282 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



set it under the stove. In a week count how many sprouts you have or 

 how many grains have grown. That will give you the per cent that will 

 grow the first year. You are likely to find in the course of two or three 

 weeks more seed sprouted. These are the seeds that will not grow the 

 first year, but will grow the second, the "hard shells," so to speak. Now 

 you know what your seed will do if you give it a chance. This seed cannot 

 help but grow next spring if you give it three things; heat, air and mois- 

 ture, all three. If you give it heat and moisture by putting four inches of 

 ordinary soil on top of it, it will not grow, because there is no air. If you 

 give it air and heat by leaving it in the sack, it will not grow because it 

 has no moisture. If you give it moisture and air by putting your soup 

 plate and pie pan in the refrigerator where the temperature is below 32 

 it will not grow. You must give all three, not one or two, but all three. 



Now the only question about getting a stand of clover is furnishing 

 these conditions. If you do not put it over two inches deep in lighter 

 soils, or over one inch deep in clay soils, it will get all the air it needs. 

 April or May will give it all the heat it needs. Now what 

 you want is to give it the moisture; in other words, to so ar- 

 range the seed bed that it will have moisture, heat and air. If you will 

 thoroughly prepare the seed bed and cover the seed from half an inch to 

 two inches according to the moisture content, in the month of April or 

 farther south the last of March, you will have the required conditions, 

 and that clover seed will grow. It can't help it, and you can't keep it from 

 growing unless you deprive it of one of these three conditions. 



We will now point out how many farmers fail to give these conditions. 

 We saw any number of farmers last April sowing clover seed on top or 

 the ground. We sowed some ourselves. We examined it and found that 

 only an occasional seed was growing. It was lying on top of the ground 

 and was not growing, of course. It was sown on wheat and we harrowed 

 it thoroughly. That clover started to grow because we had furnished the 

 conditions. That sown by our neighbors started to grow too, but not until 

 the moisture was furnished by the May rains. Our harrowing of the 

 ground furnished the moisture and gave it a start; that was all. But if no 

 heavy rains had come in June or since, the clover sown on top of the 

 ground would have been there yet. It would have stayed there until next 

 year and then if undisturbed would have grown. Why? Because mois- 

 ture was not furnished. 



Clover seed will grow in very wet springs and on very wet land with- 

 out covering. Under these conditions sufficient moisture is furnished. If 

 it is not furnished, it will not grow and you can't make it. Some farmers 

 fail to provide the conditions by sowing it on lumpy, cloddy land. Mois- 

 ture is not furnished because the lumps allow it to dry out before the 

 clover gets soaked up and ready to start. It may possibly sprout, but 

 through lack of moisture it will die. There is no trouble in getting good 

 clover seed to grow, if you give it these conditions, and only those grains 

 that are furnished these conditions will ever grow. 



This, however, is not the difficult matter in practical clover farming. 

 Clover needs moisture, heat and air to start growing, but to continue this 



