



Vol. XX, Second Series. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y., APRIL, 1859. 



No. 4. 



HASTY HINTS ON SPRING WORK. 



Clover Seed on Winter "Wheat may be sown 

 any time this month. Frost does not hurt it, un- 

 less it has germinated. It may be sown on the 

 snow. Indeed, some suppose there is an advantage 

 in so doing — the snow, as it melts, washing the 

 seed into the ground. Unless the soil and the 

 weather are very dry, however, there is little daa- 

 ger that the seed will not germinate. The wheat 

 plants afford sufficient shade and moisture. 



Last year, the weather was remarkably warm 

 early in the spring, followed by protracted rain 

 and cold. Much of the clover seed sown early had 

 started, and the young plants perished. To avoid 

 such failure, some of our best farmers sow part of 

 the seed say the first week in April, and again about 

 the 20th. This is double labor of sowing, but it 

 lessens the risk of failure; and when the second 

 sowing is crosswise the first, it secures a more even 

 distribution of the seed. 



It is well to sow a bushel of plaster per acre, for 

 the benefit of the young clover plants. Many good 

 farmers in Western New York think it is better to 

 sow the plaster on the wheat at the time of sowing 

 the clover, than to sow it on the clover the next 

 spring. Some, however, think the plaster has a 

 tendency to retard the ripening of the wheat ; and 

 if this is the case, of course the practice cf.n not be 

 recomniended, as the liability to injury from the 

 midge is largely augmented by any delay in the 

 ripening processes. Whether plaster really has this 

 effect or not, we can not tell. In Mr. Lawes' ex- 

 periments, alkaUne salts in connection with ammo- 

 nia had a tendency to increase the quantity of 

 straw without an increase of grain ; i. e., alkalies 

 and ammonia gave no more grain, "but more straw, 

 than the same quantity of ammonia without alka- 

 lies. It is not improbable that plaster might have 

 the same effect. 



Since the advent of the midge, and the decreased 

 quantity of land sown to wheat, clover is sown 

 more extensively with spring grains. Barley is 



undoubtedly the best spring crop for this purpose. 

 In England, nearly all the clover is sown with 

 barley. The laud is made as fine and mellow as 

 possible, and the clover seed is generally sown after 

 the barley has been harrowed in and the work 

 completed, except rolling, which is done after the 

 barley is up. If the land is at all cloddy, it is bet- 

 ter to roll before the clover is sown. There is 

 much moi'e clover seed lost from burying it too 

 deep than from not covering it at all. Several 

 years ago, we recollect seeing the results of some 

 careful experiments, made by Mr. Sterling, of 

 Scotland, on sowing clover seed at different depths. 

 More seeds germinated when covered very slightly 

 (if we recollect aright, the eighth of an inch,) than 

 at any greater depth — the decrease being in pro- 

 portion to the depth. Those sown on the surface 

 gave a less favorable result than those slightly cov- 

 ered, but. better than any sown at a greater depth ; 

 — i. e., those covered the eighth of an inch did 

 best; those sown on the surface, nearly as well; 

 those covered one-fourth of an inch, not quite so 

 well as those on the surface ; those covered half 

 an inch, still worse ; and so on, till at two inches 

 they did not germinate at all. 



As a general rule, clover does not succeed so 

 well sown with oats as with barley, spring wheat, 

 or i"ye, though we have known several instances 

 where a good set of clover has been obtained when 

 seeded with oats. With this crop, it would un- 

 doubtedly be safer to sow a little more seed. 



For pasture, and when it is intended to plow up 

 the land at the end of one or two years, we should 

 sow nothing but clover. From four to six quarts, 

 or from eight to twelve pounds, is the usual quan- 

 tity in such cases. For mowing, six pounds of 

 medium clover, and four and a half pounds of tim- 

 othy seed, is the usual quantity, varying less or 

 more according to the condition of the soil. We 

 are in favor of thick seeding, and would much 

 rather sow more than less. English farmers, as a 

 rule, sow half as much again clover and grass seeds 



