Farmers' Week in Agricultural College. 159 



as on the wheat crop. Farmers have also been found who use a disk 

 drill and even a disk harrow in breaking up the surface of the soil so as to 

 secure a covering for the seed when sown in the rye crop. The use of a 

 disk harrow can be resorted to on rye, but it is rarely ever done in con- 

 nection with wheat. Even with rye it should be set straight so as not 

 to do much damage to the rye crop. If this is not thought desirable or 

 possible the seed may be sown and hogs turned in for early spring 

 pasture. The tramping of these animals over the field will plant much 

 of the seed in the ground and make a good stand more certain. A top- 

 dressing of manure or a covering of straw can be used with the rye the 

 same as with wheat. The use of a good commercial fertilizer on rye, the 

 same as on the wheat crop, will often prove very beneficial in secur- 

 ing a good stand of clover, and in the absence of manure, the value 

 of which has already been discussed, the use of a good commercial 

 fertilizer is very commendable. This will often insure a good crop of 

 clover where otherwise there would be a failure. 



The rotations followed, which include rye, are usually on the same 

 general plan as those including wheat. These are usually corn, corn, 

 rye and clover, or corn, rye and clover. Some of the potato growers 

 have a rotation of potatoes, rye and clover, running it as a three-year 

 rotation, while others run it as a two-year rotation, clipping the rye 

 and clover about three times but taking no crop off. The next year, 

 then, potatoes are planted after the clover has had time to make some 

 growth in the spring, for what is called the late crop of potatoes. In 

 a similar manner a two-year rotation of rye and potatoes can be prac- 

 ticed, and the rye hogged down when ripe, the clover being sown in 

 the rye in the spring and allowed to grow up before the ground is plowed 

 for potatoes the next year. 



Rotation with oats. — Some farmers run a rotation in which oats is 

 the only crop in which the clover is sown. Such rotations are usually 

 corn, corn, oats and clover, or corn, oats and clover. With these rota- 

 tions failures in securing stands of clover are rather numerous, but 

 some men are quite successful in the management of the clover crop 

 even under these circumstances. 



If a good stand of clover is particularly desired, one of the first 

 things to be avoided is a very heavy seeding of oats. Lighter seeding 

 will probably cut down the yield of oats somewhat, but the chances 

 of a catch of clover will be very much greater. Not over a bushel and 

 a half of oats per acre should be sown, whereas it is generally the custom 

 to sow from two to two and a half bushels per acre. Oats at best is 

 a bushy crop and produces a very dense shade under wliich the clover 



