Year: 1866

"Raise Your own clover seed and SOW
it with an unsparing hand" like nearly
all agricultural preeepts needs qqalifca-
ton. On wheat farm it is not easy to
grow too much clover, provided it is all
consumed on the farm, or plowed in az
a green nanure but tits quite easy to
raise too much clover seed Clover is,
perhaps, all things considered, the best
renooatiag crop that can be grown on a
wheat farm. Like peas and beans, clo-
yer is leguminous plant, and draws a
considerable quantity-of ammonia from
the atmosphere, While It's deep roots
peIetratethe shBsoa and bring up pot!
ash and other ingredients of plaut-food.
1t is admirably adapted to our climate,
and as yet tfelover Sickness" which is
50 troublesome on the light soils Of
England, is known in but few localities
in this country.


Whether it is best for farmers to raise
their own seed is question which de-
serves consideration. We have urged
them to do so because we think they
will be likely to sOw more if they have
plenty of seed of their than II they
have to purchase But it should be
borne in mind that the main object of
sowing 50 much clover is to enrich the
land, and it is undoubtedly true that let
ting clover go to seed changes it from a
renovating to All exhaustive crop.


John Johnston, in letter now before
us, says he has frequently sold from
$500 to $1,000 worth and over OF clover
seed, in a year. He thinks it one Of the
most profitable crops farmer can grow,
but he adds, III have knoYna crop Of
clover seed exhaust the land more than
q crop of wheat" The conclusion Isl
this: Clover is great renovating crop
when grown for hay, for pasture, or for
blowing under, and should consequent
iy be sown Literally. O. D On the other
hand, raising seed is highly profitable,
but somewhat exhausting to the land.
Raise clover seed, but use the money Ob-
tqined from its sale to enrich the land. A
bushel of clover seed viii usually buy
six or eight bushels Of peas or beans,
and these fed to stock on the farm will
restore to the soil, in the form Of manure,
six or eight times as much plant-food as
the crop Of clover seed removed. Do
not try to cheat the soil Donot induce
it to give you good crop Of clover seed,
and then refuse It share in the profits.


In raising clover seed, cut the first
crop early-say in this latitude, the first
/ OF second week of June 1t is aIsoim-
portant that the first crop should be


mown as evsaly as possible that, the


plants may start equally, and the future


crop'of seed ripen all at the same time:


1t is desirable to get the seed early; say
the first or second week in September.


Occasionally large crop will ripen in
October; but at that season the weather
is unusally u1fpropitious, and large
number Of the heads when ripe are apt
to drop off in wet weather, both before
and after they are cut A large growth
of foliage is sometimes obtained by sow
ing gypsum on the clover after the hay
crop is removed, but in cool, growing
season, the seed in this case is apt to
ripen poorly. e. 30. st'Hs'..s' p, J. s''. .-
| The largest crops are obtained, other
things being equal, from land seeded
with nothing, but clover-and in this
case the seed should be sown pretty
thickly, say six or eight quarts per acre.
This thick seeding has double adYan-
tage: You get finer quality of hay,
and the plants being thick on the
ground the crop is not SO apt to lodge,
and can be mown more evenly! Six
bushels per acre is sometimes grown on
good land when clover alone is sown,
but three or four bushels is a full aver
age. The expense of growing, har-
yesting, and halling is very little, and
the seed is practically nearly all profit.
Let no farmer who neglec and staryes
bis land think that he can get rich by,
growing clover seeds. The profits are
not for him. There is no better indioa-
ton of good land and good treatment
than luxuriant crops of clover. The
land that will produce good clover will
produce good wheat or other grain
and the negligent farmer deserves nei-
ther one nor the other Let him give
the soil good tIlage and liberal treat
ment, and it will prove grateful, but if
he starves the soil the soil will starys
him o. .....r..t9 o,a fr.lI irc .4., O.