EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. - 281 



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derived from this one application, but it is still a problem whether it will pay to apply 

 sand to a muck field at the rate of 140 loads per acre. 



5. Leached ashes gave results similar to those from sand, and though yet incon- 

 clusive, we believe that, where this material may be had for a few cents per wagon load 

 and is within four or five miles, it may be applied with profit. 



G. So far, the complete fertilizers do not give results that will warrant their pur- 

 chase in considerable quantities for muck land. 



7. Unleached wood ashes gave very satisfactory results, as did also the mixture 

 of phosphate rock and potash salts, indicating the lack of mineral manures and an 

 abundance of nitrogenous manures in this soil. 



XOTES ON CLOVER. 



'throughout the State there exists a manifest desire for methods by which the growth 

 of clover may be made a more certain factor in the crop rotation. 



Until about ten years ago but little difficulty was experienced in securing a good 

 catch and successful crops were a general result. With the visitation of the 'clover 

 root borer and the clover leaf weevil, the clover crop of the entire State was practically 

 wiped out. The weevil was finally followed by a parasite, which preyed upon the 

 weevil, practically destroying it. 



The entire loss of the clover crop for a period of six or eight years naturally 

 reduced the organic content of the older ^Michigan soils to such an extent that good 

 seedings with the wheat cro]) of clover are secured only by sowing on the richest and 

 most highly manured soils and under the most favorable circumstances. 



On the newer lands, where the virgin humus has not yet been severely reduced, 

 there seems to be little difficulty in securing satisfactory seedings by sowing the clover 

 seed in the spring on wheat or some other cereal. Where the fields are prepared 

 for wheat by summer fallowing, or where the ground is very rich and receives the 

 best possible preparation, or where large quantities of stable manure or other ferti- 

 lizers are applied, the clover catch is generally insured. 



The above observations led us to conclude that wliere the insect is not doing its 

 destructive work, the main causes for the failure of the clover crop are, exhaustion 

 of the elements of plant food and organic matter or liumus in the soil, while the reme- 

 dies lie in restoring and supplying these materials and providing better cultivation. 

 The problem is first to supply the organic matter, the same being provided most accept- 

 ably from the loots and stubbles of the clover crop itself. But the beginnings must 

 be secured in some other way. 



In those sections wliere clover has refused to grow when sown with a nurse crop, 

 there seems to be no other way than to prepare the ground in the early spring and sow 

 the seed alone, giving it complete possession of the ground. 



In the spring of 1898 clover seed was sown on the College farm as follows: 



Field No. 10, which was then in wheat, the third farm crop the field had ever 

 produced. Seed was sown broadcast, and except on the most exposed knolls, a very 

 satisfactory seeding and subsequent crop of clover hay was realized. 



Field No. 3, experimental plots, which has been under cultivation and continuously 

 cropped for forty years. Two one-eighth acre plots only four rods apart were sown^ 

 at the same time. One on wheat which yielded 42 bushels per acre, and the other 

 on ground especially ])repared for the clover crop, and the clover given entire posses- 

 sion of the ground. The result was an entire failure of the seeding on the wheat 

 and a very successful catch t)n the specially prepared ground, and a yield of 4,067 

 pounds of hay as a first crop. While the above experience may not lie repeated in 

 every similar case, the conditions are such that a natural conclusion may be safely 

 drawn. 



The most desirable time to sow clover seed is an experiment now in progress. 

 The plan is to sow a plot each month with conditions as near uniform as possible to 

 l)rovide. This experiment was begun in April, 1899, sowing the seed about the 25th 

 of the month. At the present writing. May 1, 1900, the conditions of the seedings 

 the past year are as follows: 



April seeding, perfect catch, excellent growth, promise of a good crop. 



May seeding, stand as good as April, though not quite so forward. 



June seeding, a perfect stand, a little smaller than the May seeding. 



July seeding, complete failure. 



August seeding, medium stand, short and unpromising. It may possibly produce 

 half a crop this year. 



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