The Savannah morning news., 1903-05-25
Crimson Clover.

NJ. ]. s., writing in Southern Planter
about the value of this plant for South
ern use, says:
soil left bare over winter suffers
serious injury, not only from danger of
washing and other mechanical causes.
but also because a large proportion of
the plant food existing in the soil as a
natural condition is lost through seep-
age, etc. The early spring rains are
particularly injurious in this respect.
summer rains may carry soluble plant
food down to depths beyond the reach
of plants, but the rapid evaporation
commencing as soon as rain ceases
brings it back to the surface soil. IN
the early spring evaporation is Slight,
and the soluble plant food taken up
by soil water finds it's way to the sea
by the medium of streams and rivers.
For this reason, though corn is a
valuable crop of itself and doubly use
full in freeing a soil of weeds, it is at
a disadvantage because it leaves the
soil bare over winter. OF course. where
a systematic rotation is followed wheat
often follows corn, and this is fall
sown. Frequently rye is fall-sown
merely as a soil cover. At best, these
leave several weeks bare soil, and at a
bad time. The best plan is to broad
as it is laid by. BY this means the
soil is constantly covered and by a
crop that does more than simply pro-
tect the soil. In fact the value of
crimson clover as a nitrogen gatherer
is much greater than is commonly sup
posed fair yield will produce per
acre in forage, stubbe and roots about
$50 pounds of nitrogen, all or nearly
all taken from the air This is worth
over $40 simply as manure, and may be
considered a gain to that extent. 1t
must be kept in mind that this gain is
largely in addition to the value of the
crop as forage and as a soil cover.
A crop of seventy bushels of corn
per acre makes use of but a little over
100 pounds of heterogeneous plant food.
so that crimson clover in corn leaves
the soil richer in nitrogen than when
the corn was planted. 1t is well to
note, though, that crimson clover or
any other legume, for that matter,
cannot store up this air nitrogen UNI
less it has a very definite quantity of
potash and phosphoric acid to go with
IT. The corn crop, for example, con-
tains, besides its ITO pounds of nitro
gen, about eighty pounds of potash
and sixty pounds of phosphoric acid.
This is just taken from the soil, the
very soil that is to grow a crop of
crimson clover Now, while the clover
side help, it can do so only II the
proper amounts of potash and phos-
phoric acid are present, and in avail
able form. A good crop of crimson
clover contains per acre about $50
pounds of nitrogen, 140 pounds of pot
ash and forty-five pounds of phosphoric
acid Without these two latter ele-
ments, the crop cannot store up the
nitrogen
In most sections of the country very
little fertilizer or manure is used on
the corn, especially when grown In ro-
tation on a turned under grass sod. AS
a rule, corn suffers from a lack Of
sufficient plant food This being the
case, how much more likely Is the
clover to suffer planted, as it is, when
the corn has taken from the soil all
the plant food it can reach? On this
account, 1t is generally found in prac-
tice that applications of the mineral
fertilizers insure the success of clover
sown in corn.
Some farmers demur to the cost Of