434 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



sowing until the winter's frost is out of the ground. Results are most 

 satisfactory when the seed can be sown on a lightly frozen surface 

 which is somewhat honeycombed with the night's frost. If as this 

 frost comes out of the ground, or soon after it comes out, there should 

 chance to come a rain, the seed is much of it carried into the soil, and 

 will usually germinate promptly and quite perfectly. Owing to the 

 fact, however, that we are by no means certain to experience these 

 ideal conditions, there is considerable risk in seeding with clover in 

 accordance with this plan. It should be recognized, moreover, that, 

 even if the seed germinates well, the clover sown in this way on land 

 seeded to grass the previous fall makes but little showing in the crop 

 of the succeeding season. 



Second, the land may be j^lowed as early in spring as it can be 

 worked, and the clover sown either alone or in connection with grass 

 seeds, with or without grain as a nurse crop. Clovers sown in this way 

 usually start well, but, whether they be sown with grain as a nurse crop 

 or not, they are subject to peculiar risk and injury during the summer. 

 If sown with grain as a nurse crop, this must be harvested usually 

 during July. If sown alone, there will usually be a considerable growth 

 of weeds, and these also, in order to prevent ripening of seed, must be 

 cut at about the same time. The clover which has previously been 

 shaded either by grain or weeds is in poor condition to stand full ex- 

 posure to the hot sun of midsummer, and unless rains come within a 

 short time after it is thus exposed, much of it is often killed. This 

 method of seeding, then, leaves much to be desired. 



Seeding in Summer or Early Autumn. 

 The best success in seeding to clovers can usually be counted upon 

 when the work is done in late summer or very early autumn. Dog 

 days furnish ideal conditions for germination and rapid growth. Clovers 

 may be sown at this time either alone or with grasses. If the field can 

 be cleared, plowed and thoroughly harrowed, it can be brought into 

 the very best possible condition; but where clover is to follow corn, it 

 is impossible to remove the corn in season to sow the clover. Under 

 these circumstances, seeding in corn appears to be the best plan. The 

 ensilage corn, since it is carried from the field as soon as cut, furnishes 

 conditions on the whole more satisfactory than field corn, with 

 which the young grass and clover will be killed where the stooks of 

 corn stand while curing. In the seventeen years that the writer has had 

 charge of the college farm in Amherst, a good many acres have been 

 annually seeded in corn, and during this entire period there has never 

 been a failure. The culture of the corn should be level. A spike- 

 toothed cultivator should be used at the last cultivation, and the seed 

 should be immediately sown. It will not need covering. The best 

 time for sowing in this way is usually between July 20 and August 5. 

 It is desirable to sow the seed before the corn is so tall as to make it 



