CLOVER 



CLOVER 



237 



twenty-three seeds per head. This field yielded two 

 bushels of seed per acre. Twenty-five heads from a 

 seven-acre field of first-crop clover alongside aver- 

 aged fifty-three seeds per head and the yield was 

 eight bushels per acre. With mammoth red clover, 

 seed-growers generally pasture off or clip black the 

 first crop about the middle of June. This retards 

 the crop and gives a more uniform bloom, the straw 

 is reduced and the yield of seed generally increased. 

 In most cases, this practice gives the best results 

 with June clover when the first crop is saved for 



Clover is ready to cut when the heads are brown 

 and the seeds shell out plump and hard. Alsike 

 clover should be cut even before all the heads are 

 fully ripe, as it shells out much more readily than 

 red clover. Either a mower or reaper may be used 

 for cutting. In tangled clover the mower is best, 

 while with the reaper less raking is required. 

 When possible, clover is hulled directly from the 

 field. This is particularly desirable with red clover, 

 which is bulky to handle. The danger of a long 

 wet period at hulling time makes leaving in the 

 field precarious ; the wise farmer will provide some 

 shelter for his crop rather than run this risk. 

 Clover should be hauled in a rack with a tight 

 bottom, particularly alsike. As the seed comes 

 from the, huller it is mixed with more or less dirt 

 and foreign seeds and should he recleaned before 

 marketing. It is usually sold by sample. 



Insect enemies. — -There are two very important 

 insect enemies of clover seed, the clover flower 

 midge {Dasyneura kguminicola) and the clover- 

 seed fly (Bruchophagus funebris). These insects are 

 found all over the United States and Canada. The 

 entire clover seed crop is sometimes destroyed by 

 the flower midge alone. The remedy is to feed off 

 or mow the first crop just before timothy heads out. 

 Pasturing or clipping back in spring to delay bloom- 

 ing ten days is useful. The clover-seed fly is seldom 

 noticed, though it causes enormous injury. It 

 eats out the seed, leaving only the light shell, 

 which in threshing is blown away, leaving no 

 trace of the insect's work. No practicable remedy 

 is known. 



Literature. 



The subject of red clover seed-production has 

 not as yet been studied exhaustively, and the litera- 

 ture on the subject is very fragmentary and 

 scattering. Consult Darwin, Cross- and Self-fer- 

 tilization in the Vegetable Kingdom ; A. D. Hop- 

 kins, The Flowering Habits and Fertilization of 

 the Flowers of Red Clover, Proceedings Society 

 Promotion of Agricultural Science, 1896; A. N. 

 M' Alpine, Production of New Types of Clovers and 

 Grasses, Transactions Highland Agricultural So- 

 ciety, Vol. 10, 1898, p. 135; Clover Farming, 

 Henry Wallace, 1898 ; Clovers and How to Grow 

 Them, T. Shaw, 1906; Clover Seed and Methods of 

 Testing for Percentage Germination, United States 

 Department Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin No. 

 123; Michigan Board of Agriculture Reports, 

 1879, 1881, 1886; United States Bureau Ento- 

 mology, Circular No. 69, 



Clover : Its culture and uses. Figs. 342, 343. 

 By Joseph E. Wing. 



For centuries, good farm practice has been based 

 on the regular use of clovers in the rotation. Long 

 before the scientist had found how clovers enriched 

 soils the farmer had observed the fact and had 

 founded his practice on it. There is no other means 

 of so surely and cheaply enriching the soil for suc- 

 ceeding crops as the growing of leguminous crops, 

 chief among which are the clovers. 



The requirements of clovers are simple, and much 

 alike for each kind. They feed actively on the 

 mineral elements of the soil and revel in soils rich 

 in potassium and phosphorus. They send their roots 

 deep into the subsoil and find there much mineral 

 wealth. On their rootlets develop tubercles filled 

 with myriads of bacteria, which gather nitrogen 

 from the soil-air and make it available to other 

 plants on their death. 



Soil requirements and preparation. 



Clover thrives on sweet soils, that is, soils con- 

 taining much carbonate of lime. Good farming is 

 much dependent on limestone. Where soils are 

 acid, agriculture and the growth of clovers decay. 

 Where there is abundant lime in the soil, acidity 

 does not occur. Many regions that once grew good 

 clover will not grow it now, and when the soils are 

 studied they are found to be acid, and yet these 

 soils may overlie the solid limestone rock, only a 

 few feet down. Whenever fragments of this rock 

 are mixed through the soil, clovers will thrive. 



There are other soils that never contained much 

 lime, and that within recent years have become too 

 acid to permit the growth of clovers. Liming is the 

 first requisite to restore clovers to these lands. The 

 safest form is the crushed or ground and unburned 

 limestone. This is neutral, and it does not attack 

 the humus nor set free nitrogen. Acids will attack 

 it and be destroyed, and any residue will remain 

 for future years. Carbonate of lime in ground 

 form, unburned, may be applied in large quantities 

 and at small expense ; it is a permanent invest- 

 ment that should yield dividends for a long time. 

 It is quite safe to use as much as three to eight 

 tons of carbonate of lime to an acre of land, and 

 much more has been applied without harm. Next 

 in importance to lime for clovers is the supply of 

 phosphorus. Clover demands an abundance of 

 phosphorus. This may be applied in any form, 

 either by the use of acidulated rock, by "floats" 

 used in connection with stable manures, or by the 

 use of bone-meal. If there is then present a normal 

 amount of potash, the clover will thrive. For best 

 results, however, there should be a certain amount 

 of vegetable matter in the soil. Humus puts " life " 

 into the soil, adds plant-food and enlivens the soil 

 by letting in the air and by encouraging the earth- 

 worms ; it also introduces bacteria in great abun- 

 dance, and these may help the growth of the clover 

 and add to the wealth of the soil. 



The writer has in mind an old field from which 

 clover had been long banished because of its poor 

 condition. It was divided into two parts, both alike 



