SOME GENERAL PRINCIPLES 25 



longed and the more ample is the grazing likely 

 to be. 



When clovers, except the crimson variety, are 

 sown for the exclusive purpose of adding to the fer- 

 tility of the land, they are usually sown along with 

 some other crop that is to be harvested, the clover 

 being plowed under the following autumn or the 

 next spring. These are usually sown without being 

 mixed with other varieties, and the two kinds most 

 frequently sown primarily to enrich the land are 

 the medium red and crimson varieties. The former 

 grows more quickly than other varieties, and 

 the latter, usually sown alone, comes after some crop 

 already harvested, and is buried in time to sow some 

 other crop on the same land the following spring. 



Sowing with or without a Nurse Crop. 

 — Nearly all varieties of clover are usually sown with 

 a nurse crop; that is, a crop which provides shade 

 for the plants when they are young and delicate. 

 But the object in sowing with a nurse crop is not 

 so much to secure protection to the young plants 

 as to get them established in the soil, so that they 

 will produce a full crop the following season. Two 

 varieties, however, are more commonly sown alone. 

 These are alfalfa and crimson clover. 



Alfalfa is more commonly sown alone because 

 the young plants are somewhat delicate and easily 

 crowded out by other plants amid which they are 

 growing. Because of the several years during which 

 alfalfa will produce crops when once established, it 

 is deemed proper to sacrifice a nurse crop in order 

 to get a good stand of the young plants. The other 



