270 SOILS AND PLANT LIFE 



Owing to the high percentage of hard seeds, a germina- 

 tion test, such as was made in Exercise 50, should in every 

 case be made before the seed is either purchased or used. 

 At least 30 to 40 per cent should prove germinable. 



Sweet clover is cut for hay when about twenty to twenty- 

 four inches in height. If allowed to grow longer, the hay 

 becomes coarse and woody. In mowing it, a stubble from 

 four to six inches high is usually left, as otherwise many 

 young shoots will be cut off and later growth retarded, or 

 the plants may even be killed outright. 



Alsike. — Alsike clover may be used either for pasture 

 or as a hay crop. It succeeds better than red clover in 

 poorly drained soils or in those deficient in lime, and for 

 this reason, it is often grown in fields in which it is known 

 that red clover can not thrive. 



Often it is mixed with timothy and red clover because 

 it matures at about the same time, about four or five 

 pounds of alsike seed per acre being used in addition to 

 the usual amounts of the other seeds. In this case, it 

 becomes a sort of substitute for the red clover, that is, in 

 those spots or places, where the red clover fails, the alsike 

 usually establishes itself. 



White Clover. — The little white clover is the standard 

 pasture plant among the clovers just as is blue grass 

 among the grasses. 



This clover is not usually seeded, but, like the blue grass, 

 finds its way into pastures that are suited to it. The seed 

 will lie in the ground for several years and will germinate 

 when conditions become right. It may be sown in pasture 

 mixtures, in which case, from two to five povmds of the seed 

 per acre may be used. 



Japan Clover. — This is an annual clover which is 

 commonly used in the southern states for pastures 

 though on fertile soils it sometimes grows to a height of 



