clover.
Common red clover, the most useful and widely spread of the clover family, is, fortunately, of very easy propagation. The common practice is to sow it on winter wheat in the late winter or early spring. It is commonly sown directly on the soil without any preparation whatever. Thus sown, it fre quently succeeds, though there are failures enough to indicate the need of a better practice. In sow ing red clover with wheat it is wise to wait until settled weather has come, in late March or early April, and the land has become dry enough to har row; then thoroughly stir the ground with a har row, sow the seed and again harrow to cover it. Thus treated, if the soil is reasonably fertile, and if it is sweet, failure can come only from very unusually bad weather, or from the lodging and smothering effect of the wheat crop. If care is used in making the seedbed, ten pounds of red clover seed to the acre is enough. There should be mixed with the seed a small percentage of alfalfa seed when there is a likelihood that at some near time the land may be seeded to alfalfa, since the scattered plants of alfalfa will in time become in oculated with the proper alfalfa bacteria and the later growth of the alfalfa thus be assured.
Seeding with sown with oats is not usually so successful as when sown with wheat, for the reason that the oats are very leafy and their shade hurts the clover. The oats often lodge on good ground, and if they escape this they draw much more heavily on the land for moisture than either wheat or barley, so that they may exhaust the moisture to such an extent that the young clover will die when the oats are taken away.
There are, however, two ways of sowing with oats that give uniformly good results. The one is thoroughly to prepare the land, sow a less quantity o: oats than usual, say a bushel to the acre, and the clover seed, covering the latter lightly, then leaving the ground smooth by the use of a plank drag. When the oats are in bloom and before they have formed seed they are mown for hay. They will then have damaged the clover very little, and often there will be a crop of clover hay in the fall of the same year.
The other system, which is the better, is to sow the oats as heavy as two bushels to the acre, with the clover seed, and when the oats are sixteen inches high to turn in sheep to eat the crop down quickly ; then take the sheep away and let the oats and clover come again. This pasturing may be
repeated two or three times in the summer, care being taken not to let the animals remain too long at a time. Remarkably strong, vigorous stands of clover are secured in this way.
Seeding with barley.—Spring barley makes an ideal nurse crop for young red clover. The beard less barley is best, since it comes off the ground early. It does not shade the clover much and suffi ciently subdues the annual grasses. Barley may be cut for hay or allowed to ripen its grain, although if it should lodge it should be cut for hay at once.
Care of young clover.—No animals should be pas tured on the clover long enough to eat it close to the ground, and it should always go into winter with a good growth to hold snow and protect the roots. However, it should not be permitted to bloom the first summer, since red clover is an uncertain biennial, and when it has bloomed and made seed it is so much weakened that it easily dies. Should it show much bloom the first summer, it may be mown, and either made into hay or allowed to lie for mulch and protection. No ani mals should ever be permitted to tread on clover meadows in the winter time.
Making darer hay.—Red clover makes a most useful hay, but it is seldom secured in its best condition. It should be mown when in full bloom and before any of the heads have turned brown, tedded or turned once or twice, raked and put up in small cocks, piled as high as convenient. In the cocks it will lose a part of its moisture. After a few days, depending on the weather, the cocks should be opened in several large flakes, while the sun is hot. These may be turned again, and drawn to the mow. In putting a large quantity of clover hay in the mow it need not be so dry as though only a few loads were gathered together, since the large quantity accumulates enough heat to kill germs of mould and to dry out the entire mass. This makes a sweet, palatable hay of brown color, free from much dust or mould. Hay caps are useful in making clover hay. It should not be too much sun-dried or many of the leaves will be lost.