The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1875-05-20
Raising Red Clover for Hay vs.. For
Seed.

l have known crop of clover seed ex-
haust the land more than crop of
wheat. Clover is a great Tenovating
crop when grown for hay, for pasture or
for plowlng under, hence clover seed
should be sown literally. On the other
hand raising seed is highly profitable but
somewhat eXhausting to the land Raise
clover seed, but use the money obtained
from its sale to enrich the land.
A bushel of clover seed will usu-
ally buy six or eight bushels of
peas or beans, and these fed to stock
on the farm will restore to the soil, in the
form of manure, six or eight times as
much plant-food as the crop of clover
seed removed. Do not try to cheat the
soil. Do not induce it to give you good
crop of clover seed and then refuse ii
share in the profits. In raising clover
seed cut the first crop early-say in this
latitude the first or second week of June.
A better rule still is to cut the first crop
before all the blossoms are unfolded 1t
is also important that the first crop
should be mown as evenly as possible
that the plants may start equally and the
future crop OF seed ripen all at the same
time. tits desirable to get the seed early
say the first or second week in Septem-
Der. Occasionally large crop will ripen
in October; but at that season the
weather is usually unpropitious,
and a large number of the heads
when ripe are apt to drop off in
wet weather, both before and after they
are cut. A large growth of foliage is
sometimes obtained by sowing gypsum
on the clover after the hay crop is re-
moved; but in cool growing season the
seed in this case is apt to ripen
poorly. The largest crops are obtained,
other things being equal, from land
seeded with nothing but clover, and in
this case the seed should be sown-pretty
thickly-say six or eight quarts per acre.
This thick seeding has double advan-
tage. You get a finer quality of clover
hay, and, the plants being thick on the
ground, the crop is not so apt to lodge
and can be mown more evenly. Six
bushels per acre is sometimes grown on
good land when clover alone is sown, but
three or four bushels is full average
Let not the farmer who neglects and
starvcs his land think that he can get
rich by growing clover seed. The profits
are not for him. There is no better in
dicatiou of good land and good treat
ment than luxuriant crops of clover
The land that will produce good clover
will produce good wheat or other grain,
and the negligent farmer deserves neither
one nor the other. Let him give the soil
good tillage and liberal treatment, and it
will prove grateful. On the contrary,
If farmer starves the soil the returns
in light crops will impoverish his
pecuniary resources. On a wheat farm
1t is not easy to grow too much clover
provided it is all consumed on the farm
or pioWed in as a green manure; but it
is quite easy to raise too much clover
seed. Clover is, perhaps, all things con-
sldered, the best renovating crop that
can be grown on a wheat farm. Like
peas and Eeans clover is luguminous
plant and draws considerable quantity
OF ammonia from the atmosphere, while
Its deep roots penetrate the subsoil and
bring up potash and other Ingredients of
plant food. 1t is admirably adapted to
our climate, and as yet "cloyer sick
ness" which is SO troublesome on the
light soils of England, is known in but
few localities in this country. Whether
1t is best for farmers to raise their own
seed is a question which deserves con-
slderation. 1t should be borne in mind
that the main object of sowing so much
clover is to enrich the land, and it is IN
doubtedly true that letting clover 60 to
seed changes it from a renovating to an
exhausting crop. Hence the true sys-
tenn of management is to raise seed only
in small quantities, say on half an acre
ofahe best ground, while the remainder
should be plowed under OF be made into
hay and fed out on the FARM" Agrf-
cola" IN ". Y. Herald.