FORAGE CROPS FOE THE SAND-HILL SECTION OF NEBRASKA. 11 



meadow. Twelve pounds of red clover to the acre or 8 pounds of 

 alsike are usually the quantities recommended and are sufficient to 

 give a complete stand when proper methods of seeding- are used. It 

 is better to have a good stand of clover OA T er 5 acres of the meadow, 

 where one can see exactly how beneficial it is, than to have a spot here 

 and there over 80 or 100 acres. Some reckon that if only a bunch 

 here and there is started in a meadow the seed will gradually be 

 scattered by the sweep rake in haying and will cover the entire 

 meadow. It will do so if the clover is allowed to get fairly ripe 

 before the haying is done, but it will take years. The farmer might 

 have been cutting good clover crops from it much sooner if a smaller 

 area had been given the proper quantity of seed and a field kept on 

 cultivated ground to furnish the seed necessary for a gradual exten- 

 sion of his meadow. A field of pure clover on cultivated land is of 

 great service for this purpose, as that produced in the meadows is 

 so mixed with grass leaves that it is difficult to thrash. If the 

 farmer has some source of seed on his own farm he will ordinarily 

 use a larger quantity than if forced to purchase it. 



METHOD OF SEEDING. 



Many scatter clover seed on the surface of the ground and count on 

 the rains covering it. When sown with oats on cultivated ground 

 the soil should be plowed and thoroughly prepared with disk and 

 harrow before seeding. Then the clover can be seeded at the same 

 time as the oats and harrowed in with a drag- harrow if no drill is 

 available, or the oats can be disked or drilled in first and then the 

 clover seed scattered on and harrowed in lightly. On these light 

 soils it is always better to cover the seed in some way. 



Where clover is sown without a grain crop, land that was in corn 

 the previous year is preferable, because it is firm and solid. If the 

 corn was cut for fodder, it only remains to sow the seed broadcast 

 and harrow or drill it in the following spring. The field should be 

 one which was kept free from weeds the preceding } r ear, otherwise 

 the young clover plants are likely to be choked out. 



Most of this paper has been written with the present equipment of 

 the sand-hill farmer in mind. As soon as possible every farmer 

 should supply himself with a drill which will sow clover and alfalfa 

 seed. A disk drill having a press attachment which is removable will 

 pay for itself in one season in the saving of seed if any considerable 

 area of land is seeded. The press wheels are very essential on culti- 

 vated ground, since it is always loose and needs to be compacted after 

 the seed is sown. When seeding clover on meadowland these wheels 

 can be removed and the seed left in the little furrows made by the 

 disks. Succeeding rains will pack the soil sufficiently to insure an 



[Cir. 80] 



