74 SOILING CROPS AND THE SILO. 



by some form of drainage. But alsike clover will also 

 grow well in some of those lands which have highest 

 adaptation for the medium, red and mammoth sorts, 

 more especially those of them that are strongly 

 spiced with clay. The ordinary upland prairie does 

 not seem well suited to the production of alsike 

 clover, more especially when this soil is lacking in 

 moisture. While crimson clover will flourish on 

 soils well adapted to the growth of the other red 

 clovers, it would seem to have more adaptation for 

 sandy soils than these. Much of the soil in the chief 

 centers for growing crimson clover is sandy in tex- 

 ture. This greater adaptation arises probably in 

 part from the great power the plants have to gather 

 food, and in part from the moist character of the 

 climate in crimson clover centers during those por- 

 tions of the year in which the crop is produced. 



Place in the Rotation. As clover is a soil reno- 

 vator, the aim should be, first, to grow it on land in 

 which it is specially desirable to increase the supply 

 of nitrogen; second, on land where it is to be fol- 

 lowed by a crop that requires an abundant supply 

 of nitrogen in the soil to enable it to produce abun- 

 dantly. It should also be sown on land that is at 

 least measurably clean, as an abundant growth of 

 weeds in the crop will not only lessen the yield, but 

 will impair its feeding value in proportion as they 

 are present. There is special fitness, therefore, in 

 laying down to clover, land that has produced a crop 

 to which clean cultivation was given, as, for instance, 

 a crop of corn, potatoes or field roots. And the 

 reasons are equally good for following the clover 

 crop with wheat, oats or barley, corn or potatoes. 



