The Savannah morning news., 1902-04-28


says Crimson clover is certainly the
best adapted of all the clover family
for the poor, sandy soils of the South.
1t will grow and thrive on the poorest
kind of soils if it gets any chance at
all to do So but with this crop, as
with every other crop, a small invest
ment in the proper kind of fertilizer
will yield very profitable returns.
Where the soil is very thin, about six
hundred pounds per acre of fertilizer,
analyzing nine to ten per cent. phos-
phoric acid and eight to ten per cent.
potash will certainly give a remuner-
alive yield. 1t is sheer folly to spend
time and seed in sowing any kind of
crop on poor land unless it is judiclous-
ly fertilized. What is meant by being
judiciously fortified is to be fortified
in accordance with the necessary plant
food for the crop in view. Crimson
clover. for instance, don't require any
nitrogen in the fertilizer used on it, be-
cause the plant is nitrogen gatherer
for itself, and that is where its extra
ordinary value TO the farmer with thin
soil comes in, in that it supplies the
soil with the most essential (and moss
expensive. where it has to be Doughty
of all the elements that go to make
up plant-food in the soil. 1t will also
endure more cold weather than any
of the other clovers. and it is very sell
dom our winters in the South, are SER
we're enough to kill it. And when we
also take into account it's extraordinary
high value as food for stock when cut
at the proper stage and cured into
hay, every farmer in the land should
make point of knowing all he can of
it this fall, when the prospects for for-
age (being scarce) are likely to be real
lied before spring.
Early in September is the best time
to SOW the seed in this latitude. The
land should be thoroughly plowed and
narrowed and the fertilizer applied a
couple of weeks before sowing the
seed. One good rain should at least
occur between the fertilizing and SOW
ing, and the stand will be all the bet
ter for more than one. A great loss
of seed takes place particularly in
small seed like clover if the seed is
put in the ground Immediately after
the fertilizer has been applied, no mat
ter what kind of fertilizer or seed is
useds
In sowing the seed about ten pounds
per acre will give a fair stand. Other
seed should be sown along with it, so
as to protect the young plants when
they come up Some SOW peas. and
some oats; my preference is for buck
provide a better shade from the hot
September sun than either peas or
oats. And where there is buckwheat,
the grasshopper, which is very much
in evidence at that time of the year,
will give it wide berth, and when
the first frost comes buckwheat will
die at once and it's foliage will make
a mulch and part fertilizer for the
young clover plant, and it's roots rot
in he will 10 n
moles%and other enemies of the clover
plant who feed on it's roots during the
winter so that my ideal combination
is crimson clover and buckwheat: ten
pounds of the one and three pecks of
the other per acre win give a good
stand and will well repay the trouble
and expense.
Where crimson clover is grown as a
soil renovator it should be plowed I'M
der as the blossom is turning to seed.
Some farmers pillow it in such a way
as to cover all the plant but the top,
leaving it to mature and reseed itself,
and if peas are then used as a summer
crop and plowed under in the fall, the
clover will appear in due course and
make an excellent crop. This is really
one of the easiest and most effective
way of renovating old worn-out land
and bringing it up to very high de-
gree of fertility. and 1 would strongly
urge any one with such land, to give
this plan a trial. when they will be
more than astonished at the results.
If the crop is wanted for hay 1t
should be cut just as the blossom shows
good all over the field. 1t will inn
prove the yield if stock are allowed
to Craze on it for a little time every
few days. After it gets a few inches
high, say, in February and March,
and this is excellent pasture for dairy
cows at that time of the year when
green feed is scarce. But great care
must be exercised that too many head
are not turned on the field al one time,
as their hoofs, tramping the soil, will
damage the crop. Care must also be
exercised not to turn stock on it when
the dew is on: or during rain. or it
may cause the stock to bloat, which is