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Sweet clover is a legume little used and but partially appreciated 
which offers considerable promise for both hay and pasture. It has 
been grown and studied as a green-manure crop in two rotations. 
These have given continuous data on the possibilities of obtaining 
a stand when seeded with a nurse crop. In one rotation the sweet 
clover is sown with oats and in the other it is sown with wheat. In 
both it is sown on disked corn ground. In June of the second year 
the crop is plowed under when it is in bloom and has attained nearly 
its maximum' growth. The wheat is seeded at the rate of 4 pecks, 
the oats at 5 pecks, and the sweet clover at 10 pounds, per acre. A 
good stand is generally obtained, but the sweet clover survives the 
harvest of the grain in only about 4 years out of 10. When the 
season is particularly dry before and immediately following harvest 
the seedling plants are likely to die, the nurse crop exhausting the 
soil of all available water. Green manuring is considered under a 
separate heading. 
Sweet clover may be spring-seeded on well-prepared spring-plowed 
land with a fair degree of success. Scarified seed should be used. 
Sweet clover will hold its own and survive with a much heavier weed 
growth than alfalfa. ' Unless soil blowing is a factor a nurse crop 
is not desirable, the sweet clover finding enough competition from 
the weeds which will naturally spring into growth. If a nurse crop 
is used it should be seeded ^ery lightly. Instead of the 5 pecks per 
acre seeded in the rotation plats, oats should be seeded at the rate 
of not more than 2 pecks. Sweet clover may be seeded any time in 
April or May. Barley would seem to be the best nurse crop to use, 
as it is the earliest of the spring-sown small grains. 
It appears that early spring seeding of sweet clover in small-grain 
stubble may be a successful method of getting a stand. Nothing is 
risked except the seed. Scarified seed should be sown from April 1 
to 10. If unscarified seed is used, the seeding in small-grain stubble 
should be done in the late fall. 
Winter rye is a crop of considerable importance to this region. It 
is particularly valuable on the lighter soils, where, on account of its 
greater hardiness, it is less liable than winter wheat to destruction 
or damage by soil blowing. It is especially valuable for early-spring 
pasture. It may be utilized solely for pasture; or, after a limited 
period of pasturing, it may be left to produce a grain crop. Under 
drought or other unfavorable conditions more reliance is to be placed 
in it than in any of the other grain crops for producing a good crop 
of straw, but hot weather and a lack of water at blossoming time may 
interfere with the production of grain. In the better years rye can 
not compete with winter wheat on the heavier soils to which wheat 
is adapted, but in the years when the yield of wheat is low it may be 
equaled or even exceeded by winter rye. Winter rye is a more certain 
grain-producing crop for the sandy land than winter wheat. A 
Farmer growing winter wheat should be slow to grow rye for seed 
production. Rye is extremely hardy and it may come up as 
volunteer in later seedings of wheat, thus subjecting the latter crop to 
dockage. 
Experiments with potatoes indicate that from 60 to 100 bushels 
per acre may be expected as an average. Producing certified seed 
potatoes on the dry lands has come to be profitable in certain sections. 
