THIRD ANNUAL YEAR ROOK — PART VI. 279 



without. After the grain crop was taken off the clover was allowed to 

 grow, plowed under in the middle of October and the land harrowed twice 

 and seeded with Banner oats in the spring of 1901. There was an increase 

 in the plot following wheat of 2 bushels 12 pounds over the plot that had 

 no clover; of 4 bushels 24 pounds in the plot sown to barley and the same 

 amount in the plot sown to oats. In other words, the plot sown wit. 1 ! 

 clover gave an average of 43 bushels 31 pounds per acre while those with- 

 out clover gave an average yield of 40 bushels, or 3 bushels and 31 pounds 

 in favor of the clover plots. There was also an increase of 827 pounds of 

 straw per acre in favor of the clover plots. 



Similar experiments were conducted with the corn in 1898, 1900 and 

 1901, the corn being used for fodder, with a difference in favor of the plot 

 sown with clover of about 40 per cent of the yield in 1900. Taking tho 

 average of eighteen experiments made with corn in these years there was 

 an average gain in the weight of the green crop from the use of clover of 

 three tons 1,694 pounds per acre. 



In 1899 similar experiments were made with potatoes, after one-crop 

 clover sown on land which had previously been in barley, peas and car- 

 rots, with the result of a difference in favor of the crop where clover was 

 used of about 28 per cent. Similar experiments were conducted in 1.900 

 with the result that the three plots sown to clover gave an average of 317 

 bushels 7 pounds per acre, while those without clover yielded an average 

 of 283 bushels 47 pounds, or a difference in favor of the plot sown with 

 clover of 33 bushels 20 pounds per acre. This experiment was again re- 

 peated in 1901, in which case the clover plots yielded at the rate of 423 

 bushels 40 pounds per acre, while those without clover yielded 391 bushels 

 20 pounds, or a difference of 32 bushels 20 pounds. 



Various experiments were conducted for the purpose of determining 

 whether the sowing of clover with spring grain lessened the yield of the 

 grain. After three years of experiments the conclusion is reached that 

 the growing of clover with grain as a nurse crop had no perceptible influ- 

 ence on the yield of grain. 



The results of these experiments are cumulative in their character. 

 While the results vary, there is in every case an increased yield of grain 

 and potatoes that more than compensate for the cost of seed and labor. 



The only rirk the farmer runs in sowing clover solely for fertility is in 

 not securing a stand and of losing the stand after he has secured it. There 

 is practically no risk in securing a stand of clover in the natural clover 

 country in any ordinary season, if he will only secure good seed and, as we 

 pointed out in a recent article, cover it deep enough to secure sufficient 

 moisture, but not so deep as to exclude the air. There are seasons when 

 the wisest man on earth can't hold a stand of clover, but by using ordinary 

 judgment he can hope to in four years out of five. 



If farmers will quit talking about nurse crops and talk about strang- 

 ling crops, or as we head a farmer at an institute the other day call them, 

 "curse" crops, and will quit sowing late oats or wheat and will sow early 

 oats or wheat or give the clover tne full use of the land, and in the case of 



