Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1914-08-14

Crimson Clover as a Fertilizer
| Nitrogen. in the form of nitrate OF
soda and cotton seed meal, costs from
Is TO 20 cents a pound, and is by lar
the most expensive fertilizing element
that the Southern farmer has to buy
Thirty-fye thousand tons of atmos-
pheric nitrogen lie above every acre
OF land in the South Crimson clover
has the power to collect and store this
nitrogen in the plant at the rate oi
from Is to l25 pounds per acre. III
other words, an acre of good crirn-
son clover, where the entire crop. Is
turned under has the fertilizing value
OF $50 pounds OF nitrate of soda or
1900 pounds of cotton seed meal,
Plant Small Patch the First Year.
Where inoculating soil must be
brought from distance, it is advisable
to plant only a small patch, say one
tenth of an acre. the first year. 1hls
should be inoculated with about Z00
pounds of soil and four or five pounds
of seed sown upon it in order to in
sure a good stand From this small
plot sufficient soil may be obtained to1l
inoculate large field the following
year.
Crimson Clover in Crop Rotations.
Experience has shown that waltz
able rotation for Southern farms con-
| sists of a three-year rotation OF oats
and peas. cotton, and corn and peas.
The only defect in this rotation has
been the lack Of leguminous winter
cover crops. The value of this rota-
ton nav be almost doubled by the
use of crimson clover sown in the cot
ton middles in the fall and on the pea
or lespedeza stubble following the oat
crop. This would give rotation as
follows;
First year, cotton with crimson clo-
| yer sown in the middles in the fall.
| Second year, corn on clover sod with
peas sown in corn at the last cultlva-
| lion. Third year. oats sown III the tall,
| followed by alespedeza or peas after
he oats, and crimson clover sown on
the lespedeza or pea stubble in the tall.
Such a rotation as this furnishes
three staple crops and four soil-im-
proving and grazing crop on the same
| and in three years, filing the land
With humus and making unnecessary
he purchase of heterogeneous tertlliZ-
arS.
Conclusion.
A number of successful demonstra-
tions have been made with bur and
crimson clover in each of the Southern
States. In the fall of 1912 several
hundred demonstration were planted
TO bur and crimson clover in North
md South Carolina. all of which
proved very successful. During the
season of 1912, l,l30 demonstration
| ields Of bur and crimson clover were
established in Alabama, distributed
over The entire stse from the Gull
sdsst to 'rae Tennessee valley. aad IN
| Guiding practically every soil type in
he State, from the light, sandy loans
to the stiff, waxy clays Both e'bur
and crimson clover proved undoubted
successes on all soil types in every
oart of the State. No failures of bur
clover we're reported where the seed
were sown in the bur" and the only
failures of crimson clover were due to
ack OF incubation. These demonstra-
tons ranged in size from one-tenth of
IN acre plats to l00-acre fields, and
their success furnished conclusive evi-
1ence Of the adaptabiity Of these crons
70 Southern soil and climatic condi-
lions. Either the bur or crimson
clover is just as valuable as a soil-im-
proving crop as COW peas. and the cot
ton fields Of the South should be COW
cred during the winter with these val
liable clovers to furnish abundant win
ter grazing for all classes of livestock
70 prevent soil erosion, and to enrich
the land with hunts and nitrogen
II. f. SAVELEY,
Agriculturist and Field Agent.