TENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART X 521 



for seed — the average yields vary from a peck to occasionally 2 bushels 

 per acre. Thus handled, clover seed is a precarious crop and there is prac- 

 tically no money in it. But farmers are known in Ohio and Illinois who 

 make a business of growing clover for seed each year and who count with 

 as much certainty on getting yields of 4 bushels of seed per acre as they 

 do on getting 50 bushels of corn per acre each year on good corn land. 



To secure seed the clover-seed farmer aims to make his clover bloom 

 in dry weather. He reduces the quantity of stem, and instead of rank- 

 growing plant that lodges badly he will have a short, stocky, upright 

 clover plant. Likewise he aims to have only a medium thick stand of 

 clover on the field when he grows it for seed, and so will use much less 

 seed at planting time than when the crop is grown for hay. And prob- 

 ably most important of all, the successful clover-seed farmer will make 

 his clover bloom at a time when the insects* which injure the seed most 

 are for the most part undergoing their transformations in the ground. 



Usually all of the results referred to are accomplished by pasturing 

 the clover "back in northern Illinois to about June 1st to 10th, or clip- 

 ping the clover with the mower at about the same time and letting the 

 clippings lie on the ground. It is not usually possible to get both a good 

 hay crop and a good clover-seed crop the same season. Generally the hay 

 crop must be sacrificed or cut consideraljly earlier than usual. 



An instance is known of a 50-acre field of clover in Illinois, not far 

 from the 80-acre farm here being considered, where haying was begun one 

 season about ten days earlier than usual and finished about the usual 

 time. The whole of the second crop was then saved for seed. On the 

 part cut earliest for hay the seed obtained at the second cutting averaged 

 close to 5 bushels per acre for common red clover. On that portion of 

 the field cut last for hay the seed yield of the second crop was scarcely 

 1 bushel per acre. By cutting hay early the ravages of the clover-flower 

 midge, which prevents clover-seed formation, were largely avoided and a 

 good seed crop obtained. 



nXANCIAL BETUBNS TO BE EXPECTED. 



In the second plan it is assumed that if a farmer understands his busi- 

 ness he can get average yields of at least 3 bushels of clover seed per 

 acre. Assuming yields of 60 bushels of corn per acre and 40 bushels of 

 oats, as before, that the stock will require the same quantity of feed as 

 in plan 1, and that prices will be 50 cents per bushel for corn, 40 cents 

 for oats, and $6 for clover seed, there will be for gross income the follow- 

 ing: 



Corn, 24 acres, 1,440 bushels, at 50 cents $ 720 



Oats (feed and seed, 810 bushels), 150 bu., at 40 cents. 60 



Clover seed, 24 acres, 72 bushels, at $6 432 



2 colts at $50 each 100 



2 calves at $5 each 10 



Total income 1,322 



*What these insects are, their nature, and how to avoid them may be learned 

 in detail by a study of Circular No. 69, of the Bureau of Entomology, United 

 States Department of Agriculture, entitled "Some Insects Affecting the Produc- 

 tion of Red Clover Seed." 



