478 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



fall is sufficient to amply repay the cost of seed and seeding. Stud- 

 ies made at the New Jersey Experiment Station show that a good 

 thick crop, six inches high, will contain nitrogen and organic matter 

 equivalent to that contained in five tons of yard manure; that the 

 nitrogen is quite as useful for the corn plant as that contained in 

 the manure, besides it is evenly distributed and there is no labor 

 involved in its application. Another advantage of the crimson 

 clover is that it is a spring green manure crop, thus permitting a 

 return from it in the same season in which it is used. It will pay 

 farmers to carefully study the habits of this plant and then to 

 introduce it in their rotations as a soil renovator. If failures occur 

 the cause should be learned au^J a remedy sought; discouragement 

 should not follow one or two failures; remember that red clover 

 sometimes fails. It has succeeded in many instances when red clover 

 has failed. 



Other Varieties of Clover Sometimes Used. 



There are various other varieties of clover which possess useful 

 characteristics, though with the possible exception of sweet clover, 

 which is sometimes used in the south, they do not possess advant- 

 ages superior to those varieties already mentioned. The sweet clo- 

 ver {Melilotiis Alha), is a rank growing plant and is quite common 

 as a weed along roadsides and in waste places. It is seldom culti- 

 vated, either for forage or green manure, though it seems to have 

 the power of acquiring food from sources inaccessible to other plants 

 of the same family. It thrives particularly well on soils rich in lime. 

 Experiments with it in Alabama, Mississippi and Ohio show that 

 it in common with other legumes aids in soil improvement. Its 

 use is recommended only where other varieties do not meet the 

 requirements. 



Alfalfa. 



Alfalfa belongs to the clover family and while one of the most 

 valuable of this class of plants, from the forage standpoint, is not 

 adapted for use as a green manure, because of the difficulty of 

 securing a stand, and because of its comparatively slow early growth. 

 It is a perennial, which does not reach its maximum annual growth 

 until the second or third year after seeding. 



The Field Pea. 



The field pea, the variety that is used for forage, for cover crop or 

 for green manuring, is usually known as the Canada field pea, though 

 the name includes a number of varieties, as the Golden Vine, Prus- 

 sian Blue, Green Field, Mummy, etc., any one of which is satisfac 



