64 FIELD AND GAtlDEN PRODUCTS 



ficient. This weight of seed is often mixed with 10 to 12 pounds of 

 timothy. 



Where no difficulty is experienced in growing red clover, it is 

 the customary practice to seed with some nurse crop. In sections 

 growing winter wheat it is usually seeded on the wheat in early 

 spring, when the alternate freezing and thawing of the honeycombed 

 ground covers the seeds sufficiently to render a good stand reason- 

 ably certain. In sections where the seeding of spring-sown grain 

 is the rule it is the general practice to seed the clover either with or 

 immediately after the grain. In light sandy soils the two may be 

 drilled into the grain furrows, as under such conditions the deep 

 covering of red clover is an advantage. On other soils it is neces- 

 sary to cover the clover to a less depth than the grain, and this may 

 be brought about by seeding the clover in front of the drill shoe3 

 or by seeding it after the drill and harrowing it in. When seeded in 

 the spring on fall-sown grain, wheat is the usual nurse crop, but rye 

 is more favorable to the growth of clover, because it produces less 

 shade than wheat. If the rye is used in spring for pasturing, the 

 trampling incident to the pasturing will assist in covering the clover 

 seed. 



Seeding Without a Nurse Crop. Where none of the methods 

 already discussed prove successful it is necessary to seed the clover 

 alone and give the crop the entire use of the ground. By seeding 

 clover in the spring without a nurse crop, a good crop of hay may 

 be obtained the first season, the stand is more certain, and the plants 

 are not injured by the lodging or shading of the grain. If weeds 

 prove troublesome, they may be clipped back with the mower. 

 Should there be any tendency to drought during the summer, the 

 water supply available for the clover plants is much greater when 

 seeded alone than when seeded with a nurse crop. 



Inoculation of Red Clover. In order to make its best growth, 

 the red clover plant must be supplied with nitrogen-gathering bacte- 

 ria on its roots. The tubercles containing these bacteria are shown 

 herein. Fortunately, this crop has been grown so long in this 

 country that most soils appear to be fairly well supplied with these 

 germs, and usually no artificial application of them is necessary. 

 When the clover is being tried as a new crop in a section it often 

 does not become well inoculated until it has been grown for two or 

 three seasons on the same piece of land, after which natural inocula- 

 tion takes place and good crops are grown without further difficulty. 

 By scattering the clover straw and chaff (remaining after hulling the 

 seed) on the land to be seeded to clover, it has been observed that 

 beneficial results will follow, more in fact than would naturally be 

 expected merely from the manurial effect of the clover stems so ap- 

 plied. It is probable that a portion of the observed increase in the 

 vigor of the clover plants is due to the bacteria which may be applied 

 with the leaves and chaff. When seeding clover upon land for the 

 first time, it is well to provide for artificial inoculation, but after 

 clover is established on a farm this procedure is usually unnecessary. 

 This artificial inoculation may be accomplished either by scattering 



