PRACTICAL CLOVER GROWING. 



CHAPTER VII. 



In previous chapters we have described the general range 

 of the clovers, and discussed somewhat in detail the varieties 

 usually grown in different sections of the country. In this 

 we take up the best methods of practical management. These 

 methods will vary in different localities, often in the same 

 neighborhood, and on the same farm. The first question 

 for the farmer to decide is the variety or varieties he can use 

 with profit in his latitude and longitude, and in connection 

 with the system of farming which he has adopted. While it 

 is well for the enterprising farmer to experiment with new 

 varieties, but always on a small scale, it is folly to devote any 

 considerable part of his farm to a variety that has not been found 

 entirely reliable and reasonably well adapted to his section of 

 the country and to his system of farming. By 4 'entirely reli- 

 able" we do not mean a variety that will grow well enough 

 in an occasional wet year, or that will survive an unusually 

 mild winter, but one that can be depended upon from year to 

 year as a part of a regular rotation. While latitude and lon- 

 gitude must always be taken into account, the rainfall, the 

 rotation and the nature of the soil must be considered as well. 



The next thing to be determined is the object in view in 

 growing clovers. If the object is to secure hay and fall pas- 

 ture, and store up fertility for future crops of corn and other 

 grain, his reliance in all sections where it is a sure crop, must 

 be on the common red clover. If his object be mainly fertil- 

 ity in connection with a cash crop of clover seed, then the 

 mammoth should have the preference. If the object be pas- 

 ture as an ultimate end, to be grown year after; year, on the 

 same land, and always ready to be -plowed under for a corn 



