190 Practical Farming 



spring when the soil freezes at night and thaws the next 

 morning, so that the seed will be covered by the thawing. 

 But further South this spring sowing is fully as risky as 

 the fall sowing. There, a warm spell may ensue and the 

 clover seed will germinate, and then a return of cold when 

 it is in a very tender state, may destroy it entirely, as I 

 have had happen in my own experience in Virginia. 



Therefore, in the more southern sections, if the fall 

 seeding should fail, the spring sowing should not be made 

 till freezing is past. Then a light smoothing harrow run 

 over the wheat will prepare the soil for the seed, and the 

 spring rains will soon cover it. 



Of the general complaint in all the winter wheat sec- 

 tions of the failure of clover in late years, we will speak 

 more fully in the discussion of the clover crop itself. 



After getting a good stand of clover it can be mown for 

 hay one season or left for two seasons, as the conditions of 

 the farmer seem best. If mown but one season it will be 

 better for the crops of wheat and corn, and the rotation 

 will then be three years, clover, potatoes and corn, and 

 then wheat and oats. 



From Virginia, southward, red clover is a 

 South* Tth^^ ^^^ uncertain crop, and there the cow pea 

 Cotton will b^ the best legume. In the true cotton 



belt, the level sandy soils of the Atlantic 

 coast and Gulf regions, wheat is of minor importance, 

 and there the winter oats will largely take the place of 

 wheat in the rotation. But in the upper or Piedmont 

 sections of the cotton belt wheat can be profitably grown 

 in a good rotation with cotton. There, too, the wheat 

 should follow the corn crop among which cow peas have 



