158 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



time early, the second time late, using half the seed at 

 each sowing. Five pounds of seed will give enough 

 plants for an acre if only half of them grow. Some very 

 good farmers follow this practice. 



Sowing Clover with a Spring Crop. I can get a better 

 stand of clover by sowing it with a spring-sown crop. In 

 this manner of sowing I can have the land better pre- 

 pared, deeper stirred and less apt to suffer from summer 

 drouth. One can sow with oats, barley, or flax. Spring 

 barley makes a good mother-crop for red clover. One 

 should choose a sort that is short and stiff in straw, so that 

 it may not lodge. The beardless varieties have proved 

 good nurse-crops for clover. Similarly with oats one 

 should choose a short-strawed, strong-growing variety 

 that is not apt to lodge. Thin seeding of the nurse-crop is 

 best. I find a bushel of barley to the acre is enough, and 

 three pecks of oats may prove too much if the soil is rich. 

 To sow liberally of phosphatic fertilizer with the clover 

 will stimulate it to strong growth and make it a better 

 stand. One dares not put too much nitrogenous manure 

 or fertilizer on the land, else one's oats or barley will be 

 too rank in growth and apt to lodge; also bad weeds will 

 spring up and choke the clover. Should one desire des- 

 perately to get a stand of clover, cut off the nurse-crop 

 for hay when it is coming into bloom, or before it lodges. 

 Thus taken away, it relieves the young growth which now 

 comes rapidly forward. I have taken off a crop of oat 

 hay and later in the summer a very fair crop of clover 

 hay from the same sowing. Commonly splendid stands 

 are secured in this manner. 



