No. 4.] GRASS AND CLOVER. 139 



kills out the grass. It isn't one time in ten that we can get 

 a catch of "rass seed sowed Avitli oats. 



Professor Hurd. We can do that, and get a crop of oats, 

 and are so much to the good. 



Mr. Sessions. About the first of my agricultural reading 

 was in the old "New England Farmer," nearly sixty years 

 ago, and a Avriter proclaimed that no man should })low when 

 the ground was wet at all, when it was damp, but he should 

 wait until it was dried out, for if he didn't, it would be lumpy. 

 I wondered and wondered, for at home we preferred to have 

 it a little moist, as it was easier for the team and pleasanter. 

 After a while I found it was a question of soil that he was 

 talking about, and he hadn't told us that. I think you are 

 in something of the same predicament. 



Professor IIurd. We have a very heavy clay soil. 



Question. You tind a better catch of clover if sowed in 

 the spring? 



Professor IIurd. Since I have been in Maine we haven't 

 tried it. Jn my home State of Michigan we invarial>ly sowed 

 the clover in the spring, when the ground was slightly frozen, 

 along in March, when it was just beginning to thaw out a 

 little, I think the climatic conditions have more to do with 

 the catch than does the soil. 



Mr. L. W. West (of Hadley). I never had any success 

 with sowing clover in the fall. I think it should never l)e 

 sowed after the 1st of September. I sow my clover and seed 

 down in corn of late years, because we can't really grow a 

 good oat crop, it doesn't pay us to, in the Connecticut valley. 



Professor Hurd. I suppose 3^ou have had Mr. Clark up 

 here at your meetings, and he doesn't advocate any other 

 crops but grass alone. We seed with clover along with the 

 oats. The danger of seeding so late as September or Octo- 

 ber is, the plants won't get strengih enough to withstand the 

 winter. 



Prof. F..W. Rane (of Boston). I had some experience 

 looking into the seed question. Two years ago there was 

 a large concern that bought quantities of clover seed in the 

 west and had it shipped to the northern part of New Eng- 



