280 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



threatened damage to the clover from very dry weather, mow and pasture 

 them before they have time to rob the clover of moisture, they can get a 

 stand every year without fail except such years as 1894 and 1901. 



Someone, however, rises to remark that clover will kill out some 

 years. So it will, but even if it does kill out the residue will far more 

 than pay for the cost of seed and the sowing, even if the seed cost ten 

 dollars a bushel. The Canada station has experimented along this line 

 and found that when clover was entirely kiled there was an addition to 

 the nitrogen content of the soil in the residue, that is, in the shriveled, 

 brown foliage and roots in the upper nine inches of soil of from 58 to 81 

 pounds per acre, or the equivalent in the nitrogen value of five tons of 

 barnyard manure per acre. In other words, by sowing clover with your 

 grain, even if it does kill out, you get the equivalent of barnyard manure 

 at the rate of about twenty cents a ton, or about what it would cost to put 

 it on wagon and spread it on the field. 



Therefore, answering in advance a number of questions we are sure 

 will come up, we would say that if you have no place to put corn next 

 year except on your clover sown last spring, don't hesitate. Under our 

 conditions we believe it pays better to let it stand the second year and get 

 a crop of hay and seed and then turn it under. Where this is practical 

 we advise it. 



Our own experience has shown that a three-ton crop of clover is the 

 equivalent of about forty bushels of corn per acre in two years, or say 

 ten dollars per acre; four bushels of wheat the first year, four bushels of 

 flax. We believe that every acre of clover of a good stand sown last spring 

 and turned under late this fall or next spring will be good for from fifteen 

 to twenty bushels of corn next year and possibly more. We don't know of 

 any cheaper way of getting corn than by sowing plenty of clover and plow- 

 ing it under either the first year or the second. 



We believe that in the above we have presented the important facts 

 in the case for the consideration of our readers and that they can be 

 relied upon. 



WHEN TO CUT CLOVER. 



Homestead. 

 If all other operations on the farm could be set aside during the hay 

 making season it vould b-> an easy matter to prescribe in detail the course 

 to follow in the cutting and curing of clover. It frequently happens, how- 

 ever, that attention must be given to other matters, especially to the culti- 

 vation of the corn crop, so that haymaking is carried on when it will most 

 conveniently dcvetail into what are seemingly more important operations. 

 However, in a general way one should endeavor to cut his hay crop when 

 it will furnish the largest amount of good food. No crop is more easily 

 spoiled than clover, and no crop will furnish such excellent hay for all 



