The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1899-05-27
The Vaaue Of Glover.

& The vsaue Of Clover. ...
During farmers institute held not
long since at Canisteo, n. Y, Mr.. Terry,
gave talk on the value OF clover. He
said: Above every mans farm there
are 10000 tons Of nitrogen to the acre;
clover can take this from the air into
the soil; NO other crop can do this. It
takes forty-ive pounds OF potash to
grow a ton OF clover. A good heavy
crop Of clover will take the nitrogen
from the air and the mineral matter
from the ground. The ground should
be kept stirred up, constantly bringing
the ground rich, deep color. -.
Glover has value, great value,
and when plowed under the ground
becomes rich and can be utilized for
other crops. One hundred pounds of
red clover hay contains more blood
and element than ton of any other
hay. Mr.. Terry grows more clover hay
than any other kind. He feeds it al
most entirely to his cattle.
He, in company with his brother,
went into the farming business about
thirty years ago. They purchased
farm of 125 acres in northeastern Ohio.
1t was almost entirely run down, peo-
pie laughed at them and thought they
would soon tire of the place. Before
they took it the farm did not pay itself
halfway. Ex., twelve tons OF hay
from forty-five acres was the average
yield. When they began farming they
had nine COWS, one horse and harness
and not dollar in money, and it was
pretty hard times with them. Mr..
Terry said that he was glad to get or
the farm long enough to go to town
and earn something to eat. His neigh"
Dor advised him to SOW some clover
seed in field where one-half was tim
;othy and the other half with nothing
on it. This he did, and he got more
clover than timothy. The cows that
ate the clover hay gave larger mess
of milk, and this afterward led him to
growing the clover hay for feeding his
stock. The way in which Mr.. Terry
discovered the great value of clover as
a fertilizer was this: He had a large
field which he intended to put into
corn; the field bordered on the road
side and ran back toward the hill. The
| field near the road was covered with
| clover and the remaining part was
timothy. He had not fertilizer enough
to cover the whole field, and so it was
only put on the timothy piece.
The field was plowed and corn
planted; after the harvest Mr.. Terry
found more corn had grown on the
clover piece without any manure than
did from the piece that was fertilized.
From this time on he decided to grow
| clover; then utilize the gronnd for po-e
tatoes and wheat. The clover was
plowed under every three years. Their
crops began to increase each year, and
thirteen years after they purchased the
land they obtained thirty-five bushels
of wheat to the acre. The farmers of
the country we're astonished at this
change, and Mr.. Terry was subjected
to a good deal OF criticism for his
methods of doing business. People
called him robber and blackguard;
but there was no attention paid to this.
One man said that he could see signs
of desolation, and that they (the Ter
rys) we're leaving barren lands for
their children.
During the past year their land av-
eraged forty bushels per acre. Mr..
Terry saves the manure from the
barnyard, and this nets him thousands
of dollars each year. The authorities
laugh at Mr.. Terry for plowing the
clover under with the idea of enriching
the land. Glover when standing
shades the ground, which assists also
in enriching it. About five years ago
Mr.. Terry bought cows for dairy pur-
poses, and to-day is feeding them on
red clover hay. In 1898 the cows
brought to the creamery 1916 pounds
of milk each. Mr.. Terry says by use
of clover the cows will in five years
average 10000 pounds of milk each.
Cow Peas as Hay.-Every good
thing has it's reverse side, and even
the COW pea, which is coming into
great prominence as crop for green
manuring, is thus attacked, by a writer,
as being unfit for hay: 1t is as a hay
crop. that cow peas are nearest a fail
ure. Owing to their tangled, sprawling
b. -'AnSo, ~ 40 faAAAAoSG- 4AnpOSolUl6 W cut,
pitch or cure them as hay. Often they
will rot next to the ground while the
. vines are still growing, and if cut,
they are very hard to cure, the leaves
on top drying and crumbling off while
still green and wet underneath, next
the ground. If stored damp in barn
Or stack they will heat and rot en-
masse, or may, by fermentation and
heat, turn their large per cent of nj
trogen into form of niter, dangerous
to horses and cattle. II caught by
rains after cutting they are very liable
to spoil, and owing to their tangled
condition, are hard to dry out.
Test Each Cow.-What we dairymen
should aim at is to secure the best
cows we can, and try testing each
cows milk by churning separately. and
ascertain for sure whether they nav
for their keeping and give us a little
profit We can be satisfied with a
small profit, but cannot afford to keen
cows at a loss, for the benevolent mr.
nose Of supplying dairy nrn,Iuots: