The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1860-02-25
CiOTcr-ItS Cultivation,

MEssRs. EDITORS AS the proper season
is near at hand for sowing this valuable
grass. many of your readers may bp DESTROYS
Of obtaining information on the subject.
thought it might prove acceptable to them to
receive the result Of my experience in the
matter.
Unless the richness of the land will cause
them to lodge, clover should be sown amongst
oats or some other spring crop that will
protect the young stalks from the searching
rays of the summer sun. The grain should
be well plowed IN, the ground well narrowed
aud the clover seed sown Immediately alter
the barrow and brushed in with a light
brush, provided the grain is not sown until
the hard froStS are over. If the grain be
Sown earlier, it will be safer to defer sowing
the clover seed on it until the season shall be
thus far advanced, because, though after
having taken good root, the clover is a very
hardy plant, yet when qnite young it is La
bic to be killed either by hard foss or by
being exposed unprotected TO The sun. In
favorable seasons il will come mp well without
brushing, but as, in case Of warm div
season, about the time Of coming up much o f
the seed viii othcrwi Use perish, and the crop
be rendered too Thin it is therefore much
better to give the seed a slight covering with
the brush The better the soil is pulverizcd
by the pillow, harrow, and brush, the better
the seed Will vegetate; and the more level or
even the surface, the greater the facility in
moving. will here advise those preparing
Tor clover to select their fields Astounding in
lime, and give them a thorough and deep
blowing. AS rcnevator Of Impoverished
lands, clover will be found of great advantage
upon any soil upon which it can he made to
sprout, and for this purpose, | think, laws
is chief merit to the Southern plantcr.
If intended for pasture, or the seed be
remarkably good, and the season should
prove favorable, one bushel Of seed to every
ten acres will be sufficient. But if designed
for moving, aud under ordinary circumstan-
ces, 1t would be found more to the farmer s
interest to have sown one and half or even
two bushels to every ten acres. 1t is true
that generally, where one bushel only is sown
on that quantity of land, the field will at
moving time appear to be well covered with
grass, but on examination it will be found
that the stalks are too gross and thick for
good hay, and the quantity of land, to the
acre much less than it would have been if
sown thicker; besides which. thin clover,
is much more apt to lodge than that which
a.,
but the moving greatly impcdcd.
AS sooE as the clover Is up, if the land be
not very rich, sow halfa oushel of plaster
(suphatc Of lime) to the acre this will have a
tendency to protect the young clever from
dronth and the heat of the sun. and thereby
insure the fields being well set with grass
AS this application is direct and unfailng
manure for the red clover, the plaster does
best sown during damp weather. 1t is true,
If the land he rich and the season favorable.
the clover may stand well without the aid of
plaster, but otherwise there will oe greater
danger of losing the crop from the want of it..
Most the complaints we hear of clover not
standing would have been prevented by plas-
terlng it as soon as it came up, and if our
people ever expect to succeed with clover they
Will sooner or later have to resort to the use
OF this cheap and useful fertilizer
After the grain is cut from over the clover.
| it be best not to pasture the field at least not
with heavy stock, as many fields of Young
clover are greatly injured by excessive pas.
turing during the first season ofgrowth. and
the loss thereby sustained greatly exceeds the
profits of the pasturage obtained, besides the
great injury to the land
Should the weeds or stubblc threaten to be
in the way of the scythc at moving time let
them be brushed down the preceding winter
or early in the spring. After cutting the
first crop of hay-which should be done when
about half the hands have assumed brown
color-if the land be not rich and the second
crop he intended for seed, SOW half bushel
Of plaster to the acre soon after the hay is
removed. -S0uthern Homestead.