234 Our Farming. 



a piece of Hungarian for a man some twenty years ago, just be- 

 fore a storm, when it was blowing a gale. It was quite a ways 

 from home and he was inclined to object ; said no man could 

 sow evenly in that wind. I did not want to come for nothing and 

 I knew what I could do, and so told him if after I got through he 

 could put his hand down on the field anywhere and not find seed 

 under it I would make no charges. I got my pay and the piece 

 came up all right. Of course, this was machine work. I use the 

 Cahoonand have for twenty -three years the same one, too. When 

 I first got it I used to sow half of the seed lengthwise of a field 

 and other half crosswise to insure an even stand. This was a 

 waste of time. For many years I have sown all one way. But 

 now to go back : I want a clear morning as well as a still one, so 

 the sun will thaw the surface and fasten the seed in the mud at 

 once, where it will not be moved by heavy rains. I want to sow 

 early, at the very beginning of such weather as indicated, so the 

 freezing and thawing following will thoroughly work the seed 

 into the ground. I do not believe it is possible to cover it in any 

 practicable way any better than Nature will do it. But now the 

 common notion has been that clover seed sown early, would ger- 

 minate when some warm days came and afterwards freeze, if w r e 

 had a sharp frost. I know it will, under certain conditions, and 

 that it will not ever (in twenty-three years) on my farm when con- 

 ditions are right. Sow later, when the ground is quite settled, 

 and warm weather will sprout the seed on the surface and the 

 roots will be more or less bare. You have seen it so. The seed 

 lies on the ground and roots are growing out and trying to get into 

 the soil, or have got in partly. I will warrant a hard frost to kill 

 it when in this condition. Sow early enough, so freezing and 

 thawing and rain covers the seed in the soil, and it will not sprout 

 so quickly when a warm spell comes, and if it does, the seed and 

 roots, being in the soil, the plant will stand it. I have had the 

 ground freeze time and again so as to hold up a team, without 

 injury to my young clover. We had a terribly bad spring this 

 year and my clover was up through it all and is all right. I have 

 seen failure after failure, right in my town, from sowing later than 

 I do, from just the reason given. Again, I have known some to 

 wait and harrow the wheat and then sow, and a dry time com- 

 ing on just after clover came up, they lost their seeding, while 

 mine sown early pulled through. It had got its roots down to 

 moisture. I have known farmers to sow a week or so after I did 

 and then lose their seed. The reason was simply because I sowed 

 with conditions just right, on honeycombed surface, and the seed 

 was promptly covered by thawing, while they waited just a little, 

 but long enough for surface to settle, and their seed sprouted on 

 top while mine was down in. This is no guess work, friends ; I 

 have stuck pins down side of plants and watched the effect of 

 frost. 



