2l8 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



the land with good results. There is one objection to this method: it 

 is so dry sometimes in the fall that you cannot get any moisture to 

 sprout your seeds. But if you will plow immediately after harvest (you 

 will usually have a rain that will enable you to plow during July), and 

 then harrow once a week right straight along, you can get a stand 

 of grass in the fall. It is expensive, but a sure way of getting a stand. I 

 find it is profitable ; I am not bothered with weeds, and get a good deal 

 of hay. In plowing in the spring and summer, and particularly when 

 plowing for summer fallowing, it is of the utmost importance that you 

 follow the plow immediately with the harrow. When you plow a half 

 day, then harrow immediately all that has been plowed that half day. 

 If you will harrow every half day up to the plow — and after that harrow 

 every week or ten days — -you can keep the land in condition to sow your 

 seeds any time you want to. 



I shall now tell you of something that ought to Ix; of interest 

 to you men. Down in Tennessee, during recent years, a disease has 

 broken out that absolutely exterminates the clover crop within three 

 weeks after it begins. It is a fungus disease, and prevails over a large 

 section of Central Tennessee. Whether it will spread this way or not, 

 I don't kno'w ; I hope it will not. I should hate to see red clover ex- 

 terminated from the State of Missouri, but it is being done rapidly in 

 the state of Tennessee. There is apparently the same disease in Western 

 O'regoni in the Willamette valley, one of the finest red clover regions 

 on the American continent. That disease is exterminating red clover 

 in that valley. I would advise you gentlemen to be very careful about 

 using soil from distant sources for inoculating purposes. We have 

 been in the habit, in sowing alfalfa particularly, of inoculating our land 

 by getting soil from other places. Be very careful not to get soil that 

 has this clover disease in it. The disease attacks both clover and 

 alfalfa. But it will be of interest to you to know how farmers are meet- 

 ing this di.sease. The two locaHties where the disease is prevalent are 

 each solving the problem in its own way. 



In Tennessee alsike clover is being sown on thousands ol acres, 

 and it is immune to the disease. In that state red clover is being 

 replaced by alsike. In Oregon the farmers have solved the problem 

 in a different way : the common vetch, the tare mentioned in the Bible, 

 is taking the place of clover in that country. It yields more and better 

 hay than clover — the highest priced hay in the United States is 

 vetch hay. These facts will be of interest to you if you get that red 

 clover disease. My advice is to experiment on a small scale with 

 vetch, so that if you need to use it you can. It would be well for the 

 Experiment Station to lake up this matter and be ahead of the farmer 

 and sec what can b€ done with these crops. 



