886 
C/jt?  RURAL  NEW-YORK.ER 
HOPE  FARM  NOTES 
Sweet  Clover. — We  are  now  coming 
to  a  point  where  it  is  safe  to  begin  giv¬ 
ing  personal  experience  with  this  plant.. 
1  lmve  tried  to  gel  conservative  state¬ 
ments.  It  is  easy  for  a  man  to  seed  some 
new  crops,  hit  upon  a  temporary  success 
and  then  rush  in  to  “boom”  the  new 
thing.  Others  read  his  extravagant 
praise  and  without  reasoning  or  fair  al¬ 
lowance  rush  in — and  lose  money,  In 
a  paper  like  The  It.  N.-Y.  the  tirst  aim 
should  he  to  make  people  thinJc  and  use 
judgment  about  their  work  and  not  lead 
them  to  plunge  head  over  heels  into  new 
methods  or  novelties.  I  know  several 
people  who  have  been  made  quite  sour  hy 
a  wholesale  experiment  with  Sweet  clo¬ 
ver.  The  same  is  true  of  rye.  vetch  and 
turnips  as  cover  crops.  Cases  are  re¬ 
ported  where  these  useful  crops  have  run 
away  all  over  the  farm  and  got  into 
wheat  and  other  crops  so  as  to  become 
a  nuisance!  Therefore  although  these, 
crops  have  made  our  farm  what  il  is.  I 
always  want  to  tie  a  caution  to  them 
when  their  use  is  advocated. 
A  Tryout. — Our  first  real  trial  of 
Sweet  clover  was  made  last  Fall.  We 
seeded  about  50  pounds  mixed  with  Al- 
sike.  This  was  used  as  a  cover  crop  in 
the  corn  with  rye  as  a  companion.  Wc 
plant  a  small  flint  corn  between  the  trees 
in  our  orchard,  and  at.  the  last  cultiva¬ 
tion — in  late  August  or  early  September 
—-scatter  a  “cover  crop”  right  in  the  corn 
and  cultivate  it  in.  Last.  Fall  we  used 
to  each  acre  three  pecks  of  rye.  six 
pounds  Sweet,  clover,  four  pounds  Al- 
sike  and  a  little  less  than  a  pound  of 
CoW-born  turnip  seed.  The  Sweet  clover 
was  nnhulled.  The  “rye  was  a  yea  u  or 
more  old  and  did  not  sprout  well  giving 
only  a  poor  stand.  The  turnips  did  well 
and  the  clover  made  a  scattered  showing 
last  Fall.  We  had  the  hardest  Winter 
on  grass  and  clover  seeding  I  ever  knew 
in  this  country,  and  by  March  ilio  clover 
looked  sick.  Merrill  wauled  to  plow  it 
all  under  to  get  it  out  of  sight,  hut  I 
determined  to  leave  part  of  it  at  least 
to  see  what  il  would  come  to.  'Pile  con¬ 
stant  rains  prevented  us  from  plowing 
anyway,  so  the  clover  had  a  chance  to 
make  good  if  it  could. 
The  Combination. — Why  did  you  use 
Alsike  with  the  Sweet?  If  1  am  forced 
to  tell  the  truth  I  will  admit,  that  I  knew 
the  Alsike  will  grow  on  our  soil,  while 
I  was  not  sure  of  the  Sweet.  So  I  used 
the  Alsike  as  a  sort  of  “anchor  to  wind¬ 
ward'*  that  we  might  have  something  at 
least.  The  rye  did  poorly.  For  this  sort 
of  work  we  must  have  fresh  new  rye  and 
it  is  often  hard  to  obtain  the  new  seed 
for  this  early  use.  Turnips  always  give 
us  a  fair  stand  and  I  think  il  pays  to 
add  th(4  seed  to  most  cover  crops.  The 
figures  given  in  Dr.  Lindsey’s  letter  on 
page  880  show  what,  the  turnips  do  to 
potash.  Early  in  the  season  I  found  it 
hard  to  separate  the  Sweet  from  the  Al¬ 
sike  clover  but  as  l he  season  came  on  the 
Sweet  came  up  like  a  jumping-jack  and 
left  the  Alsike  far  behind.  Several  ex¬ 
perts  said  last  Fall  when  I  spoke  of 
sowing  the  two  clovers  together  that  they 
felt  sorry  for  the  Alsike.  It  is  true  that 
the  Sweet  is  now  far  ahead,  but  I  have 
always  found  the  Alsike  well  able  to 
care  for  itself. 
The  Result. — On  .Tune  3  T  went  all 
over  the  orchards  and  took  samples  and 
measurements.  The  stand  of  clover  is 
not  even  enough  to  la1  permanent.  I 
think  this  is  partly  due  to  the  seeding. 
We  did  not  use  enough  seed,  and  it  is 
hard  to  get  an  even  distribution  in  the 
corn.  The  nnhulled  seed  seems  to  germ¬ 
inate  slowly.  Right  beside  clumps  of 
clover  over  two  feet  high  I  find  many 
little  plants  just  breaking  ground.  Then 
our  soil  varies  in  its  degree  of  acidity. 
I  am  very  sure  that  where  we  have  used 
most  lime  in  the  past  the  Sweet  clover 
is  far  ahead,  both  in  size  and  in  thick¬ 
ness  of  stand.  In  one  part  of  the  or¬ 
chard  sonic  years  ago  we  tried  putting 
lime  among  the  corn  at  time  of  seeding 
the  cover  crop.  We  put  it  on  thick,  but 
it  did  not  pay,  as  so  much  hand  work 
was  required.  Where  that  lime  went, 
however,  the  Sweet  clover  has  come  in 
thickly.  On  the  soil  which  we  know  to 
be  very  sour  the  Sweet  has  given  up, 
while  the  Alsike  makes  a  light  showing. 
On  parts  of  the  orchard  the  stand  is 
thick  enough  for  anyone,  but  on  most  of 
the  land  it  is  too  scattering  to  he  left 
permanently.  Thus  our  first  observa¬ 
tion  is  that  Sweet  clover  needs  lime — * 
far  more  than  Alsike  and  probably  more 
than  Alfalfa  or  Red  clover.  With  the 
nnhulled  seed  I  should  think  20  pounds 
per  acre  would  he  needed. 
What  It  Does. — On  .Tune  3  I  dug 
Several  samples  of  this  clover  with  the 
thin  stand  of  rye.  We  marked  out  foot 
square  places  here  and  there  and  drove 
a  spade  in  under.  Then  the  entire  clump 
was  taken  out,  thoroughly  cleaned  of 
soil  and  dried  a  little  and  accurately 
weighed.  This  represented  the  entire 
growth  above  ground  and  about  five  inch¬ 
es  below.  There  was  an  average  of 
about  eight  stalks  of  rye  in  each  square 
foot — the  rest  was  Sweet  clover  with  a 
little  Alsike.  The  average  weight  of  this 
green  stuff  on  each  square  foot  was  a 
fraction  of  an  ounce  less  than  one  pound. 
As  there  are  43,5(50  square  feet  in  an 
acre  this  would  mean  over  20  tons  of  this 
stuff’  to  he  plowed  under.  <  if  course  this 
is  not  a  practical  way  of  figuring  the 
yield.  It  is  something  like  trap-nesting 
one  hen  and  then  multiplying  her  yield  hy 
1,000,  but  it  gives  us  a  fair  idea  of 
what  we  put  into  the  soil  through  this 
crop.  By  June  15  I  think  the  Sweet 
clover  will  weigh  nearly  twice  as  much 
while  the  rye  will  weigh  a  little  more. 
The  best  Sweet  clover  we  Ipive  stood  30 
inches  high  on  June  3.  The  samples 
which  were  weighed  were  not  the  best 
— only  a  fair  average. 
Its  Value.  By  analysis  this  bunch  of 
clover  and  rye  would  run  very  close  in 
value  to  stable  manure.  Here  you  have 
the  analysis  from  Dr.  Van  Sl.vke’s  table: 
Pounds 
TO  the  ’ 
Ton. 
Plios. 
Nitrnge 
n  Acid  I 
Vitnsh 
Green 
Sweet  clove 
•V.  .  .  1  i 
•» 
O 
10 
Green 
rve  . 
....  0 
4 
13 
Stable 
manure  . . 
....  10 
G 
12 
Thus  you  may 
see  what 
this  20 
tons 
of  gre 
cn  stuff  ni 
pans  to 
my  soil. 
Of 
course 
when  you 
use  staid 
c  mamin 
*  t  he 
out  i re 
amount  of  plant  food 
it  contains  is 
to  the  soil 
since  it 
is  new' 
and 
cornea 
in  from  the  outside 
.  The 
plant 
.Tune  17,  1016. 
food  in  the  green  crops  is  not.  all  new. 
The  clover  brings  some  nitrogen  in  from 
the  air  and  with  the  rve  Comes  consider¬ 
able  more  which  would  have  been  lost  by 
drainage  had  there  been  no  living  crop 
growing  on  our  hill.  Then  I  feel  sure 
I  hat  the  rye  makes  use  of  potash  and 
a ecu  mutates  it  for  other  crops:  We 
must  also  remember  that  this  great  mass 
of  green  stuff  plowed  under  and  promptly 
decayed  has  a  good  effect  upon  tin*  soil. 
Looking  at  it  fairly  I  am  sure  that  this 
growth  of  Sweet  clover  and  rye  plowed 
under  in  early  June  with  GOO  pounds  of 
active  lime  harrowed  in  will  do  us  as 
much  good  as  eight  tons  of  New  York 
stable  manure  hauled  in  and  spread.  We 
could  not  buy  such  manure  and  haul  it 
up  our  hill  for  less  than  $3.50  per  ton. 
Think  It  Over.  I  know  some  farm¬ 
ers  will  question  this  statement,  and  it  is 
their  privilege  to  do  so.  If  we  seeded  no 
cover  crop,  grass  and  weeds  would  come 
in  before  plowing  and  give  us  a  mass  of* 
stuff  to  plow  under.  I  have  considered 
(Continued  on  page  809.) 
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Other  Unrivaled 
Records 
All  modfl  under  A-  A.  A.  gtjper- 
viaton,  bv  n  rert»Rt»1  nock 
car  or  «tock  Chavis,  ond  ex¬ 
celling  all  formes  atuilc  cars 
in  these  teats. 
100  miles  in  A0  mtn.,  21.4 
sec.,  OWAglng  7*.<57  miles 
per  hoar  for  n  7» passenger 
louring  car  with  driver  ami 
passenger. 
7S.69  miles  in  one  hoar  with 
driver  and  pasiMingrr  in  a 
7-  passenger  touring  cor. 
Standing  Mart  to  50  miles  an 
hour  in  16.2  arc. 
One  mile  »it  the  rate  of  102.53 
miles  per  hour. 
191$  mites  in  24  hours  nt 
overage  speed  of  75.8  miles 
per  hour. 
Over  3800  mtlee  at  speed  ex¬ 
ceeding  75  miles  pet-  hour 
without  evident  wear  on  any 
engine  part- 
Hudson  Super- Six 
Sets  New  24 -Hour  Endurance  Mark 
Fastest  Time  for  Suck  Distance  ever  made  by  a  Traveling  Machine 
No  man  today — if  ho  knows  the  facts — doubts  the 
Super-Six  supremacy. 
At,  first  the  truth  seemed  like  a  romance.  Think  of 
one,  new  invention,  applied  to  a  light  six,  adding  80 
per  cent.  1o  its  power. 
Then  official  records  began  to  pile  up,  cei  t  illed  by 
the  A.  A.  A .  The.  w  hole  motoring  world  then  had  to 
concede  t  his  the  greatest  motor  built. 
But  many  men  asked,  “What  about  the  endur¬ 
ance?  Cun  a  motor  so  flexible,  so  speedy,  so  power¬ 
ful,  stand  up  in  years  of  road  use?” 
So  we  asked  Ralph  Mulfonl  to  take  a  stock  Super- 
Six  chassis  and,  under  official  supervision,  show  the 
world  its  endurance. 
All  Records  Broken 
He  took  a  Super-Six  stock  chassis — certified  by 
A.  A.  A.  officials. 
It  had  already  been  driven  over  2000  miles  at 
Speed  exceeding  80  miles  per  hour. 
It  lmd  made  a  mile  at  Daytona  at  the  rate  of 
102.53  miles  per  hour. 
And  he  drove  that  car  1819  miles,  on  Sheepshead 
Bay  track,  equal  to  the  distance  from  New  York  to 
Denver  in  24  hours  of  continuous  driving- — at  an 
average  speed  of  75.8  miles  per  hour.  At  the  end 
of  that  test — after  nearly  <1,000  miles  of  record- 
breaking  strain — the  car,  when  officially  examined, 
showed  no  appreciable  wear. 
How  Much  Endurance  Has  It? 
It  will  be  many  years  from  now  before  we  can  tell 
you  how  long  a  Hudson  Super-Six  will  last.  But  the 
records  we  cit  e  cover  the  greatest  strains  a  motor  car 
ever  met.  Many  a  great,  engine  has  gone  to  pieces 
under  far  lesser  strain.  Years  of  ordinary  driving 
would  never  tax  a  motor  like  those  thousands  of 
miles  of  speed  tests. 
Yet  the  wear  on  the  Hudson  Super-Six  was  almost 
nothing.  Certain  it.  is  that  no  man  has  ever  built  a 
traveling  machine  to  compare  with  this  car  in 
endurance. 
Greatest  Endurance  Proved 
That  was  tin-  last  question — this  one  of  endurance. 
In  all  other  ways  it  has  long  been  evident  that  the 
Super-Six  stands  supreme.  Never  has  a  motor  of 
this  size  shown  anywhere  near  such  power.  Never 
was  an  engine  made  to  match  this  in  smoothness. 
Never  has  a  st  ock  car  recorded  equal  performance — 
in  hill-climbing,  quick  accelerat  ion  or  speed. 
Handsomer  cars  have  never  been  shown.  Finer 
engineering  is  simply  unthinkable,  with  Howard  E. 
Coffin  at  the  bead  of  tins  department. 
You  are  getling  the  car  of  the  day  w  hen  you  get 
the  Super-Six.  Everyman  who  knows  the  facts  knows 
that.  And,  in  view  of  our  patents,  rivalry  is 
impossible. 
No  Need  to  Wait 
It  is  natural  to  say,  “Let  us  wail  and  see,”  when 
wc  meet  such  radical  advancements.  We  think 
that  nothing  can  excel  in  so  many  ways  without 
falling  behind  in  one. 
But  not  one  fact  about  the  Super-Six  is  left 
unproved  today.  Not  in  one  respect  has  its  per¬ 
formance  been  matched.  Not  in  any  way  has  a 
rivtd  motor  been  made  to  compare  with  this. 
There  is  no  need  to  wait  to  get  Time’s  verdict  on 
the  Super-Six.  The  records  prove  the  Super-Six 
supreme.  A  half-hour’s  ride  w  ithout  those  records 
would  convince  any  man  of  the  fact. 
Thousands  of  these  cars  are  now  running.  You 
will  find  them  in  every  locality.  And  every  owner 
will  tell  you  that  he  never  meets  a  car  to  compare 
with  his,  in  looks  or  performance. 
These  are  things  to  consider  when  you  buy  a  car. 
Phaeton,  7-passenger,  $1475  Roadster,  2-passenger,  $1475  Cabriolet,  3-passenger,  $1775 
Touring  Sedan  $2000  Limousine  $2750 
( Prices  /.  o.  b.  Detroit) 
HUDSON  MOTOR  CAR  COMPANY,  DETROIT,  MICH. 
% 
