REPORT OF MR. X. WOf.VERTON 



319 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



EXPERIMENTS WITPI CLOVERS. 



The winter of 1905-OG was hard on the clovers. "WHiere there was little snow, they 

 killed quite seriously. The best practice is to have sufficient clover left in the fall to 

 hold the snow, 



ONE ACRE PLOTS. 



In 1904 three acres were sown, an acre each to Common Red, Alfalfa and Alsike. 

 The field was swept bare of snow during the winter of 1905-06 and the Common Red 

 and Alsike were almost wholly killed, while the Alfalfa was partly killed. 



The Alfalfa gave 1,045 lbs. at one cutting. The other plots were ploughed. 



SMALLER TEST PLOTS. 



The following table shows the returns from the one-twentieth acre plots. The 

 second crop of Alfalfa was left for seed, but no seed matured before frost, 



S.MALLKR Test Plots. 



OX GRAVELLY UPLAND. 



In May, 1905, Alfalfa and Common Red Clover and Western Rye grass were 

 sown on light gravelly iipland, both with and without a nurse crop. There was a good 

 catch on all the plots, but the clovers and Rye grass made better growth where there 

 was no nurse crop. The plots were neither mown nor pastured. The situation was 

 exposed to the N.W. wind and but little snow covered them. 



The clovers were practically all winter killed. The Western Rye grass yielded in 

 190*6, 1 ton 1^550 and 1,850 lbs. of hay, that sown without a nurse crop doing the 

 better. 



RESULTS OF ELEVEN TEARS. 



So much interest is now shown in clovers, and so many inquiries are received, 

 that it is thought best to give, as briefly as possible, the conclusions reached after a 

 careful study of all the experiments made here with clovers during the past eleven 

 years. 



In 1895 a series of ten experiments in growing clover with a nurse crop showed 

 that the clover does not reduce the yield of grain, but actually increases it in most 

 cases. In these experiments clover was grown with wheat, oats, barley and pease. Un- 

 fortunately this clover. Mammoth Red, was killed the next winter. 



The results of many experiments with White Dutch and Crimson clover would 

 indicate that they are not suited to this climate. 



