The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1891-05-06
Glover for Feed and Fertilizer.

Agricultural Editor:-If some of
the modern seedsmen who are in the
habit of remaining an old variety and
putting it as a novelty would try their
hand at clover, they might persuade
some of our farmers to grow this valu-
able crop more extensively than they
now do. The farmers of northern YER
mont ought at least to begin to make
experiments in growing clover as a
crop by itself, NOT little clover with
a good deal of timothy but SOW it as
they SOW wheat or oats, giving it the
second year the whole ground. Com
pare clover with wheat. Two bushels
of seed wheat will cost SO. Twelve
pounds of clover seed will cost about
$3.50. Twenty bushels of wheat is
good yield, worth ordinarily 81 a
bushel. Call the straw worth SIS and
you have 1926 from your acre of wheat.
The same land would produce about
three tons of clover hay and heavy
crop of rowen. If the stubble and
roots are plowed under the first year of
cutting the clover, the value of the
crop would be over 500. The stubble
and roots of crop of wheat or oats are
worth very little for manure, while
crop of clover leaves in the ground plant
food to the value of from S25 to 1876. If
1 am not greatly mistaken, an acre
sowed to clover will bring more real
profit to the Vermont farmer than an
acre sown to any other crop. Why
not try an acre of clover this year, or
half an acre? but make beginning,
and see if it will not be great help in
solving the problem of how to make the
farm pay.
But there are some poor farmers who
are always seeking an excuse for not
doing better. OF this class are the men
who" got sick of the Jerseys because
they are 80 plaguey nervous" or they
milk so hard" These men will have
nothing to do with clover because it
winter-kills, or because it is so hard to
cure. l may be mistaken, but l think
clover winters better when sown alone
than when little is sown with grass
The roots are long, reaching down into
the subsoil and getting hold of accumu-
lations of plant-food which are out of
the reach of the roots of common
plants. am speaking of the common
red clover. Alternate freezing and
thawing pull the roots out of the
ground or break them off. But if
there is good covering of clover rowen
on the ground, this is far less liable to
occur in season when the ground is
not covered with snow. And l do not
think the clover crop will fail oftener
than the wheat or the oat or the potato
crops fail. Alsike clover has root
which spreads near the surface, hence
this clover is not 80 liable to winter kill
as red clover. But the great stumbling
piOSh III 'hO way VI SioNOi -StoWluS is
the curing of it. Heavy or large
growth of clover contains much Juice,
the stems are large and difficult to dry.
But it can be done, especially with the
aid of hay caps, and nice clover hay
is worth all it costs, and a good deal
more than it needs to cost. have not
had experience enough to speak pos
itively, but from all l have learned l
think that if the water or dew can be
dried off from the surface and the
clover well wilted, it can then be
put in cocks, covered with caps, and
remain until it is in condition to draw
in. 1t should be cut in the afternoon,
when there is every prospect of good
hay day the next day.
Glover makes excellent ensilage, but
il is better made into hay to feed with
corn ensilage. If farmer can raise
corn and clover and grass, he ought to
make money at farming, especially if
he has dairy of good cows and can
make good butter. Nitrogen is the
most costly element of cattle food as
well as plant food, and if we can get
nitrogen from the air in clover for
both food and fertilizer, then we ought
by all means to grow this plant. Glover
rowen is a good feed for the cows when
the pastures begin to fail in midsum-
mer. 1t is far better than the corn
fodder which so many feed, the corn
hardly in the milk, or perhaps sowed
corn is cut which is just in the tassel.
OF course if a farmer chooses to water
his cattle in this way, he may do it,
but such farming don't pay.
]. w. NEWTON.