The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1922-02-03
Farm Bureau Notes
Grow More Clover


The acreage of clover in st. Fran
co.'s county will and should be in
creased this year. After the soil has
been sweetened with limestone, clover
has been found to grow well on land
that formerly it would not grow on.
In some communities, large number
of farmers are applying limestone to
their soil. On the average they are
using two tons per acre. That this
practice will spread to other commun-
tiles, is assured, as some farmers IN
these other communities are getting
ton or more to put on half acre OF
land for demonstration purposes.
Clover is an excellent soil builder
and a mighty good feed for farm ami
mails. All farm animals require pro-
tein in some form in order to make
their best growth or to produce the
best results either in the form of milk
Nand butter, as in the case of dairy
stock, or as eggs, in the case of poul-
try, The ordinary roughage, such as
corn stover and ordinary grass hay,
is low in the necessary protein. On
many farms, this protein is supplied
by feeding such concentrates as bran,
oil meal, or cotton seed meal; but
these concentrates are expensive and
ON most farms should be in large
measure replaced by a leguminous
forage crop, such as red clover, Whlch
can be grown in the place. Red clover
is one of the most highly nutritious
forage plants, either in the green state
or cured as hay.
The clovers have been justly ranked
as the principal foundation Of a per-
manent system of agriculture. BY the
proper utilization of the clover in the
rotations, it is possible permanently
to maintain the supply Of nitrogen ana
humus in the soil. The fertillzlng
value of red clover IS not entirely IN
the hay which would be plowed under
if the crop were to be used for green
manure. Experiments show that 30
to so per cent Of the fertilizer value
of the clover may lie in the roots ana
stutble which are plowed under, even
though the hay crop is removed. In
one experiment, an experiment station
found that the red clover produced on
an acre, contained 122 pounds of nitro
gen. 6S pounds of potash, and 2S
pounds of phosphoric acid. 1t ire
ouently happens that the yields OF
GRAIN crops are increased as much as
10 bushels to the acre by turning un-
der clover sod. However. the oniy
real addition it makes to the land IS
the humus it supplies, together with
the NITROGEN it is able to extract from
the air. The other fertilizer elements,
such as potash and phosphorus. acid,
must needs be drawn from tne SOL ~
self. AS soils commencing TO give low
Yields are likely to be low IN nitrates'
the use of clover will bring largely IN
creased returns for a number OF years.
unit the other fertilizer elements be-
ein to be depleted. Under such con-
ditions. the clover acts in one sense
as a stimulant to the soil, IN that 1t
induces the soil to give up larger
Quantities of the other fertilizer eie-
ments than it would otherwise be
called upon to do. In as much as
phosphoric acid and potash are not
added to the soil by the growth of red
clover thereon, it is intimately nee
essary to supply these in the for,1 -
commercial fertilizers, or in the form
of commercial fertilizers, or IN the
form of barnyard manure, from time
to time.
The best time to sow clover, ac-
cording to w. c. Etheridge, Prof.
of Field Crops at the Missouri College
of Agriculture, is in early, spring,
when the ground is alternately freez-
ing and thawing. The seed should be
sown in the morning when the, groud
is hard ad the seed will be worked in
to the soil by the alternate freezing
and thawing of the soil during the
next few days. Seed of the highest
quality should always be used. 1t Is
extremely wasteful to spend time and
money in making preparation for
clover and then to use low grade seed
which not only terminate poorly, but
also introduce multitude of noxious
weeds into the soil.