(51) 



The crop of seed can be largely increased by mowing or 

 feeding off the first crop of clover about the first of June, 

 and then top-dressing with stable manure. The earlier the 

 first crop is cut the larger will be the crop of seed. By 

 treating the clover fields in this way, as much as three bush- 

 els of seed have been obtained from an acre. Uplands will 

 yield more seed than bottom lands, but they should be en- 

 riched by a liberal application of manure. About the first 

 of September is the time to mow for seed, and the straw will 

 thresh all the better for being exposed to the weather for 

 three weeks. The threshing is usually done in the field, 

 though the haulm may be hauled up after being thoroughly 

 dry, and stacked with a good straw covering, or else stored 

 away under shelter on a good tight floor until it suits the 

 convenience of the farmer to thresh. Care should be taken 

 not to run over or tramp upon the clover after it is dried, 

 as many seeds are thus shelled out and lost. The better 

 plan is to haul to the thresher just as soon as the straw i 

 in a proper condition to thresh. This will save the trouble 

 and expense of stacking. 



Some farmers prefer to sow in the chaff, believing that a 

 better stand of clover is thus secured. Usually about thirty 

 bushels in the chaff are considered equivalent to one of 

 cleaned seed. Of course this will depend greatly upon the 

 yield of seed, and experiments ought to be made to deter- 

 mine the relative amount to sow when in chaff. 



CLOVER AS A PREPARATORY CROP FOR WHEAT. 



No question at the present day pertaining to agriculture 

 is more deeply interesting to the farmers of Tennessee than 

 how to increase the yield of the wheat crop per acre, for 

 upon this depends the profits of this standard crop, one 

 probably more generally grown in the State than any other. 

 It has long been noted that a soil well suited to clover is 

 generally well adapted to wheat, but not until the painstak* 

 ing investigations of Dr. Yoelcker, of England, was the 



