THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 277 



crop would be for the purpose of getting the surface of the ground level 

 and to get rid of the stalks, trash and stubble. If these conditions can be 

 obtained in any other way besides plowing the ground, we would take 

 advantage of them. 



THE VALUE OF ONE-CROP CLOVER. 



Wallaces' Farmer. 



By one-crop clover we mean clover sown this year, 1902, and plowed 

 under either this fall or early next spring for the purpose of producing 

 additional crops in 1903. We are often asked what is the value of this 

 clover used in this way, purely as a fertilizer. Our uniform reply for the 

 past five years has been that it is not of as great value as if allowed to 

 grow another year, used for hay and pasture and the roots and aftermath 

 turned under, but that it will pay for the cost of the seed and labor and 

 pay well. We have tried it on a large field on our own farm, but not hav- 

 ing a check plot (a part of the field on which no clover had been sown 

 but in other respects equal), we are not able to state the exact profit. AH 

 we know is that we raised a bumper crop of corn and we ascribe much of 

 it to the value of the clover turned under. 



We don't know of any experiments in a large way conducted by any 

 station in this country for the purpose of determining the value of one-crop 

 clover as a fertilizer. The experimental farm at Ottawa, Canada, has gone 

 into this matter somewhat extensively under the direction of Dr. Saunders 

 and Professor Frank Shutt, and from a recent bulletin we are able to pre- 

 sent some facts that are quite worth the attention of our readers in the 

 states. These experiments were not made in fields but in plots of from 

 one-twentieth to one-fortieth of an acre each and while in this plot culture, 

 there is room for mistakes and it is not so satisfactory as field culture, 

 yet where they are conducted with care and a sufficient number of them 

 are so conducted the results are fairly reliable. 



In the spring of 1897 this station sowed plots of one-twentieth of an 

 acre each to spring grains, wheat, barley and oats. The soil was a sandy 

 loam of fair quality which had been manured the year before. Four of 

 these plots had clover sown with the spring grain and four, 

 one adjoining each of the other four, were without clover. All 

 the plots were plowed in October. In the spring the land was 

 harrowed and sown to the same variety of oats with the following results: 

 Tne plot on which wheat had been sown with clover in 1897 yielded at 

 the rate or 1,610 pounds of straw and 19 bushels 4 pounds of oats more 

 per acre than that sown without clover. On the plot on which barley had 

 been sown with clover in the spring of 1897 the increase over the field 

 without clover was at the rate of 730 pounds of straw and 7 bushels 2 

 pounds of oats per acre. On the plot on which a different variety of bar- 

 ley had been sown with clover in 1897 there was an increased; yield of 



