THE CLOVERS 



acre has been made large because the clover would 

 not surely grow. In the winter-wheat belt, 

 where the custom has been to make such seedings 

 with wheat, timothy being sown in the fall and 

 clover the next spring, this increase in the timothy 

 has made matters worse for the clover, but it has 

 helped to insure a sod and a hay crop. " Clover 

 sickness," supposedly resulting from close clover 

 rotations, and the prevalence of plantain and 

 other weeds, have been assigned as a partial cause 

 of clover failure. It is only within recent years 

 that the true cause of much failure has been 

 recognized. 



Clover and Acid Soils. There are limited 

 areas in which some clover disease has flourished, 

 and in some years insect attacks are serious. 

 Barring these factors which have relatively small 

 importance when the entire clover area is taken 

 into account, the causes of clover failure are under 

 the farmer's control. The need of drainage in- 

 creases, and the deficiency in organic matter be- 

 comes more marked. The sale of hay and straw, 

 and especially the loss of liquid manures in stables, 

 have robbed many farms. These are adverse 

 influences upon clover seedings, but the most 

 important handicap to clover is soil acidity. 



[47] 



