14 



On this twenty acres I noticed about four-fifths of the field was very 

 well seeded to sweet clover and on the other fifth you could find hardly a 

 plant. Then I remembered that I had run out of limestone and that was 

 why there wasn't any sweet clover over in the other strip. 



The spreading of limestone should be done as it is hauled from the 

 car. If it is allowed to remain and rains come on it it is hard to spread and 

 you must have a regular fertilizer spreader. There are nine farmers 

 having a co-operative interest in the spreader we have, but we found that 

 it would not handle wet limestone. It will not handle limestone that has 

 laid out all winter, but an end-gate spreader will hande it when it is even 

 so wet that you can make a ball out of it. 



Now in regard to phosphate: It is a little harder to see any vast im- 

 provement by using phosphate rather than limestone, and, of course, it 

 costs quite a little bit more. Nevertheless, I think we all ought to have more 

 faith in experiments by men who have used it, like our Honorable President. 

 My own experience with phosphate has shown some results. When it comes 

 to clover hay, it makes on an average of at least 50 percent more hay, 

 and the oats yield more heavily, are of much better quality, and the corn 

 is of excellent -quality. In the regular rotation of corn, corn, oats and 

 clover I think it should be applied in the fall on the oats stubble. Then 

 the growth of the clover feeds that into the soil and you get much better 

 results. I put mine on the meadow and the results are not quite as quick, 

 but it is there and ready to give results later. 



Another thing that phosphate will do to quite an extent, it has quite 

 a lot of sweetening qualities. I found on the forty acres where I sowed 

 this mixture, there is quite a bit of alfalfa and sweet clover all through 

 the field and it seems to be inoculated and in fine shape. This sweet clover 

 and alfalfa as it is mixed with the other seed is inoculated. I think a. very 

 good mixture for seeding is four pounds of common clover, two pounds 

 of alsike, three of timothy and one of alfalfa. The reason that I don't 

 include sweet clover is if your soil is sweet you are going to get a little 

 too much sweet clover from the mixture. I had two experiences from sweet 

 clover in mixtures and they were not just what I would like to have, not 

 as a pasture or as a meadow. My experience .was if you turn the stock 

 out they will eat more of the other clover and neglect the sweet clover 

 and it soon gets coarse it grows so rapidly. I think it would be better to 

 sow sweet clover by itself, either for pasture or for hay, as it comes so 

 much faster. I have had some sweet clover down in the low places that 

 was at least eight or nine feet high. We disked that up and plowed it 

 under, making a great amount of fertilizer. 



Many farmers do not have alfalfa, but I know if they once had alfalfa, 

 they would not do without it. A farmer may sow sixty acres of clover for 

 forage. If he would sow twenty acres with alfalfa and have the soil limed 

 he would have as much feed, and have the forty acres to do something else 

 with. Then he could sow sweet clover, get the soil limed and sow it in 

 sweet clover and produce three times as much fertilizer. By disking the 

 whole crop up and plowing it under, root system and tops, you would in- 

 crease the fertility three times as much as plowing under by clover after 

 it had been cut off. Besides it could be used for pasture, and it makes a 

 wonderful pasture. 



Crop rotation is a wonderful thing. I have in mind a small farm. The 

 lady said she seemed to know a little more about the farm than the man. 

 She said that they did not have enough grass, that they could not sow 

 clover, they needed it all for corn. Well, you can imagine a little about 

 what the condition of that farm was. It was sold. Another man took 

 charge of this place and when he moved on it he seeded quite a bit. He 

 had hard work smetimes in getting clover to start, but he went to his 

 neighbor and rented some ground from him, and on that ground he pro- 

 duced just as much hay and grain for his one-half as he was getting from 

 his own. He says his crops have been increased 50 percent by rotation. 

 This farm is one-quarter oats, one-quarter clover and half corn, and I 

 understand that he is figuring on using some limestone and phosphate. 



