The Hickman courier., 1878-07-26
How to use Clover

On this subject the Rural New Yorker
says:
Farmers who grow clover largely are
almost necessarily improving their land
1t is true that some modes of disposing
of the clover crop are more advantageous
than others, but 50 long as clover i
grown the soil must be benefited. The
roots at least must remain, under the
most exhausted system of cropping and
clover roots are no mean fertilizer. They
take from the subsoil and probably also
from the atmosphere most of the sub
stance which the plaut contains. 1t is
hardly possibly, except by the utilization
of atmospheric nitrogen, to account for
the beneficial effects of clover on the
soil. [ have often seen good crops
grown on clover sod without manure,
and on land which, before being clovered,
was reckoned rather poor. OF course,
the effect is all the better if n crop of
leaves and haulm is turned under with
the roots
The clover helps the soil in other
ways. Its roots are the cheapest sub.
soiler and if the field is not very wet,
will give the soil all the drainage neces-
sary for ordinary farm crops. I am
sati fed that farmers who grow
clover largely, can keep their fields
dry with one half the understanding
they would otherwise need. Walking
this spring over the fields, find clover
sod dry and ready to plough, while in
timothy and other grass adjoining, the
water oozes out from the surface under
the pressure of the foot. Even in wheat
fields find that where clover has been
ploughed under, or even a clover sod, the
soil is much dryer than on wheat after
stubble. The decsying cloverroots form
channels through which the water passes
away.
PleughiDg under clover when in bloom
is rightly regarded as a wssteful method
of using it-far better, however, than not
using it at all. The objections to naked
summer fallows are that they require
two seasons to make a crop, and that
while the sod is decaying under the blaze
of a summer sun or unprotected surface
of the field, much of the valuable part
of the clover is lost. If the soil is rich,
as it should be, it will produce as much
after barley or oats as after naked fallow
1 do not suppose that fsllows average FIVE
| bushels per acre more of wheat than land
sown after stubble. This year the
difference will be even less, and some of
the best wheat have seen was after a
heavy crop of barley. Five bushels of
wheat are too little to psy the loss OF a
| grain crop and the extra expense in
cultivating the fsllow. There is a more
important loss, as summer fallows are
usually ploughed the year after the
clover is sown, the roots have not yet
made their full growth, and do not until
/ the second crop of clover in September
when the seed is harvested. This is not
too late to plough and SOW TO wheat.
Good crops are thus grown; but the
difficulty is in getting a good " catch " OF
clover seed. My way is to harvest two
crops of clover the second year, the last
of which is for seed. Feed this out on
the farm, SOW the seed, and make big
manure pile. The year after, manure
sod heavily, plant with corn or potatoes,
and then follow with barley or oats, and
wheat again. In this way there is no
trouble about a good catch of clover
every year, and besides the manure
made from the two crops of clover, and
seed sold aud used will pay the interest
on the land.