The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1920-06-04

prepared by the United States Depart
ment Of Agriculture.)
Clover seed is high priced and
scarce, and good samples will COM
mand prices that many farmers will
be ioath to pay. The United States
department of agriculture, however,
urges the seeding of as large an acre
age as possible. The best information
Obtainable shows that the foreign mar
ket Is quite as bare of clover seed as
is our own. The French and Italian
supplies are sold out, and there ap-
pears to be no surplus in Germany or
in Russia. This means that clover seed
will be high for at least two years to |
come if not more, and those farmers |
who seeded last spring or who seed |
in 1920 will have chance to sell their |
clover seed crop at good figure. This |
Is time to look ahead, and for Ameri- !
can farmers to get the benefit of the
high prices. before Europe has been
able to get back to normal production
and the prices fall.
Watch Quality of Seed.
In view of the high price of clover
Seed it is especially important that
farmers pay careful attention to the
quality of seed they buy. The relation
between the purity and termination
Of sample of clover seed and its val.
ue to the farmer has been so fire..
quently discussed that it is not neces-
sary to enter into details. A farmer,
paying a low price for a poor lot of
seed, may really be paying more for
the good seed that will grow than he
would have in a sample of higher
price. The only way to decide this is
to secure samples and quotations from
reliable firms, and have the seed an
| alyzed by the state seed laboratory or
by the seed laboratory of the Unitedf
States department Of agriculture.
The attention of farmers is also call
ed very especially to the fact that
French and Italian seed has been and
is being imported into this country and
that the experiments so far conducted
by the department Of agriculture in
dictate that this seed will produce a
plant more subject to disease and less
hardy under American conditions than
plants from our own seed.
In sections where there is no disease
and if the winter is moderate sue
cessful stand of clover may be secured
with imported seed, but the chances
against success are always greater
than when using American seed. Farm
ers are urged. therefore. to insist upon
a statement showing where the seed
| oHo hnn ho tnl
1t is also a time to consider with
more than usual care the means neces-
sary for getting the most out of the
seed sOwn. 1t will not pay to throw
expensive seed in poorly prepared
ground as was so often done when
clover was cheap. The seed bed should
be well prepared. The best way is not
wheat, but to harrow it in on the
wheat or to seed with spring grain
in a we'll prepared seed bed. Seeding
alone without a companion or nurse
grain crop will often be better, but
not always. If seeding must be done on
rather worn soil. it is better to seed
alone especially if the field is not very
weedy. If a special seed bed is pre-
pared it should be well compacted. A
freshly plowed and narrowed field is
too open for the best results. The soil
must be cOmpacted or the seed bed will
dry out before the young plants get
their roots down far enough.
| Be Sure Whether Lime Is Needed.
Another matter of the utmost i'm
| e. - x,-h, M
the field it is proposed to seed needs
lime Unless the farmer is sure, he
should send a sample of the soil to his
state station and inquire. Not far from
IS per cent of the arabic land east OF
the Mississippi and north of the south
ern boundary Of Tennessee needs lime
to bring good crop of clover. This
fact can not be too strongly EN-
phasized. II the soil is "sour" do mo-
waste expensive red clover seed or
it-let some one else have it. But lane
need not remain sour. A ton or two
of Underground limestone per acr'
will, in the average case, put the sol
into condition to grow clover. 1t is no
necessary to put on enough to com
III pletely saIlSIy the lime requirement
The Pennsylvania station has show
n that lime requirement of 500 pound
81 per acre or less did no great harm
but when more is needed it must b
)I supplied if clover is to do well. Sol
y with lime requirement of 100
81 pounds or more per acre will usual
ri not make a paying crop Of red clover
& II the wheat ground needs lime tn
N clover should be seeded with sprin
i grain with lime narrowed in on tn