200 CLOVERS 



moist season, excellent crops, on the stiffest clays, 

 whether white or red, after a good stand has once 

 been secured, providing hard pan is not found near 

 the surface, but in dry seasons it is not easy to secure 

 a stand on such soils. The plants send their fibrous 

 roots down into the soil in all directions, and in this 

 way render it much more friable when it is broken 



up- _ 



Next in adaptation, probably, come slough soils, 

 even though covered with humus to a considerable 

 depth, providing that clay lies under the humus. 

 Enormous crops of hay or pasture can be grown on 

 such soils, but the crops of seed are not usually so 

 large as on the moist clays referred to above. On 

 these also the hay is much more liable to lodge, 

 unless supported by some kind of grass growing 

 along with it. 



After slough soils come those that have been 

 deposited by the action of water, as in river beds 

 and on lake bottoms, when the waters have subsided, 

 providing the clay element so necessary to the suc- 

 cessful growth of this clover is plentifully present. 

 In some instances the very best crops of alsike can 

 be grown on such lands, but in many other instances 

 these deposit soils have in them too much sand to 

 produce these. 



Good crops can be grown on sandy loam soils, if 

 well stored with vegetable matter, and at the same 

 time fairly well impregnated with clay, but if one 

 or both of these elements is lacking, adaptation in 

 these soils will be correspondingly reduced. 



On the average upland prairie soil, alsike clover 



