CLOVERS 



121 



may adopt a perennial character and produce crops for 

 several consecutive years without reseeding. 



Sowing the Seed. Common red clover is usually sown 

 in the spring with oats, barley, or spring wheat as a nurse 

 crop, and at the rate of 5 to 6 

 quarts of clover seed per acre with 

 one and a half bushels of grain. 

 It should follow corn or some 

 cultivated crop which has been 

 grown on sod land. In places 

 where it is difficult to get a catch 

 of clover with a nurse crop, a 

 cultivation for the killing of 

 weeds from early spring to June 

 15 is practiced and the clover 

 seed then sown without a nurse 

 crop. If weeds appear, they are 

 clipped back by running a mower 

 over the field. The cutter bar 

 of the mower should be run high, 

 and the clippings if not too 

 heavy should be left on the field 

 for a mulch; if heavy, they should 

 be raked off and burned. Under 

 favorable conditions one cutting Fig. 66. common red clover. 

 of hay or a good pasture can be secured the first year. If 

 too wet, the fields should not be pastured. Clover is usually 

 sown in mixture with timothy. When thus sown, 4 quarts of 

 clover seed and 3 quarts of timothy seed are used per acre. 

 If sown as a mixture, two cuttings of clover can be secured 

 the year following seeding, the first of which is suitable for 

 hay and the second either for hay or seed. 



