Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1888-04-06
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
ABOUT RED GLOVER.

1t furnishes more stock food in a
green or dry state than any forage
crop that can be produced without
cultivation and by sowing the seed
broadcast. It's largest yield IL the
season after the seed is sOwn. This
is not the case with any Of the true
grasses, except timothy. Several
of them, like blue grass, do not be-
come we'll established in the soil or
furnish a large amount of seed till
several years after the seed is sown.
AS pasturage for swine red clover
has no equal. 1t has often been
shown that an acre in red clover
will support given number OF pigs
longer than an acre OF corn. The
latter requires much cultivation,
but the former none. An acre IN
red clover will furnish food for i've
medium.sized pigs for about five
months, and if the season is favor
able they will require no grain
For fattening sheep no forage crop
is equal to clover. Most dairymen
recommend red clover in moderate
quantities for mich COWS. They
saw it increases the yield of milk
and improves its quality by i'm
parting a peculiar, sweet, agreeable
flavor which is communicated to
the butter and cheese made from It,.
A field of red clover will furnish
two crops of hay, or one OF hay and
one of seed, if the season is favor
able, or it will supply excellent fall
y urage after the main crop is
vested. The second crop OF
clover hay is very desirable food
for calves and sheep of all ages
1t is most excellent food for cows
that are giving milk during the
winter. For converting into ensil-
age it is not likely that there is any
crop superior to red clover. 1t
does not furnish as much bulk or
weight as sweet or common old
clover. but it makes up in quality
what it lacks in quantity. Few
ANIMALS except cattle will eat corn
ensilage, but sheep, pigs and fowls
will devour that made from red
clover. which does not require to
be chopped before it is put into the
siIo. 1t supplies the place of roots
and other kinds OF green food bet
ter than any field product. AS a
soIliDg crop it is superior to any
forage plant except alfalfa. On
rich soil 1t will stand cutting three
or four times during the growing
season, and scarcely any of it will
be wasted.
The production of nearly all
crops tends TO impair the fertility
of the soil and to reduce its pro-
ducfiveness. Red clover on the
cOa rary, restores fertility to the
soil that produces it, and makes 1t
"Sield more abuDdautly." A large
crop OF red clover can be raised on
and naturally too poor to produce
raging crops of coin, potatoes or
small grains. A good crop can also
t. produced on land whose fertility
\ been reduced by raising corn
or any OF the small grains several
SEASONS in succession. Red clover
D. the tired fields "sweet restOrer."
How it takes plant food from the
Ill and at the same time con-
tributes to it materials to form
other, and in many respects more
valuable, plants is not with GER
taInty known. Some believe that
it takes nitrogen as we'll as carbon
from the air and deposits 1t in its
roots, branches and leaves. Others
think it takes no nitrogen from the
air, but that its roots play the part
of vegetable scavengers, taking
things from the soil that other
plants reject, digesting them, de-
POSING them near the surface of
i'v soil, and leaving them where
they can oe appropriated by corn,
wheat and other grains.
Possibly both theories are cor
rect. That red clover leaves are
able to absorb nitrogen from the
air Is not unlikely. That its roots
penetrate the soil deeper than
those of most plants raised in fields
is certain. That they have enOr-
nous appetites and are not at all
particular about their food is Obvl-
Gus. They get good living where
the roots of other plants starve.-
Farmers who are more interested
in paying off mortgages and in
getting money to erect new build
ings than in botany and agricul-
tural chemistry will care COM
paratively little about the way
clover be nefits the soil. They want
to add to their capital and not to
the worlds stock Of scientific in
formation. 1t serves their purpose
if they get results. Clover is not,
like most grasses, a FESTIVE crop
1t makes a rapid growth ; it crowds
eut lost kinds of plants ITS roots
take complete possession of the
soil. When the plants die the
roots soon decompOse and furnish
food for corn, potatoes, wheat and
the less valuable small grains.
The roots OF red clover weigh
about as much, in their green OF
dry state, as the portions of the