Middletown transcript., 1898-02-12
OF Interest
to Farmers


Common red clover is a great soil
renovator III the central west, and in
fact all over the corn-growing region.
Of late years it has been extremely diff
ficult 10 get coed stand and as con-
sequence the area has been much small
er TITAN titan Il It should ST have been Last sea-
son, however, the prevalence of much
moist, damp weather enabled farmers
to successfully seed quite an alea.
The most successful method, take
one year from another, seems to be in
seeding the clover with oats in the
spring. Some farmers still object to
this plan, saying that the oa's foliage
is so heavy the clover will be smothered
out before cutting time. This may be
true provided the usual amount of oats
is soND per acre, but in quite extended
experiments made by the practical far
mers in central Illinois. it has been
conclusively demonstrated that parti-
cularly during dry seasons and seasons
when there is dry period some tine
during the summer, clover ''catches''
much more readily when seeded in oats
provided about half the usual amount
Of oats seed, or ] J bu. and double the
ordinary amount of clover seed, 20-25
lbs. per acre are used.
The plan adopted by those most sue
cessful, is to plow the ground shallow,
as is ordinarily done for oats, or disk it
thoroughly if it is clean and mellow.
Then SOW the J bu oats per acre and
harrow them in. If the ground is in
good condition at the beginning, go
over it only once with the harrow, but
if it is rough, two workings may be
necessary After this sow on the clo-
yer seed and cover by one narrowing,
aiming always 20 get The clover seed
about one or one and one-fourth inches
below the surface. If the season is at
all favorable the clover plan! will come
up and being partially shaded when it
is tender, will get good top growth
and develop excellent roots by the time
the oats crop is ready to be cut. After
harvest the clover will receive more
sun and will grow nicely. In many
cases it will furnish good fall pasture,
and in some instances even gets high
enough to make crop Of hay. 1t is
not advisable, however, 10 fall pasture
this clover or to NOW it. Let it die
down and it will form 4 mulch which
will protect the roots during the win
ter and be beneficial in conserving
moisture in the spring. When clover
is to be sown with cats, it is best to do
the seeding as eaily As possible, so that
the clover plant will get a good start
before the grain crop is removed.
If the season promises to be wet
one, good results in sowing clover can
be obtained by pu ting the seed on win
ter grains along ab ,ut the middle of
March or possibly a little later. The
slight freezing and Ihawing at that
time will covel the seed and it will be
ready to start when warm weather
comes. The one great difficulty with
this plan is, if there happ ems to come
dry time during the spring the clover
plant is liable to be killed, as the roots
are so near the surface that they cannot
Withstand dry weather.. In some cases
it is possible to SOW the clover seed on
the winter grains in the spring after
the frost has left the ground and while
the surface is still nellew, then go
over the ground with smoothing har-
row and cover the clover seed. 1t
might appear that the smoothing har-
row would tear out the wheat or other
grain, but although the treatment
looks severe at the time of the crop u.s.
ually is the better for This narrowing.
The ground is compacted and in week
or two field so treated will be further
along than fit had not bt tenharrowed.