THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 273 



D. CLOVER. 



MAMMOTH OR COMMON RED. 



Wallaces' Farmer. 



We thought that we had said over and over again all that we know 

 about clover years ago, but we find that if we reply to the questions asked 

 by our readers that we will have to tell the same story over and over 

 again as long as we edit the paper, not because the old subscribers do not 

 get the facts clearly before them, but because of the constant accessions 

 of new subscribers to whom we must begin preaching the clover gospel 

 from the beginning. An Illionis correspondent writes: 



"Is the mammoth variety suitable for hay and will it not produce the 

 second year? If you sow in the spring without a nurse crop, do you usu- 

 ally get a crop of hay or seed the first year?" 



Mammoth clover is a large variety which in the latitude of Iowa, Mis- 

 souri, and Illinois will not produce a crop of hay and a crop of seed the 

 first year on account of the shortness of the season. Sown at the same 

 time in the spring, it is from two to three weeks later than the common 

 red and it will not bloom the first year as the common red clover does; 

 hence, the way to determine whether you have sown mammoth or the 

 common red is to notice whether it blooms in late August or September. 

 The mammoth simply keeps on growing. The common red will bloom 

 and often produce as much as half a crop of seed if the season be favor- 

 able. 



When mammoth and timothy are sown together, they will be ready 

 for cutting at the same time; that is, the mammoth will be in bloom and 

 about one-third of the heads turned brown when the timothy is in its best 

 condition for mowing. This is one great point in favor of growing mam- 

 moth clover. With the common red, you must either cut your timothy 

 before it makes the best hay, or you must wait until the heads of the 

 clover are all brown and the stalks become woody and you are compelled 

 either to sacrifice the best of the timothy or the best of the clover. 



The disadvantage is that on rich land the mammoth grows too rank 

 and lies down and hence does not make a good quality otf hay. Besides, 

 the growth is so rank under those conditions that timothy has little bo- 

 no show the first year. The mammoth should be sown with timothy, there- 

 fore, on thin land or on rolling clay lands where it will not grow too rank 

 and will not smother out the timothy. By smothering it out, we do not 

 mean destroying it altogether but simply covering it up so that it makes 

 too little growth the next year after sowing. The next year it will usually 

 be found that you have about a third of a stand of clover and a magnifi- 

 cent growth of timothy, so that the second year's mowing will give a very 

 superior quality of hay, mostly timothy; that is, if you sow these together 

 in the spring of 1903 with a nurse crop and mow it in 1904, you will have 



