MEDIUM RED CLOVER 77 



the North it is usually sown in the early spring. 

 This also is in a great majority of instances the best 

 time for sowing. In many locations it may be sown 

 with safety as soon as the winter snows have gone. 

 On the whole, the earlier that it is sown in the 

 spring the better, that the young plants may have all 

 the benefit possible from the moisture, which is more 

 abundant than later. But there are certain areas, 

 as, for instance, in the northerly limits of the Mis- 

 sissippi basin, in which young clover plants perish by 

 frost after they have germinated. This, however, 

 does not happen very frequently. When the seed 

 is sown on the snow, or while the ground is yet in 

 a honeycombed condition from early frost, it must 

 of necessity be sown early. But where the hazard 

 is present that the young plants will be killed by 

 frost, it will be safer to defer sowing the seed until 

 it can be covered with the harrow when sown. 



Whether it will be more advisable to sow the seed 

 on bare ground earlier than the season when growth 

 begins, or to sow later and cover with the harrow, 

 will depend to a considerable degree upon the soil 

 and the condition in which it happens to be. On 

 timber soils newly cleaned the early sowing would 

 be quite safe where the young plants are not liable 

 to be killed after germination, because of the abun- 

 dance of humus in them. On the same soils, early 

 sowing would probably be preferable, even when 

 much reduced in humus, providing they were in a 

 honeycombed condition at the time of sowing. This 

 condition is far more characteristic of clay and clay 

 loam soils, than of those sandy in texture. To sow 



