CRIMSON CLOVER 245 



tation than clay loams, when equal to the former in 

 fertility, as in the latter the plants can more quickly 

 gather the needed food supplies, since the roots and 

 rootlets can penetrate them more readily. Such soils 

 are well adapted to the growth of orchards, espe- 

 cially peach orchards, and it is in such areas that 

 crimson clover has been grown with highest suc- 

 cess. In the alfalfa soils of the Rocky Mountain 

 valleys it should also grow well, but on these it 

 would be less profitable to grow than alfalfa, because 

 of the permanency of the alfalfa. Even on sandy 

 soils a good growth will be obtained when these have 

 been fertilized and sufficient moisture is present. On 

 stiff clays the growth is too slow to produce crops 

 highly satisfactory either North or South, and in 

 dry weather it is also difficult to obtain a stand of 

 the plants. The alluvial soils of river bottoms in 

 the South produce good crops. The vegetable soils 

 of the prairie do not grow the plants very well, and 

 the adaptation in slough or swamp soils is even 

 lower. Good crops will not be obtained on soils un- 

 derlaid with hardpan which comes up near the sur- 

 face, whatsoever the nature of the top soil may be, 

 since the roots cannot penetrate these. 



Place in the Rotation. — It cannot be said of 

 crimson clover, in the ordinary usage of the word, 

 that it is a rotation plant. It has probably no fixed 

 place in any regular rotation, and yet it can be used 

 almost anywhere in the rotation that may be de- 

 sired, and in any rotation whether long or short, reg- 

 ular or irregular. As previously intimated, it is usu- 

 ally grown as a catch crop, and primarily to fertilize 



