Chapter III: Medium Red Clover (1)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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