It is peculiarly valuable as a fertilizer and as an improver of soils.

In addition to the nitrogen which it draws from the air and deposits in

the soil, it brings up plant food from the subsoil and stores it in the

leaves and stems, so that when fed it can be returned to the land. It

also fills the soil with an abundance of roots and rootlets. These

render stiff soils more friable, and sandy soils less porous; they

increase the power of all soils to hold moisture, and in their decay

yield up a supply of plant food already prepared for the crops that are

next grown upon the ground.

Mammoth clover may also be utilized with advantage in lessening the

numbers of certain noxious weeds, and in some instances of eradicating

them altogether. This it does in some instances by smothering them,

through the rankness of the growth. In other instances it is brought

about through the setback which is given to the weeds by first pasturing

the crop and then cutting it later for seed.

=Distribution.=--Mammoth clover has long been grown in several of the

countries of Europe and Western Asia. It is also grown in certain parts

of Siberia. It was doubtless introduced into the United States from

Europe by emigrants from that continent, but when exactly is not known.

It has probably been many years since its introduction into America, but

it is only within the more recent of the decades that it has attracted

general notice. In some areas in this country it grows with great

luxuriance, fully equaling, if not exceeding, the crops grown in any

part of Europe.

Mammoth clover calls for climatic conditions about the same as those for

medium red clover. (See page 61.) It flourishes best in moist climates

of moderate temperature, and it will endure more drought than the medium

red variety and possibly more cold.

The distribution of mammoth clover covers nearly all the States of the

Union, but as with medium red clover the adaptation for it is relatively

higher in the Northern than in the Southern States of the Union. The

highest adaptation for mammoth clover is probably found in certain parts

of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the northern valleys of the Rocky

Mountain States, the elevated portions of those further south and the

country around Puget Sound. The adaptation is also high in much of New

York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska. In

the Southern States that lie northward, good crops may be grown in some

locations, but not in all. As the semi-arid belt is approached, mammoth

clover will grow further west than the medium red, but in the greater

portion of this region it will not succeed. The adaptation of the North

Atlantic States, including those of New England, is not of a high order,

but rather more so, probably, than for the medium red.

In Canada also the adaptation of medium and mammoth clover is much the

same as for the medium red. In some parts of Ontario, especially Western

Ontario, it grows remarkably well; but in the maritime provinces it does

not grow so well; nor does it thrive in the provinces of the Canadian

Northwest as it does in Ontario.

As with medium red clover, the distribution of this variety has not been

fully determined in either the United States or Canada, more especially

on soils of the prairie, where it does not succeed well at present. It

is probable that under some conditions on these soils, and also in the

South, the absence of the requisite bacteria in the soil may account, in

part, at least, for failure in attempts made to grow it. With the

introduction of these, the area of successful cultivation may be

considerably extended.

=Soils.=--Mammoth clover may usually be successfully grown in soils well

adapted to the growth of the medium red variety. (See page 65.) This

means that it will usually grow with much luxuriance in all areas which

produce hardwood timber, and are usually covered with a clay or muddy

loam soil underlaid with clay. It will also grow with great luxuriance

in the volcanic ash soils of the irrigated valley lands of the Rocky

Mountain States, and in the loam and light loam soils of the Puget

Sound country. It has greater power than the common red variety to grow

in stiff clays, in sandy soils underlaid with clay, and in areas where

moisture is insufficient near the surface soil. In stiff clays the roots

penetrate to a greater distance than those of the medium red variety and

gather more food. Consequently, a stiff clay soil that would only

furnish a light crop of the medium red variety in a dry season may

furnish an excellent crop of the mammoth. The quality of the hay is

likely to be superior to that grown on soils altogether congenial, since

it is not likely to be over-rank or coarse.

On sandy soils underlaid with clay, and especially where the clay is

some distance from the surface, this clover is more certain to make a

stand, since the vigor of the plants enables them to gather food until

the roots go down into the clay.

In areas where the moisture is more or less deficient, the other

conditions being favorable, this clover can send its roots down into the

subsoil, where moisture is more abundant than on the surface. Because of

this power, it is better adapted than the medium red to much of the area

of Southwestern Minnesota, Western Iowa, Western Kansas and Nebraska,

and, in fact, much of the area bordering on the semi-arid country.

On clay soils that are so saturated with water that in the winter or

spring the clover is much liable to heave, there is conflict in opinion

as to whether the mammoth or the common red variety will heave the more

readily, but the preponderance of the evidence favors the view that the

roots of the mammoth variety can better resist such influences than

those of the common red.

This clover, like the common red, is not well adapted to hungry, sandy

soils, to the blow soils of the prairie, to the muck soils of the watery

slough, or to the peaty soils of the drained muskeg.

=Place in the Rotation.=--The place for mammoth clover in the rotation

is much the same as for the medium red variety. (See page 70.) It may,

therefore, be best sown on a clean soil; that is to say, on a soil which

has grown a crop the previous season that has called for clean

cultivation, as, for instance, corn, potatoes, sorghum, or one or the

other of the non-saccharine sorghums, field beans, soy beans, cow peas

and field roots. But it is not so necessary that it shall be made to

follow either kind of beans or cow peas as the other crops named, since

these have already gathered nitrogen, which is more needed by leguminous

crops. This clover should rather be grown in rotations where more

nitrogen is wanted, when the soil will profit by increased supplies of

humus, and where strong plants are wanted, the root growth of which will

have the effect of rendering the cultivated portion of the soil more

friable when stiff and more retentive when sandy, and that will have the

effect of opening up many little channels in the subsoil when the roots

decay, through which an excess of surface water may percolate into the

subsoil. It may precede such crops as revel in humus and that feed

ravenously on nitrogen. These include all the small cereals, corn and

all the sorghums, rape, and all kinds of garden vegetables and

strawberries. It is, of course, better adapted to short than to long

rotations, because of the limited duration of the life of the plants.

The length of the rotation will, of course, depend upon various

contingencies. Frequently, the clover is cropped or pastured but one

season following the year on which the seed was sown, whatsoever the

character of the crops that precede or follow it, but in more instances,

probably, it is used as crop or pasture for two years. When timothy is

sown along with this clover the pasturing or cropping may continue for

one or more seasons longer before the ground is broken, but in such

instances the timothy will have consumed much or all of the nitrogen put

into the soil by the clover, save what has escaped in the drainage

water. One of the best rotations in which to sow mammoth clover, as also

the medium red, is the following: Sow in a nurse crop of rye, wheat,

oats or barley, as the case may be, in order that it may be pastured or

cut for hay the following season, and then follow with a crop of corn or

potatoes. This in turn is followed by one or another of the small

grains. This constitutes a three years' rotation, but in the case of

mammoth clover it is frequently lengthened to four years. The year

following the sowing of the clover, it is cut for hay or for seed, and

the next year it is pastured with or without a top-dressing of farmyard

manure. This rotation meets with considerable favor in certain areas of

Wisconsin, well adapted to the growth of the plant.

=Preparing the Soil.=--The preparation of the soil called for by the

mammoth clover is virtually the same as that required when preparing a

seed-bed for the medium red variety. (See page 74.) Clay loam soils,

whatsoever their color, cannot easily be made too fine and smooth, and

the same is true of sandy loams. Stiff clays should be made so fine as

to contain ample loose mold to germinate the seed readily, and yet they

ought not to be made so fine that they will readily run together under

the influence of a soaking rain. Usually, such soils are seldom made too

fine, but sometimes they are. The aim should be to firm sandy soils,

especially when light enough to lift with the wind, and to leave them

more or less uneven on the surface when the seed is sown.

In many States the ground should be plowed in the fall for spring

sowing, and in yet others it should be plowed in the spring. Conditions

of soil and climate govern this feature of the work. Usually, however,

the longer the soil is plowed and then properly worked on the surface

before receiving the seed, the finer, cleaner, firmer and moister it is

likely to be, and the larger the store of the available fertility to

promote the growth of the young plants. Because of this, after

cultivated crops, the ground is not usually plowed or otherwise stirred

on the surface.

When the soil is low in fertility, it may be necessary to fertilize it

before a crop of mammoth clover can be successfully grown. For such

fertilization, farmyard manure is very suitable. When soils are low in

the content of humus, before a good crop of clover can be grown, it may

be necessary to supply humus. But few soils are so deficient in

fertility that they will not grow clover if supplied with humus.

Farmyard manure supplies both humus and fertility, but in its absence, a

crop of rye buried in the soil will insure a stand of clover. In other

instances it may be necessary to follow with some kind of a crop that

has much power to gather plant food, as corn of some hardy variety, and

to graze or otherwise feed it from the land.

=Sowing.=--Much of what has been said about the sowing of medium red

clover will apply also to the sowing of mammoth clover. East of the

Mississippi and north of the Potomac and Ohio rivers, mammoth clover is

usually sown in the spring, and for the reason that the young plants are

frequently killed by the severity of the winter weather when sown in the

autumn. But when sown at that season, the seed being mixed with winter

rye and being deposited by the drill as early as September 1st, the

plants frequently survive the winter as far north as Marquette County in

Wisconsin. The rye in the line of the drill marks provides a sufficient

protection for the clover. But this only occurs where the conditions are

eminently favorable to the growth of the clover. Around Puget Sound it

may also be sown with advantage in the early autumn, as then it should

produce a full crop the next season, and the same is true of nearly all

the Rocky Mountain valley region, but in these areas it may also be sown

in the spring. Between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains and

Oklahoma and Canada, spring sowing is usually preferable, and in much of

the area is an absolute necessity to insure a stand. In the South the

seed may be sown fall or spring; which season is to be preferred should

be determined chiefly by the character of the soil. On soil much given

to heaving in the winter it is usually preferable to sow in the spring.

In all, or nearly all, parts of Canada spring sowing only is admissible.

When the seed is sown in the early spring, it should usually be sown

quite early, as early, in fact, as the ground is in condition to receive

the seed when the nurse crop has been sown the previous autumn. When the

ground is smooth and impacted on the surface, it is considered

preferable to defer sowing until the ground is dry enough to admit of

covering the seed with the harrow. When deposited at the same time as

spring-sown nurse crops, and with these, the time of sowing will be

determined by the most suitable time for sowing the nurse crop. This

plant may be sown under certain conditions as late in the spring as

moisture exists in the soil sufficient to produce vigorous germination

in the seed. This means that it may be sown as late as June, if sown

alone, and even later. When sown thus late it should be on soil that has

been well cleaned near the surface. When sown in the autumn, as with

medium red clover, the aim should be to put the seed in as early as the

arrival of the autumn rains, that the plants may be well rooted before

the arrival of freezing weather.

Ordinarily, mammoth clover, like the medium red, is sown with a nurse

crop, whether sown fall or spring. (See page 84.) The nurse crops in the

North include winter rye, winter wheat, barley, spring wheat and oats,

suitable, probably, in the order named, also such pasture crops as rape,

vetches, and various mixtures of grain sown on certain soils to provide

pasture for cattle, sheep or swine. The best nurse crops in the South

include winter rye, winter barley and winter oats, even though the seed

should not be sown on them until the spring. On certain sandy loam soils

a stand of mammoth clover is more assured if sown with a pasture crop

than if sown with a grain crop which is to mature. (See page 82.) Under

certain conditions of soil and climate, this crop may be sown on plowed

or disked land in certain of the States, after a crop of grain, and in

other instances by sowing amid the stubbles and covering with the

harrow. But there is more of hazard in growing thus than by other

methods. Sometimes this clover is sown amid standing corn, at the last

cultivation, but too much shade or too little moisture may cause only

partial success, or even failure, whereas at other times the plan may

succeed.

The modes of sowing the clover are virtually the same as those to be

followed in sowing medium red clover. (See page 78.) It will be sown by

hand, by hand machines, and by the grain drill, with or without

attachments. The seed of this variety, however, will, on the whole, be

more frequently mixed in with the grain than the seed of the medium red

clover, because of the stronger growth that it makes. This will

frequently be found the preferable mode of sowing it when sown in the

autumn.

When sown to provide hay, mammoth clover and timothy make an excellent

combination for the reasons, first, that they mature about the same

time; second, that more of this clover is likely to survive the first

year of cutting than of the common red; and third, that more food, it is

believed, will be furnished to the timothy in the dead roots of this

clover than of the medium red. The first year of cutting, the hay crop

is likely to be nearly all clover; the second year, clover and timothy

mixed, and the third year, timothy. But if alsike is sown in the

mixture, though it may be little in evidence the first year, it will

show itself the second year and probably the third year. When sown for

pasture in short rotations, this clover may be sown alone or with other

varieties of clover, timothy or tall oat grass being added. When sown

for seed, it is probably better to sow it alone, but there is no very

strong objection to sowing timothy alone with the clover, since the

latter may aid in sustaining the clover, and it is not difficult to

separate mammoth clover seed and timothy seed.

When mammoth clover is sown alone for hay or for seed, not fewer than 12

pounds per acre of seed should be used. When sown with timothy, 6 and 8

pounds, respectively, would be an average seeding. If alsike clover is

added, the seed of the mammoth may be reduced by one pound, and the same

amount of alsike added to the mixture. When sown with the medium red

variety to provide short rotation pastures, about 6 pounds of each may

be sown. The pasture furnished will be more continuous than where only

one kind is sown. If timothy or tall oat grass is added, a pound of one

or the other of these should be added for every pound of the clover

withheld from the mixture. For permanent pastures 6 pounds of the

mammoth clover may be set down as the maximum to sow per acre, varying

the quantity with varying conditions. And when the clover is sown with

small grain to be plowed under in the fall or early in the spring,

usually only very moderate amounts of seed ought to be used, especially

where the hazard is considerable that the dry weather may cause failure

in the catch of the seed.

=Pasturing.=--Mammoth clover furnishes much pasture when it is grazed,

on into July and sometimes even into August, because of the vigorous

character of the growth, but after that season the growth is usually

light. Nor is there generally much growth after the crop has been cut

for hay. The palatability of the pasture is much the same as that of the

medium red variety. More grazing is furnished where the crop is fairly

well grown before the pasturing begins, but it is not so palatable, and

when unduly rank, to defer pasturing thus long would result in a

considerable waste of pasture, which the stock would tread under foot.

When the crop is wanted for hay, there may be instances in which it may

be advantageous to pasture it for a time to prevent the growth from

becoming overly luxuriant. There have been instances in which the

clover has grown so rankly that the lodged clover killed nearly all the

plants by excluding the air from the roots. When grown on soils that in

a normal season produce a rank growth, the quality of the hay will, in

nearly all instances, be improved by grazing. This, however, should be

done soon after the growth begins and should not be long continued, and

it should be close, in order to promote evenness and uniformity in the

growth of the hay crop.

When grown for seed, mammoth clover is quite frequently pastured. In

fact, in a majority of instances it is either pastured or cut with the

mower when a seed crop is wanted. The pasturing usually continues until

June 1st, but in some instances it is prolonged far on into June. The

duration of the pasturing season should be gauged largely by the

character of the soil and weather. The better the conditions for growth

in the plants, the longer may the pasturing be continued, and _vice

versa_. There are also conditions in which such pasturing may not be

necessary. But when the grazing is not close, the mower should be run

over the field, otherwise the seeds will not ripen evenly.

There is the same danger from bloating that is present when pasturing

medium red clover. (See page 94.) To avoid this danger, cattle that are

being thus pastured are in some instances given access to cured clover

hay. In other instances the haulm of the seed is left in the field so

that the cattle have access to it. But the second season of grazing, the

danger from bloat is not so great as the first season, as usually more

of other pasture plants grow amid the clover.

Horses, cattle, sheep or swine may be used in grazing off the clover for

seed. All of these may be used at the same time. Horses bite the crowns

of the plants so closely as to somewhat injure subsequent growth; sheep

also crop rather closely; cattle do not crop the plants so closely;

consequently, they are so far preferable to horses or sheep for such

grazing. On the other hand, sheep will prove far more destructive to

weed growth in the pasture.

=Harvesting for Hay.=--Ordinarily, the methods of making the hay crop

are the same as those followed in curing medium red clover. The mammoth

variety, however, frequently requires a longer season in which to cure,

owing, first, to the heavier character of the growth, and second, to the

larger stems of the latter. After it has been mown there is greater

reason for using the tedder in getting it ready for being raked, and it

calls for more curing before it is put into cocks. The larger the

proportion of the timothy in the crop, the more easily it is cured. It

is ready for cutting when in full bloom, and loses more than the medium

red when cutting is too long deferred, because of the larger proportion

of coarse stems in the crop. It is also relatively more injured by rain

in the cocks, since it sheds rain even less readily than the medium red

clover, and the same is true of it in the stack.

Some farmers cure mammoth clover in its green form in the mow as they

also cure the medium red variety, but the same objections apply to

curing it thus that apply to the similar curing of the medium red. (See

page 102.) Others cure it in the mow by storing good bright straw,

preferably oat straw, in alternate layers along with the clover. From

one-third to one-half the quantity of the straw as compared with the hay

will suffice for such curing, varying with the degree of the wilting in

the hay. Clover cut in the morning after the dew has lifted may be thus

stored the same day. Where the facilities are present such a method of

curing mammoth clover may be eminently wise in showery weather. The

natural color of the hay and blossoms is thus preserved and the straw is

eaten with avidity, because of what it has imbibed from the clover.

=Securing Seed.=--It has been already intimated more seed will be

obtained when the clover has been pastured or cut back with the mower.

(See page 233.) When the mower is used, it should not be set to cut

quite low, or the subsequent growth will not be so vigorous as it would

otherwise be. The state of growth at which the clover ought to be cut

will be influenced by the luxuriance of the growth, but ordinarily

clover seed should not be more than 6 to 8 inches high when the mower is

used. What is thus cut by the mower is left on the ground as a mulch.

Mowing the crop thus will also be helpful in destroying weeds, but some

weeds will sprout again and mature seed as quickly as the clover.

When mammoth clover is neither pastured nor mown early in the season,

when grown for seed some kinds of weeds may be prevented from going to

seed in it by cutting them off with the scythe. When not too plentiful

they may be removed with the spud. Among the more troublesome weeds that

infest mammoth clover are the Canada thistle (_Cirsium arvense_), the

plantain (_Plantago lanceolata_), and in some instances the horse nettle

(_Solanum Carolinense_) and spring nightshade (_Solanum_).

The yields of the clover seed will be much influenced by the character

of the weather. Excessive rankness in the crop and excessive rainfall

during the blossoming season are adverse to abundant seed production.

But the seed crop is more injured by drought than by too much rain. When

injured by drought the growth will not be sufficiently strong, or, if it

is, the blossoms will be of a pale red tint. Warm winds while the seed

is forming are also adverse to seed production, since they cause the

crop to mature too quickly. Some experience will enable the capable

observer to forecast with no little certainty the probable yield of the

seed. If the indications point to a yield of seed less than 2 bushels

per acre, it is deemed more profitable, as a rule, to cut the crop for

hay. Large heads of a rich dark purple shade accompanied by vigor in the

entire plant are indicative of abundant seed production.

The crop is ready for being harvested when a majority of the heads have

ripened so far that the bloom on them is all gone and the shade of color

in the head has not yet become brown. If left until a majority of the

heads are brown many of them will break off while being harvested. The

crop is usually cut with a self-rake reaper, but it may be cut with a

mower. When cut by either method the sheaves should be made small, so

that they will dry out quickly.

It is important that the crop shall be threshed before it is rained on,

as one thorough wetting will so far bedim the attractive brightness as

compared with seed that has not been rained on that it will considerably

discount the price that would otherwise be obtained for it. It is

usually threshed with a huller, but may also be threshed like the medium

red variety by a grain separator with a suitable attachment.

The yields of the seed vary much. Instances are on record where as much

as 11 or 12 bushels per acre have been reaped, but ordinarily even on

good producing soils the yields are not more than 4 to 5 bushels per

acre, and under ordinary conditions for the production of mammoth clover

they are even less than the amount named. Notwithstanding the greater

strength of the plants, the seeds are apparently no larger than those of

the medium red variety, nor can they be distinguished from them unless

by an expert.

=Renewing.=--Much that has been said with reference to the renewing of

medium red clover will apply equally to the renewing of the mammoth.

(See page 109.) Where seed crops are much grown, the soil becomes so

impregnated with the seed that more or less of the plants will appear

any season. Renewal in the South is more important, relatively, than in

the North, as under some conditions the plants survive for a longer

period in Southern soils.

=Compared with Medium Red Clover.=--1. The mammoth is larger and coarser

than the medium red and is considerably less erect in its habit of

growth. It has larger and longer roots; hence, it goes down more deeply

into the subsoil in search of food.

2. It is, on the whole, longer lived than the medium red variety and has

greater power to grow in a sandy soil and under conditions in which

moisture is not plentiful.

3. It provides more pasture than the medium red variety during the early

part of the season, but not so much after harvest, the season of growth

being less continuous then than with the former.

4. The hay which it furnishes is usually considerably more bulky and

coarse, and because of this it is not so highly prized by stock.

5. It blooms about three weeks later than the medium red variety and

remains a little longer in bloom and seeds more freely, but can only be

cut once in a season.

6. It furnishes more green food for plowing under than the medium red;

hence, it is, on the whole, a better improver of the soil.

CHAPTER VII

CRIMSON CLOVER

Crimson Clover (_Trifolium incarnatum_) is also known by the names

French, German, German Mammoth, Italian, Egyptian and Carnation clover.

In America it is common in certain areas to speak of it as winter

clover, from the greater powers of growth which it possesses at that

season as compared with other clovers.

The plants have an erect habit of growth, and yet they are soft and

hairy, and they have much power to stool. More than 100 stems have been

produced by one plant, but under conditions the most favorable. The

leaves are numerous. The heads are oblong, cylindrical, and considerably

cone-shaped, and are from 1 to 2 inches long, and much larger than those

of medium red clover. The bloom is scarlet or crimson and of the richest

dye; hence, a more beautiful sight is seldom seen than that of a

vigorous crop of crimson clover in full bloom. The average height of the

plants may be put at about 18 inches, but they have been grown to the

height of 3 and even 4 feet. The root growth is fully twice that of the

stems. The roots are strong, go down straight into the soil, and are to

some extent branched.

Crimson clover is an annual, although usually the growth covers a part

of two years. Sown in the summer or early autumn, growth is completed

by the advent of the following summer. It is, therefore, pre-eminently a

catch crop, and because of this, when conditions admit of it, serves a

purpose in American agriculture, which can be served by none of the

other varieties of clover that are now grown. It has much power to grow

in cool weather, when the clovers are practically dormant. It does not

cease to grow until the ground has become frozen, and as soon as the

frost leaves the soil growth begins at once; hence, the greater relative

value this plant has for areas in which the winters are mild.

[Illustration: Fig. 6. Crimson Clover (_Trifolium incarnatum_)

Tennessee Experiment Station]

Crimson clover is much relished by farm animals, whether used as

pasture, soiling food, silage or hay. Under some conditions it may be

pastured autumn and spring, and even through much of the winter. As a

soiling plant, its value is high, not only because it is a legume, but

because it comes in season at a time when it may be fed with winter rye

used as soiling. But the period is short during which it furnishes

soiling food. Its value as hay will always be lessened by the difficulty

in curing it so early in the season, and because of the danger from

feeding it to horses when cut at a too advanced stage of growth. It is

much in favor for furnishing chicken pasture in winter.

As a catch crop crimson clover may be made to do duty in seasons in

which other clover crops may have failed. As a cover crop or a mulch for

orchards, it is in high favor, as the growth which it produces protects

the roots of the same. But its greatest use lies in the beneficial

influence which it exerts upon soils by enriching them and also

improving their mechanical condition. It is likely, therefore, to be

grown more for this purpose than for any other. While growing it in many

instances will not render unnecessary the use of commercial fertilizers,

it will greatly reduce the quantity of these that would otherwise be

necessary. Owing to the season at which it is grown, it will be found

quite helpful in destroying weeds.

The behavior of crimson clover has thus far been somewhat erratic, even

in areas where the conditions are looked upon as generally favorable to

its growth. The opinions of practical men differ much with reference to

its value. There have been many instances of success and failure in the

same locality, and even in the experience of the same individual. These

varied experiences are doubtless due in a considerable degree to a

difference in seasons, to want of acclimation in the seed sown, to a

difference in varieties and to want of knowledge on the part of the

growers, whose work, heretofore, has been largely tentative. Five

different varieties have been grown, and these have not shown equal

degrees of hardiness. But the rapidly increasing sales of seed point to

the conclusion that larger areas are being sown every year. The increase

referred to may be expected to grow greater for many years to come;

since, when the needs of the plant are better understood, the failures

will be fewer.

=Distribution.=--Crimson clover is probably indigenous to certain parts

of Europe, especially to the countries that lie southwest and south. It

has been grown to a considerable extent in France, Germany and Italy.

The name Egyptian would seem also to imply that it is grown in Egypt. It

is not grown to any considerable extent north and west in Europe, owing,

probably, to the too severe conditions of climate which characterize

these. It is not indigenous to America, but was probably introduced from

Europe two or three decades ago. Its late introduction accounts for the

fact that its adaptation in some parts of the United States is as yet

controverted.

This plant needs a climate rather mild and decidedly moist. It cannot

withstand severe freezing when the ground is bare; hence, its uniformly

successful growth cannot be relied on very far north of the Ohio and

Potomac rivers. True, in certain winters of much snowfall it has come

through in good form considerably north of the rivers mentioned, but in

more instances it has failed. On the other hand, while it grows best in

warm climates, the growth in these is made chiefly when the weather is

cool, as in the autumn and spring, and in some instances in the winter.

It would be about correct to say that the climatic adaptation of this

plant is nearly the same as that of the peach. Climates too cold for

fruitage in the latter would be too cold for the uniformly safe

wintering of crimson clover. It would also seem correct to state that on

suitable soils and with sufficient precipitation, this clover will do

best in the United States when the climate is too warm for the medium

red clover to grow at its best. In the United States, soil and climatic

conditions taken together, would probably give Delaware, New Jersey,

Maryland, Virginia and Tennessee highest adaptation for the growth of

this plant. Taking in a wide area, highest adaptation would lie in the

States south of the Potomac and Ohio rivers and east of the Mississippi.

Washington and Oregon, west to the Cascade Mountains, would probably

furnish exceptions, but in these the necessity for growing crimson

clover is not likely to be so great as in the area just referred to,

owing to the ease with which other varieties of clover may be grown. In

some parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan many farmers

have succeeded well in growing crimson clover, but a larger number have

failed. The failures have arisen largely through dry weather in the

autumn, want of plant food in the soil and the severity of the winter

weather. Westward from these States to the Mississippi, the adaptation

is still lower, and the same is true of the New England States. In fact,

it is so low in these that it is far more likely that it will fail than

that it will succeed. Between the Mississippi and the Cascade Mountains,

crimson clover is not likely to be much grown. It will not grow well in

any part of the semi-arid belt. In the mountain valleys it would

probably succeed, but in these alfalfa and some other varieties of

clover will give far better returns.

Crimson clover will not grow well in any part of Canada, except in that

narrow strip of land between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific. The

winter climate is too cold for it. Some crops have been grown

successfully in the peach-producing areas of Ontario contiguous to Lakes

Erie and Ontario, but even in these it is an uncertain crop. The attempt

has been made to grow it in some of the provinces of Canada, and in

several of the States, by sowing the seed in the spring. Some fairly

good crops have been thus obtained, but usually not so good as can be

grown by sowing certain other varieties of clover at the same season. It

is but reasonable to expect, however, that adaptation in growing crimson

clover will widen with the acclimation of the plant, and with increasing

knowledge as to its needs on the part of those who grow it.

=Soils.=--Crimson clover though usually grown for the enrichment of

soils will not, as a rule, make satisfactory growth on soils very low in

the elements of fertility, whatsoever may be their composition or

texture. On orchard lands liberally fertilized, in the Middle Atlantic

States, excellent crops have been obtained, whereas on adjacent soils

precisely similar they have failed. In the Southern States, however,

better results, relatively, will be obtained from sowing this clover on

comparatively infertile lands, owing to the longer season which it has

for continuous growth. Where the winters are possessed of considerable

severity and when the protection of snow is more or less wanting, unless

the plants are strong when they enter the winter, they are almost

certain to perish. Loam soils with reasonably porous subsoils are best

adapted to its growth. Of these, sandy loams have a higher adaptation

than clay loams, when equal to the former in fertility, as in the latter

the plants can more quickly gather the needed food supplies, since the

roots and rootlets can penetrate them more readily. Such soils are well

adapted to the growth of orchards, especially peach orchards, and it is

in such areas that crimson clover has been grown with highest success.

In the alfalfa soils of the Rocky Mountain valleys it should also grow

well, but on these it would be less profitable to grow than alfalfa,

because of the permanency of the alfalfa. Even on sandy soils a good

growth will be obtained when these have been fertilized and sufficient

moisture is present. On stiff clays the growth is too slow to produce

crops highly satisfactory either North or South, and in dry weather it

is also difficult to obtain a stand of the plants. The alluvial soils of

river bottoms in the South produce good crops. The vegetable soils of

the prairie do not grow the plants very well, and the adaptation in

slough or swamp soils is even lower. Good crops will not be obtained on

soils underlaid with hardpan which comes up near the surface, whatsoever

the nature of the top soil may be, since the roots cannot penetrate

these.

=Place in the Rotation.=--It cannot be said of crimson clover, in the

ordinary usage of the word, that it is a rotation plant. It has probably

no fixed place in any regular rotation, and yet it can be used almost

anywhere in the rotation that may be desired, and in any rotation

whether long or short, regular or irregular. As previously intimated, it

is usually grown as a catch crop, and primarily to fertilize the land;

and since its growth is chiefly or entirely made in the late summer,

autumn, winter and early spring, that is to say, when the land is not

otherwise occupied, the only hindrances to using it anywhere in the

rotation are such as arise from the nature of the weather, the

mechanical condition of the land and the needs of the crops that are to

follow. For instance, at the usual season for sowing it, the weather may

be so dry as to preclude the hope of successful germination in the seed.

This influence may also make it impossible to bring the land into that

mechanical condition which makes a good seed-bed without undue labor,

and ordinarily it would not be necessary to have crimson clover precede

another leguminous crop; since the latter, under many conditions, can

secure its own supply of nitrogen. To this there may be some exceptions.

There may be instances, as on light, porous and leechy soils, when it

might be proper to grow crimson clover as an aid in securing a stand of

the medium red variety, or in growing a crop of peas for the summer

market. Ordinarily, however, this crop is grown to increase the supply

of plant food in the soil for crops which require nitrogen, and to give

soils more or less porous, increased power to hold moisture and applied

fertilizers. It is probably seldom grown to improve the mechanical

condition of stiff soils, since on these it grows slowly. Some other

plants can do this more effectively. It is pre-eminently the catch crop

for the orchardist and the market gardener, and yet it may be made the

catch crop also of the farmer, under certain conditions.

Crimson clover may be made to follow any crop, but it is seldom

necessary to have it follow another leguminous crop which has brought

nitrogen to the soil. Nor is it usually sown after a grass crop which

has brought humus to the land. It is frequently sown after small cereal

grain crops that have been harvested. It may be made to follow any of

these. Sometimes it is sown in standing corn. But oftener than anywhere

else probably, it is sown in orchards and on soils from which early

potatoes and garden vegetables have been removed.

It is peculiarly fitted for being grown in orchards. In these it may be

grown from year to year. It may be thus grown not only to gather

nitrogen for the trees, but to make them more clean than they would

otherwise be when the fruit is being gathered, to protect the roots of

the trees in winter and to aid in the retention of moisture when plowed

under. But this plant may also, with peculiar fitness, be made to

precede late garden crops. It may be plowed under sufficiently early to

admit of this, and when so buried it aids in making a fine seed-bed,

since the roots promote friability in the land. When grown under what

may be termed strictly farm conditions, it usually precedes a cultivated

crop, as potatoes, corn, or one of the sorghums. It is equally suitable

in fitting the soil for the growth of vine crops, such as melons,

squashes and pumpkins.

But in some localities this crop may be grown so as to break down the

lines of old-time rotations, since in some instances it may be

successfully grown from year to year for several years without change.

Potatoes and sweet corn, for instance, may be thus grown.

=Preparing the Soil.=--In preparing the seed-bed for crimson clover, the

aim should be to secure fineness of pulverization near the surface and

moistness in the same. The former is greatly important, because of the

aid which it renders in securing the latter at a season when moisture is

often lacking in the soil. As it is rather grown on soils deficient in

humus than on those plentifully supplied with the same, fineness in the

seed-bed is not so important as it is with some classes of prairie

soils.

In starting the seed, drought is the chief hindrance to be overcome in

the North, owing to the season at which the seed must be sown; hence,

the aim should be to begin preparing the seed-bed as long as possible

before the sowing of the seed. The preparation called for will be

influenced by the kind of soil, the crop last grown upon it and also the

weather; hence, the process of preparing the seed-bed will vary. The

judgment must determine whether the land should be plowed, or disked and

pulverized, or simply harrowed. After potatoes and other garden crops,

harrowing may suffice; after certain grain crops on soils not too stiff,

disking may suffice; but where much trash is to be buried, plowing would

be necessary, and when the ground is at all cloddy, the roller should be

freely used. In corn fields the last cultivation will make a suitable

seed-bed, and the same is sometimes true in cotton fields.

To grow good crops of crimson clover, it is necessary that there shall

be a considerable amount of plant food in the soil that is readily

available. Farmyard manure when it can be spared or secured will supply

the need. But the results will probably be more satisfactory where the

manure has been applied to the previous crop, as, for instance, to

potatoes or corn, and for the reason, probably, that in the relatively

dry season at which the seed of this plant is sown, the residue of the

manure still in the soil is more readily available than freshly applied

manure would be. Good crops have been grown on land thus manured, when

at the same time seed sown on land under similar conditions and similar

in other respects failed to give satisfactory yields.

In a majority of instances farmyard manure cannot be spared for such a

use. When it cannot, if necessary, commercial fertilizers may be

applied. Those rich in phosphoric acid and potash are usually most

needed, but sometimes nitrogen also is necessary. When nitrogen is used,

it may be best applied on the growing crop and while it is young.

Phosphoric acid and potash may be fitly applied when the land is being

prepared, and in a way that will incorporate them with the surface soil.

These may be used in the form of wood ashes, bone meal, Thomas' slag,

Kainit, sulphate or muriate of potash, South Carolina rock and acid

phosphate. Acid phosphate and muriate of potash stand high in favor with

some growers when applied in the proportions of 9 and 1 parts and at the

rate of, say, 200 pounds more or less per acre.

=Sowing.=--The date for sowing crimson clover would seem to depend more

upon latitude than upon any other influence. North of the Ohio River it

should seldom be sown later than September 1st, lest the growth of the

plants should not be strong enough to endure the winter weather. Nor

should it be sown earlier than July 1st, lest the plants should reach

the blooming stage without having made a sufficient growth, an objection

which applies to sowing earlier than July 1st in any part of the United

States. All things considered, August is the most favorable month for

sowing the seed north of the Ohio and Potomac rivers. In the South,

sowing at a later period is preferable. In the latitude of Tennessee,

September would usually prove more suitable for sowing than an earlier

date, and near the Gulf, October. But it may be sown earlier and later

in these respective latitudes. It is a good time to sow the seed in much

of the South when the autumn rains begin to come, and the same is true

of the Puget Sound country.

The seed may be sown by hand, by the aid of hand machines, by some makes

of grain drills in the same way as grain is sown, and by others with a

grass-seeder attachment. When sown by the latter, the seed should

usually be allowed to fall before the grain tubes to aid in securing a

covering for it; the covering thus provided should be supplemented by

additional harrowing and in some instances rolling. When sown by hand or

by hand machines on soils East and South, the roller should in many

instances follow and then the harrow, but on cloddy surfaces the harrow

should be used first and then the roller. No method of sowing the seed

is more satisfactory than that which sows it by grain drills, which can

deposit it in the soil as grain is sown, as it is then buried at an even

depth. Sowing to a medium depth, say, 1/2 to 1-1/2 inches, is preferable

to either extreme.

Whether it is advisable to sow a nurse crop will depend upon conditions.

When the seed is sown early, in hot weather the young plants are helped

by more or less of shade. Such shade is usually provided by the other

factor or factors of the mixture. But when shade only is wanted from the

nurse crop, a thin seeding of buckwheat has been found to answer. Melons

and tomatoes have in some instances furnished shade satisfactorily, and

in others upright growing varieties of cow peas or soy beans. The less

complete the preparation of the seed-bed, the greater also is the

necessity for shade. In orchards the shade of the trees is usually

ample, and in some instances excessive. The same is true of vigorous

corn and cotton crops.

Whether this clover should be sown alone or in mixtures will also depend

upon conditions. If the crop is wanted solely for the enrichment of the

land, it will usually be better to sow it alone, as crops other than

legumes do not bring as much fertility to the land. As a rule,

therefore, it should be sown alone in orchards. It should also, usually,

be sown alone for soiling crops and for hay, but in some instances for

both uses it may be sown with such crops as winter oats or winter

vetches. On some soils, however, these will too much crowd the clover

plants. On others the reverse will be true. For seed the crop should, of

course, always be sown alone.

For pasture, crimson clover is sometimes sown with rape, winter rye,

winter oats, the common vetch or the sand vetch. When sown with rape,

the date of the sowing should be early. With the other crops named the

most suitable date for sowing the clover will usually prove the most

suitable also for sowing these.

When sown alone, from 10 to 20 pounds of seed are used per acre. With

all the conditions favorable, 12 to 15 pounds should suffice. When sown

with rape for pasture, 3 pounds of rape and 10 of the clover, or even a

less quantity, should be enough. When sown with winter rye or winter

oats, about 1 bushel of each and 10 pounds of clover should suffice, and

when sown with the common or the sand vetch, 1/2 bushel of either and 10

pounds of the clover should be enough. When sown in the chaff, from 2 to

3 bushels ought to suffice, but the amount required will be much

affected by the character of the seed crop.

=Pasturing.=--Crimson clover may be pastured in the autumn or in the

spring or at both seasons, either when sown alone, or in conjunction

with some other pasture crops, as winter rye, oats, barley or vetches.

But it is not probable that it will ever become so popular as some other

pasture plants that grow during the same seasons of the year; since,

first, when it is grown, it is usually wanted for green manure; second,

it does not under some conditions grow satisfactorily with other crops;

and third, when grazed down in the autumn the covering thus removed

renders the plants much more liable to perish in the winter. When,

however, it is sown early in the season, as in July, along with Dwarf

Essex rape, or even alone, much grazing may be furnished, even though

the clover should not survive the winter.

It may be grazed by horses, mules, cattle, sheep or swine, but when

grazed with cattle and sheep, it is probable that some danger from hoven

or bloat will be present, as when grazing other kinds of clover. (See

page 94.) This danger, however, will be lessened, if not entirely

removed, when nurse crops are grown with the clover, except in the case

of rape. The grazing should not begin when the plants are small, lest

the growth should be too much hindered at a season when growth is

critical.

=Harvesting for Hay.=--Crimson clover is ready to be cut for hay when

coming into, and a little before it is in, fullest bloom. Some

authorities claim that it should be harvested when the blooms begin to

appear. It should certainly not be allowed to pass the stage of full

bloom, lest the hay when cured should prove hurtful to horses and

possibly to other live stock, because of the presence of hair balls,

which are then liable to form from the hairs so numerously found on this

plant. These balls produce death by forming an impermeable wedge in the

intestines of horses, thereby impeding and in some instances totally

arresting the process of digestion. These balls, almost circular in

form, are composed of minute and rather stiff hairs, and several have

been found in one animal. These hairs, numerous on the heads; do not

stiffen sooner than the period of full bloom; hence, until that stage is

reached in the growth of the plants, the danger from feeding cured hay

made from them does not occur.

In New Jersey and the neighboring States, crimson clover is ready for

being cut sometimes in May earlier or later, as the season is early or

late. Further South it is fit to harvest earlier. At that season it is

not easily cured, since then rains are more frequent than in the

ordinary harvest season and the weather is less drying. Consequently,

hay caps may frequently be used with much advantage by the growers of

this hay. (See page 98.)

It is harvested as other clover; that is, it is cut with the field

mower, raked when wilted, put up into cocks, and left to stand in these

until it has gone through the sweating process, when the cocks are

opened out again on a bright day for a few hours prior to drawing them.

The tedder should be used freely in getting the hay ready to rake, as at

that season of the year it dries slowly.

=Securing Seed.=--Crimson clover does not ripen quite so quickly after

flowering as common red clover, owing, in part, at least, to the less

intense character of the heat and drying influences at the season when

it matures. Nevertheless, when it is ripe, unless it is cut with much

promptness, the seed will shed much from the heads, and the heads will

break off much during the curing process. If cut even two or three days

too soon, the seeds will not be large and plump. Moreover, showery or

muggy weather will soon greatly injure the crop. One or two days of such

weather after the crop has been cut will stain the seed; two or three

days of the same will cause much of the seed to sprout, and three or

four days will practically ruin the crop.

Because of the ease with which the seed sheds off the heads, it is

better to cut the seed crop while it is a little damp, or at least to

refrain from cutting during the greatest heat of the day. In some

instances it is cut with the mower and raked early or late in the day,

put up in small cocks and threshed from these in four or five days after

being cut. But this method of harvesting, however carefully done, is

attended with much loss of seed. It is better to harvest with the

self-rake reaper, the rakes being so adjusted that the hay will be

dropped off in small gavels or sheaves, so small that in two or three

days they may be lifted without being turned over; Much care should be

exercised in lifting the sheaves to avoid shedding in the seed, and it

should be drawn on wagons with tight racks.

While it is not absolutely necessary to thresh the seed crop at once,

the work can usually be done at that time with less outlay and with less

loss of seed. It is threshed with a huller or with a grain separator

with suitable attachments. Some attention must be given to the

arrangement of the teeth used in the machine, lest many of the seeds,

which are large; should be split; and as it is not easy to separate the

seeds from the haulms, specially made riddles and sieves must needs be

used.

The seed crop is usually harvested in June north of the Ohio and Potomac

rivers, and southward from these in the month of May. The yield of seed

runs all the way from 10 bushels per acre downwards. The average crop is

4 to 5 bushels.

=Renewing.=--Since crimson clover is an annual, but little can be done

in the sense of renewing it on the same land without breaking the

ground. But in orchards, it is sometimes grown from year to year by what

may be termed a process of self-seeding. When the seed is not quite ripe

in the heads, or even somewhat earlier, the orchard is plowed so as to

leave some of the heads standing up along the line of the furrow. When

these have matured, the land is harrowed, which scatters the seeds in

the chaff, and from these another crop is produced. But to this plan

there is the objection that it allows the clover to draw too heavily on

the moisture in the soil before it is plowed under.

=Facts Regarding Crimson Clover.=--1. When crimson clover is sown so

early in the season that it has at least three to four months in which

to grow before winter sets in, the benefits to the land from sowing the

seed will usually more than pay for the seed and labor, even though it

should not survive the winter.

2. Prominent among the causes of failure where crimson clover does not

succeed are: (_a_) The seed fails to germinate because of the want of

moisture, or having germinated the young plants are killed by heat or

drought; (_b_) they perish in the winter from exposure to cold winds or

frosts, or by alternate freezing and thawing in the soil; or (_c_) the

land is too low in fertility to produce a sufficiently vigorous growth

in the plants.

3. The mechanical effects upon the soil from growing crimson clover on

it are very marked, especially when it inclines to stiffness, owing to

the strong development of the root growth.

4. When crimson clover has been sown in the spring, a reasonably good

growth is usually obtained before midsummer, even as far north as the

Canadian boundary line, but since hot weather checks further growth and

frequently causes wilting in the plants, this variety is not equal to

some of the other varieties of clover for being sown at that season.

5. In the Southern States, crimson clover has been found to render

considerable service by aiding in preventing land from washing in the

winter season.

6. When plowed under in orchards, the work should be done at an early

rather than a late stage in the growth of the plants, lest it should rob

the trees of their rightful share of the moisture. Because of this, in

some instances, if not in all, the plants should be buried before the

season of full bloom and sometimes before the blooms begin to open.

7. The seed is more certain to germinate while yet enclosed in the chaff

scales, and because of this, where home-grown seed is used, it may be

worth while to secure it in this form by flailing out the seed or

treading it out with horses.

CHAPTER VIII

WHITE CLOVER

White Clover (_Trifolium repens_) is also called Dutch, White Dutch,

White Trefoil, Creeping Trifolium and Honeysuckle clover. The name Dutch

clover has doubtless been applied to it because of the extent to which

it is in evidence in the pastures and meadows of Holland; the name

Creeping Trifolium, because of the creeping character of the stems,

which, under favorable conditions, send roots down into the soil; and

Honeysuckle clover, because of the honey supplies which it furnishes for

bees. It is one of the plants known as Shamrock, the national emblem of

Ireland.

White clover is perennial, the stems of which creep along the ground

and, as above intimated, root at the joints; so that from this source

plants are indefinitely multiplied. They also come from the seed. The

leaves are small and very numerous, and with the exception of the flower

stems and flowers, furnish all the forage obtained. The flowers are very

numerous, especially when showery weather precedes and accompanies the

flowering season. They are large for the size of the plant, are

supported by a leafless stem of considerable length, and are white or

tinted with a delicate rose color. The roots are numerous and fibrous.

They cannot go down into the soil so deeply as the larger clovers;

hence, the dwarfing effect of dry seasons upon the growth.

[Illustration: Fig. 7. White Clover (_Trifolium repens_)

Oregon Experiment Station]

This plant is exceedingly hardy. It comes out from under the snow with a

green tint, and the leaves are not easily injured by the frosts of

autumn. The growth is not rapid until the general late rains of spring

fall freely. It then pushes on rapidly, and, sending up innumerable

flower stems, turns the pastures in which it abounds into immense flower

gardens in the months of May and June, according to the latitude of the

locality. The bloom remains out for a considerable time, and free

grazing has the effect of prolonging the period of bloom. Under such

conditions, blossoms continue to form and mature seeds during much of

the summer. When these escape being grazed, they fall down upon the land

and aid in forming additional plants. Hence it is that when white clover

has once possessed a soil, it so stores the land with seed possessed of

so much vitality that subsequently white clover plants grow, as it were,

spontaneously on these lands when they have been thus grazed even for a

limited term of years.

The power of this useful plant to travel and possess the land is only

equalled by that of blue grass. When timber lands are cleared, white

clover plants soon appear, and in a few years will spread over the whole

surface of the land. But the amount of grazing furnished by it varies

greatly with the character of the season. Some seasons its bloom is

scarcely in evidence; other seasons it overspreads the pastures.

While it is an excellent pasture plant for stock, they do not relish it

so highly as some other pasture plants; when forming seed, it is least

valuable for horses, owing to the extent to which it salivates them. Its

diminutive habit of growth unfits it for making meadows, unless in

conjunction with other hay plants. In nutritive properties, it is placed

ahead of medium red clover. Some growers have spoken highly of it as a

pasture plant for swine.

Being a legume, it has the power of enriching soils with nitrogen, but

probably not to so great an extent as the larger varieties of clover.

Its rootlets, however, have a beneficent influence on the texture of

soils, because of their number, and because of the power of the stems to

produce fresh plants, which occupy the soil when other plants die. The

latter furnish a continued source of food to other grasses, which grow

along with white clover in permanent pastures.

Along with blue grass, white clover plants aid in choking out weeds.

This result follows largely as the outcome of the close sod formed by

the two. But in some soils, plants of large growth and bushes and young

trees will not thus be crowded out.

=Distribution.=--White clover is certainly indigenous to Europe and to

the Northern States, and probably Western Asia. It grows in every

country in Europe, but with greatest luxuriance in those countries which

border on the North Sea, the climates of which are very humid, and more

especially in the Netherlands and Great Britain. It stands in high

favor in Holland, but is not regarded so highly in England, owing,

probably, to the great variety of grasses grown there in permanent

pastures. It is generally thought that it was not indigenous to the

Southern States, but has reached these from those farther north. It

would seem to be capable of growing in all countries well adapted to the

keeping of cattle; hence, it follows in the wake of successful

live-stock husbandry.

White clover seems able to adapt itself to a great variety of climatic

conditions. Nevertheless, it is certainly better adapted to a moderately

cool climate than to one that is hot, and to a moist, humid climate than

to one that is dry. It has much power to live through dry seasons, but

it will not thrive in a climate in which the rainfall is too little for

the successful growth of small cereal grains. Where snow covers it in

winter, this clover will grow on timber soils as far north as any kind

of cereal can be made to mature; and it will also grow as far south as

the Mexican boundary on the higher grounds, when there is enough

moisture present to sustain it.

It would probably be correct to say that this plant is found in every

State in the Union, and that it succeeds well in nearly all the Northern

States, from sea to sea. Although it grows well in certain parts of the

Southern States, especially in those that lie northward, the general

adaptation in these is not so high as in those further north. The

highest adaptation in the United States is probably found in the Puget

Sound region and in the hardwood timber producing areas of the States

which lie south from the Great Lakes and in proximity to them, as

Northeastern Minnesota, Northern Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and New York.

But the adaptation is also high in the more elevated of the mountain

valleys of the Northwestern States when irrigated waters may be led on

to these lands. The areas lowest in adaptation are those that lie within

the semi-arid belt. The low-lying lands of the South, where hot weather

is prolonged in summer, are likewise low in their adaptation, but not so

low as the former. The prairie areas of the Northern Mississippi basin

have an adaptation for growing white clover that may be termed

intermediate, but where hardwood forests grow naturally on these the

adaptation is high. In New England the climatic conditions are very

favorable, much more so than the soil conditions.

In Canada, conditions are found highly favorable to the growth of this

plant in the country lying eastward from Lake Huron, north of Lakes Erie

and Ontario and also on both sides of the St. Lawrence River. Adaptation

is also high along the Pacific and in the mountain valleys not distant

from the Pacific. In all the areas of Canada, which once produced

forests, this plant will grow well. But north from Lakes Huron and

Superior, the soil conditions are against it, because of their rocky

character. Certain forest areas west from Lake Superior, and also in

other parts, the sandy soils of which sustain a growth of Jack Pine

(_Pinus murrayana_) trees, do not grow white clover with much vigor.

The prairie areas of Canada, westward from Lake Superior to the

mountains, do not grow white clover with much success, and the

adaptation for its growth would seem to lessen gradually until the Rocky

Mountains are approached.

=Soils.=--Small white clover will grow on almost any kind of soil, but

by no means equally well. Highest, probably, in adaptation, especially

when climatic conditions are considered along with those of soil, are

the clay loams west of the Cascade Mountains and northward from

California to Alaska. During the moist months of early summer, this

plant turns the pastures in these areas into a flower garden. Almost

equally high in adaptation are the volcanic ash soils of the Rocky

Mountain valleys. When amply supplied with water, the finest crops of

white clover can be grown even superior to those grown on the lands

described above. Almost the same may be said of what are termed the

hardwood timber soils, which are usually made up of clay loam lying upon

clay. Such areas abound in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario and

some States further south. In these soils it grows with much luxuriance,

more especially when lime and potash are abundant. Similar luxuriance

may be looked for in the deposit soils of river basins in which the clay

element predominates, but not in those that are largely made up of sand.

It will also grow well on the stiffest clays, whether white or red, when

moisture is present. On prairie soils, the success attending it is

dependent largely on their texture, composition and the moisture which

they contain under normal conditions. The more firm these soils are,

the better will the clover grow in them, and _vice versa_. This is

equivalent to saying that the more clay they contain, the better will

the white clover grow in them.

Where the humus soils of the prairies are deep and are underlaid with

clay, white clover will grow much better in the subsoil, if laid bare,

than in the surface soil. Prairie soils which lift with the wind are ill

adapted to the growth of this plant, whatsoever may be their

composition. Much of the soil in the semi-arid belt would grow this

plant in fine form, but want of moisture, where irrigation is absent

makes its growth prohibitory in a large portion of this area. On

ordinary slough soils, this clover finds a congenial home, but it will

not grow quite so well, relatively, in these as alsike clover. On sandy

soils, such as those on which Jack pine and Norway pine (_Pinus

resinosa_) grow, this plant will maintain itself, and in wet seasons

will make considerable showing on these; but in very dry seasons the

plants will die, the growth the following season coming from seeds

already in the soil. In the soils of the extreme South, the inability of

white clover to make a good showing is probably more the result of

summer heat than of want of power in the plants to gather food. In those

of the Southwest, want of moisture and excessive heat render its growth,

in a sense, prohibitory.

=Place in the Rotation.=--Since white clover is usually not sown for

meadow, but is rather sown for pasture, it can scarcely be called a

rotation plant in the strict sense of the term; and yet, because of the

extent to which it grows when it has once obtained a footing in soils,

it is more or less frequent in all rotations in which grass or clover is

one of the factors. As it usually comes into the grass pastures, when

these have become established, it will occupy about the same place as

blue grass in rotations; that is to say, whatever would be proper to sow

after the blue grass would be proper to sow after this plant; since the

two usually unite in making the same sod. It will, therefore, be in

order to follow this plant with corn to feed upon the nitrogen furnished

by the clover. The same will be true of any small cereal that has

special adaptation for being grown on overturned sod, as for instance,

flax or oats, or of any crop that revels in the decay of vegetable

matter, more especially in the early stages of such decay, as, for

instance, potatoes and rape. When white clover is sown on land that is

cultivated, though only sown as a factor in a pasture crop, as with all

other clovers it may best be sown on land that is clean; that is, on

land on which the preceding crop has been cultivated to the extent of

securing a clean surface on the same. If, however, this crop must needs

be sown on land that has not been thus cleaned, its great inherent

hardihood will enable it to establish itself where some clovers and

grasses would fail.

It is common to sow white clover on land from which the forest has

recently been removed, also on natural prairie, where it has not

previously grown. In these instances it simply follows the crop of

forest in the one case and of native prairie in the other. But it will

not take possession of the land in either case to the exclusion of other

grasses.

=Preparing the Soil.=--The preparation of the soil for growing this

plant is much the same as for growing other plants of the clover or

grass family. Fineness, firmness, cleanness and moistness are the chief

essentials to be looked for in making the seed-bed. For the same reason

that it has much power to grow among weeds for so small a plant, it has

also much power to grow on surfaces not in the best condition of

preparation for receiving so small a seed. But when sown to provide a

seed crop, it is specially necessary to make the land thoroughly clean

before sowing the seed. This is necessary for the reason, first, that

small white clover, because of its tardiness in growing in the spring,

and because of its comparatively small growth has not much power to

crowd weeds; and second, because of the labor involved in preventing

weed seeds from maturing in a crop that ripens its seeds somewhat late

in the season. While it is advantageous to burn off the grass from a

natural meadow where white clover, is to be sown, it is not so

essential, nevertheless, as when preparing such land for being sown with

some other varieties of grass or clover. The young plants will endure

under conditions which would cause those of many other varieties to

fail.

=Sowing.=--White clover is sown by much the same methods as the medium

red variety. (See page 75.) But it will stand more hardship than the

other variety; hence, it may be sown earlier. This means that it may be

sown in northerly latitudes any time, from the melting of the winter

snows until early summer, and in southern latitudes almost any season,

except during the hot summer months. In either latitude, however, the

early spring is usually the most suitable season for sowing.

The seed may be sown by hand, by hand machines, or by the seeder

attachment of grain drills. It is more commonly sown along with other

clovers and grasses, and the methods of sowing these will also be

suitable for the sowing of white clover. (See page 18.) But when the

seed is sown alone, as for producing seed crops, the nurse crop need not

of necessity be sown thinly, from the fear that the young plants should

be smothered by an undue density of shade.

There is no mixture of clovers and grasses grown for pasture to which

this plant may not be added with profit, providing the seed is not

already in the land in sufficient supply. But it is seldom sown with

either clovers or grasses, or with these combined, for the production of

hay. It is the judgment of the author, however, that in localities which

have special adaptation for the growth of this plant, it should render

excellent service in providing hay for sheep, if sown along with alsike

clover, and a little timothy; the latter being sown mainly to support

the clovers so that they will not lodge. The white clover would furnish

hay considerably finer even than the alsike; hence, such hay should be

peculiarly adapted to the needs of sheep. Some authorities object to the

presence of white clover in hay intended for horses or cattle, lest it

should induce in them more or less salivation. The author leans to the

opinion that in cured hay injury from the source named will in no

instance prove serious, owing to the small amount, relatively, of white

clover in average hay crops.

The amount of seed to sow will vary with such conditions as soil,

climate and the nature of the pasture, but in any event it need not be

large. The seeds of white clover are small, considerably smaller than

those of alsike. For ordinary grazing along with other grasses, or

grasses and clovers, it will seldom be necessary to sow more than 1

pound of seed per acre. Sometimes a less quantity will suffice, as when

there is more or less of seed in the land, and, as already intimated,

because of the store of seed in the land in many instances, it is not

necessary to sow it at all. Especially is this true of sections which

have been tilled for some time. When sown with alsike clover to provide

hay, 2 pounds of seed per acre would be a maximum amount, and 4 pounds

when sown alone to provide seed.

When sown in newly cleared forest lands or on prairie sod, the methods

to be followed will depend upon circumstances. More commonly when thus

sown the seed is not covered artificially; consequently, much of it in

dry seasons may not grow. The plan, therefore, of sowing small amounts

of the seed on such lands two years in succession would be safer than to

sow twice the amount of the same in one year. In time this clover would

find its way into such areas. It comes through such agencies as birds,

hay fed to teams engaged in lumbering, and the overflow of streams; and

as soon as it gets a foothold its distribution is further accelerated by

the droppings of cattle which contain the seeds, and by the winds.

The power of this plant to increase is simply wonderful. This is owing

to: 1. The relatively large number of seedheads produced from the

plants. 2. The power which these have to multiply by means of rootlets

from the incumbent stems, which fasten into the soil. 3. The prolonged

season during which the heads form. 4. The habit of growth in many of

the heads, because of which they are not grazed off. 5. The strong

vitality of the seed. And 6. The great hardihood of the plants.

=Pasturing.=--White clover ranks next to blue grass as a pasture plant

within the area of its adaptation (see page 261), when its

productiveness, continuity in growth, ability to remain in the land,

palatability and nutritive properties are considered together. In

palatability it ranks as medium only. In the early part of the season

while it is still tender and juicy, it will be eaten by stock with

avidity, but as the seed-maturing season is approached, it is not so

highly relished. In nutrition it ranks higher than medium red clover. It

does not make much of a showing in the early part of the season, but in

favorable seasons, about the time that blue grass begins to fail, it

grows rapidly and furnishes much pasture.

It is pre-eminently the complement of a blue-grass pasture. When these

grow together, the two will furnish grazing in a moist year through all

the season of grazing. Both have the property of retaining their hold

indefinitely in many soils and of soon making a sward on the same

without being re-sown, when the cultivation of the ground ceases. The

blue grass grows quickly quite early and late in the season, and the

clover grows likewise during much of the summer. As the older plants of

the clover fail, fresh ones appear, and the blue grass feeds on the

former in their decay. They thus furnish humus and nitrogen for the

sustenance of the blue grass.

But much moisture is necessary in order to insure good blue grass

pastures, and they are more luxuriant when the moisture comes early in

the season, rather than when the plants are nearing the season of bloom.

To such an extent is white clover influenced in growth by such weather,

that in some seasons it will abound in certain pastures, while in others

it will scarcely appear in the same. Those favorable seasons are

frequently spoken of as being "white-clover years."

While this plant furnishes good grazing for all kinds of domestic

animals kept upon the farm, as a pasture for horses and mules, there is

the objection to it that it will in a considerable degree so salivate

them that much "slobbering" follows. This is sometimes produced to such

an extent as to be seriously harmful. The trouble from this cause

increases as the seed-forming season is approached. It has been known

thus to salivate cattle, but the danger of injury to them from this

source is slight. These injurious results to horses will be obviated in

proportion as the other grasses are allowed to grow up amid the clover;

in other words, in proportion as the pasture is not grazed closely early

in the season. The animals which then graze on these pastures must take

other food with the clover.

=Harvesting for Hay.=--Since white clover is seldom grown alone for hay,

and since it seldom forms the most bulky factor in a hay crop, the

methods of harvesting will be similar to those practiced in harvesting

the more bulky factor or factors of the crop. The want of bulk in this

clover is against it as a hay crop, owing to the smallness of the

yields, compared with the other hay crops that may be usually grown on

the same land. As a factor of a hay crop, however, this little plant

will add much to its weight and also to its palatability, especially for

sheep and dairy cows.

When it is grown for hay in mixtures in which the large clovers or

timothy predominates, the white clover should, of course, be cut at the

most suitable season for cutting these clovers or the timothy, as one is

present in excess. When the larger clovers predominate, the method of

curing will be the same as for curing these (see page 234), that is to

say, it can best be cured in cocks. When timothy predominates, the

method of curing will be the same as for timothy; that is to say, it may

be cured in the cock or in the winrow, according to circumstances. Owing

to the fineness of the stems, it may be cured more quickly than red

clover; hence, its presence in a crop of timothy will not delay much the

curing of the latter unless when present in great abundance.

Under some conditions it would be easily possible to grow white clover

for hay alone, and in some instances with profit, more especially in

providing what would be a matchless fodder for young lambs and young

calves. It might be so grown in the clover lands that lie immediately

southward from Lakes Superior and Huron, in the northern Rocky Mountain

valleys and on the valley lands around Puget Sound. On these lands in a

favorable season, it would be quite possible to cut not less than 2 tons

per acre, while on average land white clover alone would not yield more,

probably, than 1/2 ton per acre. But even when grown for the purpose

named, some alsike clover sown along with the white clover would add to

the yield of hay, and without in any considerable degree lessening its

value for the use named.

=Securing Seed.=--White clover is a great seed-producing plant. The

season for bloom covers a period relatively long, and the number of

blossoms produced under favorable conditions on a given area is very

large. But when seed crops are to be produced with regularity, it is

necessary that moisture can be depended upon in sufficient supply in the

spring months to produce a vigorous growth in the plants. Such a climate

is found in the Puget Sound country and in a less degree for some

distance south from Lakes Huron and Superior. In areas which can be

irrigated, it is not imperative that the climate shall be thus moist.

Such areas, therefore, may be looked upon as possessed of superior

adaptation for the growth of seed crops of white clover.

The areas are limited, however, in which seed crops are grown in the

United States; so limited are they that it has been found very difficult

to locate them. Wood County in Central Wisconsin grows a considerable

quantity, and some counties northward in the same State, and probably

also some parts of Northern Michigan, will grow seed equally well.

Where a seed crop is grown every care should be exercised to have it

free from foul weeds. The aim should be to grow it on clean land.

Sometimes, however, the seed is self-sown; that is, it comes into the

land without being sown, but even in such areas it is safer to sow 3

pounds of seed per acre in the early spring along with a nurse crop. The

best seed crops in Wisconsin and Michigan are grown on a reasonably

stiff clay soil. To get a full crop of seed, it should be pastured for a

time in the spring, or the crop should be run over with the mower about

June 1st, setting the mower bar so as to cut 3 or 4 inches high. No harm

will follow if some of the tops of the clover should be cut off. The

grass and weeds thus cut are usually left on the ground, but sometimes

it may be necessary to remove them. In a short time the field should be

one mass of bloom.

The crop is ready for being harvested when the bulk of the heads have

turned a dark brown and when the bulk of them have assumed a reddish

brown tint, notwithstanding that some of the later heads may still be

in full flower. Vigorous crops may be cut with the self-rake reaper set

to cut low, otherwise many of the heads will not be gathered. To

facilitate this process, the ground should be made quite smooth even

before sowing the seed. But the seed crop is more commonly cut with the

field mower, to the cutter bar of which a galvanized platform is bolted,

the sides of which are about 6 inches high. From this the clover is

raked off into bunches with a rake. These bunches should not be large,

and since nearly all the heads in them will point upward, they should

not be turned over if rained on, but simply lifted up with a suitable

fork and moved on to other ground.

The seed crop cures quickly. It may be drawn and threshed at once, or it

may be stacked and threshed when convenient. If stacked, a goodly supply

of old hay or straw should be put next the ground, and much care should

be taken to protect the clover by finishing off the stack carefully with

some kind of grass or hay that will shed the rain easily. Since the

heads are very small and numerous, and since, as with all clovers, they

break off easily when ripe, much promptness and care should be exercised

in harvesting the seed crop. The best machine for threshing a seed so

small is the clover huller.

The yields of seed will run all the way from less than 3 bushels per

acre to 5 bushels, and some crops have been harvested in Wisconsin which

gave 7 bushels per acre. Four bushels would probably be about an average

yield. As the price is usually relatively high compared with other

clovers, the seed from white clover would be quite remunerative were it

not that in a dry season the yield is disappointing. In some instances

two crops are grown in succession; in others, one crop is reaped. The

land is then sown to barley the next year, and the following year clover

seed may be reaped again without sowing a second time. Usually, after

two successive crops of seed have been cut, blue grass crowds the

clover.

It should be possible to grow prodigious crops of white clover in

certain of the northern Rocky Mountain valleys, as, for instance, in

Montana and Washington, where the conditions for the application of

water to grow the plants and of withholding the same when ripening the

seed are completely under the control of the husbandman. The soils in

these valleys, as previously intimated, have high adaptation for growing

white clover.

=Renewing.=--White clover is probably more easily renewed than any plant

of the clover family. In fact, it seldom requires renewal in a pasture

in which it has obtained a footing as long as it remains a pasture. This

arises from the abundance of the seed production and from the power of

the same to retain germinating properties for a long period.

Nevertheless, there may be instances when it may be wise to scatter more

seed in the early spring in a pasture in which white clover may not be

sufficiently abundant. It is also renewed, in a sense, when suitable

fertilizer is applied on the pastures. A dressing of potash will greatly

stimulate the growth of any kind of clover on nearly all soils; hence,

the marked increase in the growth of the clover that usually follows the

application of a dressing of wood ashes, especially in the unleached

form. Top-dressings of farmyard manure are also quite helpful to such

growth.

The conclusion must not be reached that because white clover is not much

in evidence in a permanent pasture for one or two, or even three dry

seasons, if these should follow each other, that it will not come again

and with great vigor and in much abundance when a wet season arrives

again.

=For Lawns.=--No other plant of the clover family is so frequently sown

when making lawns. For such a use it is not sown alone, but is always

the complement of Kentucky blue grass or of a mixture of grasses. No two

plants can be singled out that are more suitable for lawn making than

white clover and Kentucky blue grass. Both are fine in their habit of

growth. The two in conjunction usually make a more dense sward than

either alone, and the clover will grow and produce many flowers, if not

kept clipped too closely when the blue grass is resting in midsummer.

As lawns are usually small, and a dense sward is desired as quickly as

it can be obtained; the seed should be sown thickly on lawns, at the

rate of not less than 5 pounds of seed to the acre. The early spring is

the best time for sowing the seed, but in mild climates it may be sown

at almost any season that may be convenient, providing the ground is

moist enough to germinate the seed. In cold climates, the seed should

be sown not later than August, unless when sown too late for autumn

germination. This in some instances may not only be proper, but

commendable.

=As a Honey Plant.=--White clover is proverbial for its ability to

furnish honey. There is probably no single plant which furnishes more or

better honey. But its value for such a use varies greatly in different

years. In seasons that are quite dry in the spring, it makes but little

growth and produces but few blossoms; hence, in such seasons bees can

obtain but little honey, relatively, from such a source. It would

doubtless be good policy, therefore, for the growers to encourage the

sowing of alsike clover where bees are much kept, since the growth of

this clover is less hindered by dry weather at the season named. Less

close pasturing than is commonly practiced would favorably influence the

production of honey from white clover, and would also result in

considerably greater yields of pasture.

CHAPTER IX

JAPAN CLOVER

Japan Clover (_Lespedeza striata_) was introduced from China or Japan,

or from both countries, into South Carolina in 1849, under the name

Japan clover. It is thought the seed came in connection with the tea

trade with these countries. According to Phares, the generic term

_Lespedeza_, borne by the one-seeded pods of the plants of this family,

was assigned to them in honor of Lespedez, a governor of Florida under

Spanish rule. It is sometimes called Bush clover, from the bush-shaped

habit of growth in the plants when grown on good soils, but is to be

carefully distinguished from the Bush clovers proper, which are of

little value as food plants.

Japan clover is an annual, but owing to its remarkable power to retain

its hold upon the soil, through the shedding of the seed and the growing

of the same, it has equal ability with many perennials to retain its

hold upon the soil. It does not start until late in the spring, nor can

it endure much frost; but its ability to grow in and retain its hold

upon poor soils is remarkable, while its powers of self-propagation in

the South would seem to be nearly equal to those of small white clover

(_Trifolum repens_) in the North. It is, therefore, one of the hardiest

plants of the clover family. Where it has once obtained a foothold, in

some soils, at least, it has been known to crowd out Bermuda grass and

even broom sage.

The form of the plants is much affected by the character of the soil in

which they grow. On poor soils, the habit of growth is low and

spreading; on good soils, it is more upright. But it is always more or

less branched, and the stems are relatively stiffer than those of other

clovers. They rise but a few inches above the ground in poor soils, not

more than 2 to 4; but in good rich soils it will attain to the height of

2 feet. About 1 foot may be named as the average height. The leaves are

trifoliate. The flower produced in the axils of the leaves are numerous,

but quite small. They appear from July onward, according to locality,

but are probably more numerous in September, and vary from a pink to a

rose-colored or purplish tint. The seed pods are small, flattish oval in

shape and contain but one seed. The tap roots are strong in proportion

to the size of the plant and are relatively deep feeding; hence, the

ability of the plant to survive severe drought. The roots have much

power to penetrate stiff subsoils.

Japan clover is not usually relished by stock at first, but they soon

come to like it, and are then fond of it. Close grazing does not readily

injure it; it also furnishes a good quality of hay, but except on

reasonably good soils, the yields of the hay are not very large. The

chemical analysis compares well with that of red clover.

Japan clover is also an excellent soil renovator. In the Southern

States, it is credited with the renovation of soils so poor that the

return was not worth the labor of tillage. Throughout much of the South,

it has rendered much service in thus improving soils. It also grows so

thickly on many soils as to lessen and, in many instances, entirely

prevent washing, that great bane of Southern soils. It will even grow

and produce some pasture under the shade of grass or Southern pines.

[Illustration: Fig. 8. Japan Clover (_Lespedeza striata_)

Tennessee Experiment Station]

=Distribution.=--Japan clover is said to be native to China and other

countries in Eastern Asia. When introduced into Japan, the soil and

climatic conditions proved so favorable that before long it spread out

over the whole island. Since its introduction into the United States it

has spread very rapidly.

Since it does not grow early in the season, it needs a warm climate. It

grows much better in moist weather than in a time of drought, but it

will also continue to grow in the absence of rain until the drought

becomes excessive. It will then wilt down on poor soils, but grows again

as soon as rain falls.

Since the introduction of Japan clover into the United States in 1849,

or, as some think, somewhat earlier, it has spread over the entire

South, from the Ohio River to the Gulf, from the Atlantic to the

Mississippi, and also to the States of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas

beyond the Mississippi. It was early introduced into Georgia, and came

into much favor there. It reached Tennessee in 1870, and soon spread

over many counties. It came later into Louisiana, but soon became very

popular there, largely through the efforts of Colonel J. Burgess McGhee

of West Feliciana, who gave much attention to cultivating it and placing

it before the public. While it will grow readily in any part of the

South, it renders better service in the Gulf States than in those

farther north, owing to the longer season for growth. North of the Ohio

River it is not likely to be cultivated, since in the Northern States it

is not needed, because of the abundance of the red clovers and also the

small white. It is a less abundant producer than the red clovers, and is

also less palatable. Moreover, the season for growing it is much shorter

in these States than in those south; a fact which greatly lessens its

adaptation to northern conditions.

Japan clover has no mission for any of the provinces of Canada, and for

the reason that it has no mission for the Northern States.

=Soils.=--Japan clover is adapted to a wide range of soils. There would

seem to be a concensus of opinion in the Southern States that it will

grow on almost any kind of soil. It has grown well on hard, stiff clays,

both white and red; on sandy levels; on gravelly undulations and slopes;

on the banks and in the bottom of gullies; on soils too poor to produce

other crops, as on denuded hills and also in groves. But it will grow

much better, of course, on good, rich land, as on moist loams and rich

alluvial soils. While it prefers moist situations, it is not well

adapted to saturated lands. There is no useful pasture plant in the

South that would seem so well able to fight its own battle unaided on

poor soils as Japan clover, nor is there any which has brought so much

of renovation to these for the labor involved.

=Place in the Rotation.=--Japan clover can scarcely be classed as a

rotation plant in the strict sense of the term, since it more frequently

comes into the fields, as it were, spontaneously, and owing to the

uncommon degree to which it has the power of re-seeding itself, it is

frequently grown and grazed for successive years on the land upon which

it has been allowed thus to grow. Nevertheless, since it is a nitrogen

gatherer, when it has fertilized the land sufficiently by bringing to it

a supply of nitrogen and by putting humus into it, crops should follow

such as require much of growth to grow them in best form. Such are

cotton, corn and the small cereal grains. Owing to its power to grow on

worn and even on abandoned soils, and to crowd weeds that grow on them,

on such soils it comes in between the cessation of cultivation and the

resumption of the same. It frequently grows as a volunteer crop along

with Johnson grass, and where it comes, it tends to crowd grasses of but

little value, as brown sage.

Where pasture is desired winter and summer, it should be quite possible

in some localities to obtain it by sowing such crops annually, as winter

oats and sand vetches (_Vicia villosa_) every autumn, and the seed of

Japan clover on the same. The crops first named would provide winter and

spring grazing, and the clover, summer and autumn grazing. The clovers

and the vetches would both aid in fertilizing the land.

=Preparing the Soil.=--While careful preparation of the land will result

in more certain and uniform germination in the seed, and more rapid

growth in the plants, careful preparation of the seed is not so

necessary with Japan clover as with many other pasture and hay plants.

The seeds are strong in germinating power and the plants are much able

to grow, even under adverse conditions, when they do germinate. Usually,

the preparation which is suited to nurse crops, amid which this clover

is sown, will be suited also to the clover when it is sown thus.

In many instances, however, it is allowed to re-seed itself where it has

been once sown, or even where it may have come into the soil without

sowing. In this way successive pasture crops have been obtained. But

usually where hay crops are wanted, it will prove more satisfactory, all

things considered, to sow the seed.

In many instances, simply scarifying the ground has been found a

sufficient preparation for the seed. Any implement that will pulverize

the surface for a few inches downward will answer for such work. In very

many instances, seed, of course, self-sown has become rooted and grown

vigorously on unplowed land.

=Sowing.=--Japan clover is more commonly sown in the spring, but it is

sometimes sown in the autumn. There is more or less of hazard in sowing

it in the autumn north of the Gulf States, since when the plants are

young they will not stand much frost. For the same reason, there is the

element of hazard in sowing it too early in the spring. Spring sowing

stands highest in favor, taking the whole area into account, in which

the clover is grown. While it is possible to sow the seed too early in

the spring, it will be readily apparent that the earlier it may be sown

without hazard to the young plants, the better will be the returns,

because of the growth secured before the advent of dry weather.

The seed may be sown by any of the methods adopted when sowing medium

red clover. (See page 78.) The method which is most labor-saving,

however, when sown with a nurse crop, is that which sows it with an

attachment to the grain drill used in sowing the nurse crop. If allowed

to fall in front of the drill tubes, it will not usually need any other

covering than that furnished by the drill tubes followed by the roller.

It may be sown with any of the small cereals, whether these are grown

for pasture, for hay, or for grain. When these are fall sown and the

clover seed is not sown until the spring, it will be well worth while,

when the weather and soil will admit of it, to cover the seed with the

harrow. It may also be advisable to sow the seed in pastures, as, for

instance, along with orchard grass, or with tall oat grass, as it would

tend to fill the vacancies in the land.

When sown alone, 10 pounds of seed per acre will usually suffice. But

where there is much seed in the land that has been self-sown, a less

quantity will suffice. Where hay crops are wanted from year to year on

the same land, it may be obtained by simply disking the land and

re-sowing. If the hay is allowed to approach maturity before being cut,

sufficient seed will fall to re-sow the land for the next year's crop,

but the quality of hay so ripe is not so good as if cut earlier. In

pastures, the grazing must not be too close when self-seeding is wanted.

=Pasturing.=--Japan clover is much used in providing grazing in the

South. Some writers have spoken of it as being the most valuable grazing

plant that grows in the South. Viewed from the standpoint of

productiveness, this would be assigning it too high a place, since

Bermuda grass produces more grazing, but taking productiveness and the

probable influence exerted on soil fertility together, the estimate may

be correct. The ease with which Japan clover may be propagated is also a

strong point in its favor.

Since it starts late in the spring, it only provides grazing during the

summer and autumn months, from May, June or July onward, according to

the locality, and it fails with the appearance of the first heavy

frosts. In moist situations, it will furnish grazing during all the

summer and autumn, if not allowed to seed, but in time of drought, it

may wither on dry, thin soils and come on again when the rains of autumn

begin to fall. In order to keep the grazing tender and palatable, it

should be reasonably close. If allowed to mature much seed before

grazing begins, the plants will then die, to the great injury of the

grazing.

That stock do not take kindly to it at first, as they do to alfalfa and

some other plants, cannot be doubted. But they can soon learn to relish

it. It has been praised both for milk and meat production; hence, the

aim should be to have it in all permanent pastures. In some of these it

may be necessary to sow a few pounds of seed per acre at the first. If

the grazing is not too close, the plants thereafter will sufficiently

re-seed the land. It has been found quite possible in short rotations to

secure pasture from Japan clover without sowing it on land on which it

has once grown. But to accomplish this effectively, the grazing must not

be so close as to preclude a self-seeding. By growing such plants for

winter and spring grazing, as turf oats and sand vetches, and then

grazing the Japan clover, which will grow later on lands thus managed,

grazing may be furnished indefinitely from year to year.

=Harvesting for Hay.=--Japan clover is a good hay plant when grown on

strong soils. The quality is good also when grown under adverse

conditions, but the quantity is deficient. On good soils, the yield is

from 1 to 2 tons per acre, the average being about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 tons.

The hay is also quite merchantable in Southern markets. It is considered

superior to baled timothy--timothy brought in from the North--especially

when fed to cows producing milk. Japan clover is best cut when the

plants are in full bloom. But harvesting is frequently deferred to a

period somewhat later where self-seeding of the land is desirable. Late

cutting, however, lowers the quality of the hay, both as regards

palatability and digestibility. Much that has been said as to the

curing of medium red clover will also apply to Japan clover.

Successive crops of hay may be grown from year to year on the same land,

as already intimated. (See page 285.) But where other crops are wanted

on the same farm, it would be wiser to grow these in some sort of

alternation or succession with the clover crops, so that the former

could feed upon the nitrogen brought to the land by the clover.

=Securing Seed.=--Japan clover is ready for being harvested when the

major portion of the seeds are ripe. This is late in the season. The

seed crop is more easily gathered when grown on good land, owing to the

more upright habit of growth. The self-rake reaper is probably the best

implement for cutting, since it lays it off in loose sheaves, and on

well-prepared land it may be made to cut so low as to gather the bulk of

the seed. But it may also be cut with the field mower as small white

clover is frequently cut. (See page 275.) Owing to the lateness of the

season at which the seed matures, careful and prompt attention may be

necessary to secure the seed crop without loss, owing to the moistness

which characterizes the weather at that season.

When Japan clover is to be harvested for seed, care should be taken to

prevent weeds from ripening their seeds in the same. With a view to

prevent this, it will be found helpful in many instances to run the

mower over the field some time after the clover has begun to grow freely

in the late spring or early summer. Such clipping will also have the

effect of securing more uniformity in the ripening of the seed.

The seed may be threshed in much the same way as other clover seed. (See

page 107.) The yields per acre should run from 3 to 8 bushels. It weighs

20 pounds per bushel.

=Renewing.=--Since Japan clover is an annual, it is not necessary to

renew it, in the sense in which more long-lived clovers are renewed, as,

for instance, the alsike variety. (See page 216.) About the only renewal

practicable is that which insures successive crops of pasture, hay or

seed from the same land where the crop has once been grown. (See page

285.) But the growth may, of course, be stimulated by the application of

dressings of fertilizer, such as gypsum, or those that may be termed

potassic in character.

CHAPTER X

BURR CLOVER

Burr Clover (_Medicago maculata_) is sometimes called Spotted Medick and

sometimes California clover, also Yellow clover. The name burr clover

has doubtless arisen from the closely coiled seed pod, which, being

covered with curved prickles, adhere to wool more or less as burrs do.

The name Spotted Medick has been given because of the dark spot found in

the middle of the leaflets, in conjunction with the family of plants to

which it belongs. The name California clover is given because of the

claim that it was much grown in California after having been introduced

there from Chili, and the name yellow clover, from the color of the

blossoms. After its introduction into the United States, seedsmen sell

California and Southern burr clover as two varieties, but the

correctness of the distinction thus made has been questioned. Many

persons were wont to confuse it with alfalfa, or, as it is frequently

called, lucerne, but the latter is much more upright in its habit of

growth, grows to a greater height, has more blossoms, blue in color, and

seed pods more loosely coiled. It is also to be distinguished from a

variety (_Medicago denticulata_) which bears much resemblance to it, and

which, growing wild over portions of the plains and foothills of the

West, affords considerable pasture.

Burr clover may properly be termed a winter annual, since the seed comes

up in the autumn, furnishes grazing in the winter and spring, and dies

with the advent of summer. It is procumbent or spreading and branched.

On good soil some of the plants radiate to the distance of several feet

from the parent root. They have been known to overlap, and thus

accumulate until the ground was covered 2 feet deep with this clover,

thus making it very difficult to plow them under. It is only under the

most favorable conditions, however, that the plants produce such a mass

of foliage. The leaves are composed of three somewhat large leaflets.

The flowers, as previously intimated, are yellow, and there are but two

or three in each cluster, but the clusters are numerous; hence, also the

pods are numerous. They are about 1/4 of an inch broad, and when mature

are possessed of considerable food value.

Burr clover grows chiefly during the winter, and is at its best for

pasture during the months of March and April, and in the Gulf States

dies down after having produced seed in May. Though it is frequently

sown, it has the power of self-propagation to a marked degree, which

makes it possible to grow many crops in succession without re-seeding by

hand.

It is not considered a good hay plant, but its value for pasture is

considerable, although, as a rule, animals do not take kindly to it at

first, as they do to alfalfa or medium red clover, but later they become

fond of it, but less so, probably, in the case of horses than of other

animals. Being a legume, it is helpful in enriching the land, and being

a free grower, it improves the soil mechanically through its root

growth, and also through the stems and leaves, when these are plowed

under.

=Distribution.=--Burr clover is said to be native to Europe and North

Africa, but not to North America, although it has shown high adaptation

in adapting itself to conditions as found in the latter.

Although this plant is hardy in the South, and, as previously stated,

makes most of its growth in the winter, it is not sufficiently hardy to

endure the winters far northward. Its highest adaptation is found in

States around the Gulf of Mexico. It also grows with more or less vigor

as far north as North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas. For these States

its adaptation is, on the whole, higher than crimson clover, although

where the latter will grow readily it is considered the valuable plant

of the two.

For Canada, burr clover has no mission, owing to the sternness of the

winter climate in that country.

=Soils.=--While burr clover will grow with more or less success on

almost any kind of soil possessed of a reasonable amount of fertility

and moisture, it is much better adapted to soils alluvial in character

and moist, as, for instance, the deposit soils in the bottom of rivers.

Its power to fight the battle of existence on poor lands is much less

than that of Japan clover, but on soils that grow crops, such as corn or

cotton, it may be made to render a service which the other cannot,

since it grows chiefly in winter and early spring, whereas Japan clover

grows in the summer and early autumn, when cultivated crops occupy the

land.

=Place in the Rotation.=--Burr clover is grown more in the sense of a

catch crop and for pasture than in that of a crop to be marketed

directly. Since it is grown in the winter and spring, it may be made to

come in between various crops. On good producing lands of the South it

has given satisfaction as a pasture plant for winter for many successive

years without re-sowing by hand, when sown in conjunction with crab

grass (_Panicum sanguinale_) for hay. Dr. Phares grew it thus in

Mississippi for about 20 years. In June crab grass sprang up on the

ground, and being cut when in blossom, produced a good crop of hay in

August. A lighter cutting was again taken in October. The clover then

took possession of the land and was grazed until spring, but not so

closely as to prevent re-seeding in May, after which the plants died

down.