard manure and abundant growth in

alfalfa is so marked in all, or nearly all, soils west of the

Mississippi River that in many instances better crops will be obtained

from poor soils well manured than from good soils unmanured. The

relation between abundant manuring and soil inoculation is worthy of

more careful study, in the judgment of the author, than has yet been

accorded to it.

Fine pulverization of the surface soil is advantageous when sowing

alfalfa, because of the influence which it has upon the retention of

moisture near the surface, and upon the exclusion from the soil of an

overabundance of light. It is in clay soils, of course, that this

condition is most difficult to secure. The agencies in securing it are

the cultivator, the harrow and the roller, and in many instances the

influences of weather, after the land has been plowed, especially when

plowed in the autumn prior to spring seeding.

Moistness in the seed-bed sufficient to promptly sprout the seed is a

prime essential, but it is very much more important where the seasons

are dry than where the lack of rain is but little feared. When the seed

is sown after summerfallow or cultivated crops, it is usually considered

preferable to make the seed-bed without using the plow, but to this

there may be some exceptions. If sowing is deferred for a few weeks in

the spring on such lands, or on other lands autumn plowed or early

spring plowed, a free use of the harrow ought to be made in the

interval, because of the favorable influence which this will have on the

retention of moisture. In preparing some soils for autumn sowing after

a grain crop, as in some parts of Nebraska and Kansas, it is only

necessary to use the harrow; in preparing others the disk and harrow;

and in yet others the disk and harrow and roller. In preparing other

soils, as the clays of the South, it may be necessary first to plow and

subsoil, and subsequently to use sufficiently the harrow and roller.

Evenness in the soil on the surface is important when it is so retentive

that water may collect in the depressions after heavy rain. In such

places the plants are much liable to fail, especially in the early

winter, or even shortly after they may have begun to grow, if moisture

is excessive. In order to smooth and even the land sufficiently, it may

be necessary to run over it some form of leveller. This does not mean,

however, that it will not be necessary sometimes to plow the land in

ridges, or "lands," as they are sometimes called, but it does mean that

the slope from the center of the lands toward the furrows shall be even

and gradual, in order that an excess of surface water, as in rainy

climates, shall be carried away by the latter.

Firmness in the seed-bed is necessary chiefly to prevent too much drying

out near the surface in dry weather, and the holding of too much water

in the spaces between the particles near the surface in wet weather,

followed by freezing of the soil. The less deep the stirring of the

cultivated portion when preparing it, the longer the interval between

such stirring and the sowing of the seed, and the heavier the pressure

when rolling, the more firm will the seed-bed be. The deeper the land

is plowed, therefore, the longer should be the interval before it is

sowed, but ample rainfall will shorten this period. Firmness in the

seed-bed is more important, relatively, in summer or early autumn when

evaporation from the surface soil is the most rapid. On some soils of

the Middle States which border on the Mississippi, the early sown autumn

crop will sometimes perish after the plants have grown some distance

above the ground, because of want of firmness in the soil; hence, in

such locations harrowing the surface of the ground thoroughly may

sometimes be a more suitable preparation than plowing and harrowing.

Friability in the seed-bed is important when the soils are heavy. The

influences which promote it are the presence of humus, liberal

cultivation, and sometimes weather influences, as rain and frost. Unless

heavy clay soils are brought into this condition, the roots of the

alfalfa will not be able to penetrate the soil quickly enough or deeply

enough in search of food.

As has been intimated, it will not avail to sow alfalfa in soils not

sufficiently drained naturally or otherwise. Usually, good alfalfa soils

have sufficient drainage naturally, the subsoil being sufficiently open

to admit of the percolation of water down into the subsoil with

sufficient quickness. But good crops of alfalfa may be grown on subsoils

so retentive that underdrainage is necessary to facilitate the escape of

an excess of moisture with sufficient quickness. The question has been

raised as to whether the roots of the plants will be much liable to

enter and choke the drains at the joints between the tiles. While it

would not be safe to say that this would never happen, it is not likely

to happen, owing to the character of the root growth. Where too much

water is held near the surface, in climates characterized by alternate

freezing and thawing in winter, the young plants will certainly be

thrown out through the heaving of the soil.

The subsoiling of lands not sufficiently open below will be greatly

helpful to the growth of alfalfa. This may also be true of lands not

over-retentive naturally, but made so by the treading of the animals for

successive years on the soil under the furrow when plowing the land. In

some conditions, without subsoiling thus, the growing of alfalfa will

not be successful, but in doing this work, care should be taken not to

bring up raw subsoil to the surface. In subsoiling for alfalfa, usually

the more deeply the ground can be stirred by the subsoiler, the better

will be the results that will follow. Subsoiling is particularly helpful

to the growing of alfalfa on many of the clay soils of the South.

In the far West, toward the mountains, and probably within the same, are

areas in which excellent stands of alfalfa may be obtained by simply

sowing the seed on surfaces stirred with a disk or with a heavy harrow

weighted while it is being driven over the land. The implements should

be driven first one way and then the other, and, of course, the seed is

harrowed after it has been sown. Where the soil is sufficiently level,

this plan of preparing will prove satisfactory, more especially where

water can be put upon the land, but it will also succeed frequently in

the absence of irrigating waters. In some instances the disking and

sowing are both done by the same implement, which is driven both ways

across the field.