16 FARM PRACTICE WITH FORAGE CROPS IN OREGON, ETC. 



and covered by harrowing. The clover may be pastured during the 

 first season, but should not be croj^ped too closely during the driest 

 part of the summer. This is becoming quite a popular method in the 

 Willamette Valley and very satisfactory stands are secured, but the 

 use of the land is almost lost the first year. 



Clover may be sown alone also in the late summer or early autumn. 

 Although this method is seldom used it is probably one of the most 

 satisfactory ways of sowing clover west of the Cascade Mountains. 

 If sown with grain in the fall, clover does not make a crop the next 

 year, but if sown alone in the late summer a full crop is secured the 

 next summer. It is essential, however, that the seeding be done 

 early, for if sown in the late fall it is liable to be winterkilled. Only 

 crops, then, that can be removed early should precede clover sown in 

 this way. 



(5) Clover with rape. — Sowing clover with rape is a very success- 

 ful and popular method with many farmers who are engaged in 

 raising sheep and goats. With the land prepared as indicated for 

 sowing clover alone in the spring, from 10 to 12 pounds of clover 

 seed and from 2 to 4 pounds of rape seed per acre are sown broadcast 

 about the 1st of May and covered with a harrow. If the ground is 

 rough and cloddy, it should be finished with a roller. If this mix- 

 ture is sown on a thoroughly pulverized and compact seed bed, the 

 rape develops rapidly and furnishes excellent pasture for sheep, 

 goats, calves, or swine in from six to eight weeks. The tramping of 

 the animals while feeding during the summer, principally on the 

 rape, forms a dust mulch on the surface of the ground. In this w^ay 

 soil moisture is retained for the use of the clover during the dry sum- 

 mer season. If a hay crop is desired the second season, the rape is 

 killed hy pasturing it closely with sheep during the late fall or win- 

 ter. Sheep eat off the crowns of the plants close to the ground and 

 the rape then dies. If the rape is not killed it will go to seed the next 

 summer, and the stalks will give some trouble in the hay. If the 

 clover is not cropped too closely the first summer, this method gives, 

 an excellent stand. 



Failures occur frequently, especially in the Willamette Valley, 

 when clover is sown by any one of the first three methods described. 

 With rich, moist soil of good texture and with frequent rains during 

 the summer these methods are usually successful. But with soils 

 that are inclined to puddle and dry out quickly— soils that have pro- 

 duced grain crops exclusively for a number of years — they often give 

 poor results. Under such conditions the grain shades the clover too 

 much, and robs it of the moisture necessary to carry it through the 

 first summer. 



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