The Montgomery tribune., 1908-05-15
Increasing Glover Yield or
the Northeast Mo. Level
Prairie


failure and the high price of seed.
Since clover or some other
legume is the foundation of per-
manently profitable agriculture
on any soil, however this copdi-
ton is to be deplored and every
effort should be made to find a
means of making the clover
catches more sure.
The results of the experiments
which the Agricultural Expert
ment Station has been conducting
on this northeast Missouri prairie
are of much interest in this con-
nection since they show very con-
clusively some of the things
which may be done to encourage
the growth of clover and increase
the yield.
1t should be said that the things
which are of the most Importance
in preventing the profitable
growth of clover on this land are
first the lack of drainage with the
usual accompanying sourness of
the soil, second the lack of humus
or vegetable matter in this soil
due to the constant cropping of
the land to corn, oats and timothy,
and third the lack of available
phosphates which is common to
all of the somewhat worn grass of
this soil. Evidently then the
first essential to successful clover
growing on this land is to see that
the excess of water is removed
by properly located surface drains
or possibly in some cases with uu-
der drains. 1t should be said that
the Experiment Station is exper-
imenting with tile drainage on
this tlat prairie and has already
secured some encouraging results.
On the more rolling phases of
this prairie the matter of drainage
is of least consequence The sec
ond would be to build up the
humus supply through crop ro-
tation and manuring and the
third would be to supply some
form of phosphate to make up for
the deficiency of the soil.
The following results are from
the soil Experimental field at
Unionville, Putnam County which
is located on a typical level piece
of rather wet prairie:
No soil treatment gave a yield OF
......... 1912 10. clover per acre.
Cowpeas grown and turned under
gave q yield of :. .2457 lb. clover
per acre.
Cowpeas turned under and lime
added a yield of ,3071 ID. clover
per acre.
Cowpeas turned under and bone
added a yield of 1855 ID. clover
per acre.
The cowpeas added humus and
nitrogen, the lime corrected the
sourness of the soil, the bone sup
piled soluble phosphates and the
potash was of value because the
land was inclined to be wet anc
the supply OF potash in the soil
unavailable.
1t will be seen that the yield O
clover has been exactly doubled
by the use of cowpeas, lime ant
bone while it was considerably
more than doubled where potasl
was added to the above combina
ton. 1t should be said that tn
net return in the case of the COW.
peas, lime, bone treatment wa
S3.47 and in the case of cowpeas
lime, potash, bone it was S42
per acre, sho wing that the treat
ment paid a good financial return
Practic ally speaking it is doubt
full from previous experiment
whether the use of lime will pa,
heavy returns on this soil. If tn
land can be we'll drained, limin
/ will be very probably not nee
essary, and moreover with tn
I land better drained the need fo
4 potash will doubtless disappea
/ since the analysis of this so
I shows it to be very high in potas
l if it can be sufficiently supple
I with humus to set the%potash fire,
4 The things which can be strong
4 ly recommended are first th
n bull ding IN of the humua sunni