The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-28
fNEW[)aa!n?!a!V a!?!!V VIEWS 1!?e ,|
RoF J. THE ALABAMA poLYTEcHN INSTITUTE


 of the soils are acid, but am not cer- tain it would succeed on most of the soils in that region unless they were first lined My observation is that soils than on the very sandy soils, and
 still better if the clay contains some lime.
 I have never known burr clover to
 permeable prairie soils, while I have known instances of such failure with hairy vetch. Continuing the compari- son further between these two plants.
 burr clover Is adapted for pasturage purposes alone. while vetch makes the best of hay as well as pasturage. Both
 make their growth at the same season
 of the year. and mature seed in May and June, the burr clover ripening first ] Both reseed the land easily, the vetch
 scattering its seed somewhat more widely. Both are suitable for sowing
 on Bermuda sod provided 1t can be prepared, and on such sod, these plants | in winter and Bermuda in summer fur
 nish, the nearest approach to all,the- year-round pasturage for the South. Burr clover is not very fastidious as to the kind of preparation. provided
 fine earth is brought in close contact with the burrs and provided that the | soil is not rendered excessively loose | by late preparation or by the blowing l under of much trash. If land is plowed be competed by use of the harrow, roller, or by rains. On clean cot ton lands or similar fields. 1t is preferable
 SarTowing % the seed ft, than to saess ieavs l the soil loose from late blowing. If | the land is plowed, both the harrow and | the roller should be used after the seed are sown.
 Various amounts of seed have been recommended. I do not consider three
 bushels of burrs as excessive If we would cover the land completely the ] first year. However, the cost of such
 thick seeding Is almost prohibitive, the
 Purrs costing about si5o per bushel.
 use only one-thlrd or one-half of this 1 amount of seed obtaining a partiat
 stand the |, iirst I year and allowing this ] on the Southern market. This plant Is somewhat different from the Southern
 burr clover having no spots on the
 prickles on the seed. Iii rests that I
 have made at Auburn the Southern
 form has also proved to be harder to- the California seed is their lower cost and the fact that they are usually sold
 in the thrashed condition. thus insur-
 advantage or the California seed in ad-
 dition to those mentioned is the fact
 that the thrashed California seed need to be inoculated, while Southern burr clover seed sown in the burr does not need inoculation, the burrs carrying the necessary germs. field on which burr clover mas grown will supply in- ocula ting material for alfalfa. a close relation of burr clover. Californians complain that the burrs of their variety adhere to sheeps' wool, injuring it's sale. Southern sheep raisers have made
 no such complaint of the Southern burr clover.
 Burr clover rapidly improves the soil, the cots being covered with tu-
 bercIes. I have been told of one field ! in which the yield has been raised to | nearly two bales of cotton per acre,
 chiefly as the result of many annual winter crops of burr clover, most of which is plowed under in time for the l late planting of cotton each spring. In | this case, narrow balk between each cotton row is left unbroken until
 June. on which burr clover natures
 and reseeds the land. At one of the experiment stations burr clover on an acre, even before March 1, contained
 as much nitrogen as Is found in 1000 pounds of cotton seed meal and the amount of nitrogen continues to in
 crease as the season advances.
 J. F. D.