36 A NEW TYPE OF RED CLOVER. 



about 6 feet. The surface soil seems to have a sHght admixture of the 

 heavy, bLack, waxy, clay soil locally called "gumbo." The general 

 soil of the field is quite typical of the best soil in the Red River Valley. 



Continuous cropping with wheat has seriously depleted most of 

 the soils of this valley, and they no longer produce the abundant 

 yields that characterized them from ten to twenty years ago. No 

 systematic rotation of crops containing a legume is in general use, 

 and to this may justly be attributed the gradual running down of 

 yields of the cereals which have hitherto been cultivated almost exclu- 

 sively. The gro^ving of clover is an undeveloped industry in North 

 Dakota. This is due in great part to the fact that wheat farming 

 has hitherto been so profitable, and to the further fact that until 

 recently a general impression has prevailed that clover growing could 

 not be carried on with success. The work of the State Experiment 

 Station during recent years has amply demonstrated that eastern 

 North Dakota, at least, may be considered as peculiarly adapted to 

 clover culture. The writer has never seen anywhere in the clover- 

 growing regions of the United States a finer field of clover than that 

 on which this experiment with regional varieties was conducted. 

 (PI. Ill, fig. 1.) . 



The drainage of the experimental tract is, in common with most of 

 the soils of the Red River Valley, rather poor. This applies to both 

 surface drainage and underdrainage, and is due to the practically 

 "dead level" of the country, which gives the rivers draining the area 

 a very slight fall, and also to the impermeability of the soil to water. 

 In this connection a fact of some interest and possible importance 

 was noted during the summer of 1905, when on account of the wetness 

 of the season it was impossible to harvest a large percentage of the 

 wheat crop of the valley. The clover field, on account of the mag- 

 nitude of the transpiration of this crop, repeatedly became dry 

 enough to cut after a few days of sunshine, while the neighboring 

 fields of ripened wheat never dried out sufficiently to permit of their 

 being harvested. In regions having heavy soils, where the most rigid 

 conservation of moisture is not necessary, this fact may furnish an 

 added reason for every farmer's sowing clover seed at the rate of from 

 three to six pounds per acre with all of his small grains. 



95 



