Vol. LXII. No. 2797. 
SI PER YEAR. 
CLARK GRASS FOR EVERYDAY FARMERS. 
HOW THE “nurse” CROP CAME OUT. 
Good Returns from Careful Work. 
In view of the interest manifested and the recent 
articles on the “Clark method” of seeding, I give be¬ 
low my experience of the past six years with this 
method, reduced to farm practice, where hay is only 
one of several important crops and teams and time 
are limited. I believe in this, as in most things, each 
one must follow a line of work as to detail that best 
suits his peculiar soil and conditions. Much of my 
land used for meadow is alluvial bottom soil, most 
of which overflows at times of high water. It is from 
two to six feet deep, underlaid with a fine bed of 
gravel; soil that can be quickly worked after a rain, 
and that does not get lumpy, except when it is kept 
in a “hoed crop” for two or three years. It then also 
becomes very foul with weeds, the seeds of which are 
brought down by the stream that flows through it. 
The best paying crops for this land are corn and 
grass. How to get it from the former to the latter 
has for many years been a problem. 
Red clover seems natural to this land, and when 
sown with the Timothy stays so long that it spoils 
the quality of the hay for market. Hence, my father 
had abandoned sowing clover there at all. We then 
seeded with a crop of barley. From the first year’s 
seeding with a Spring crop without clover we were 
apt to get a good many weeds in the grass. Then 
after about two crops of Timothy the seeding ran out. 
On this account, and because I did not care to raise 
barley, I tried Winter rye, the main grain crop in this 
section. This gave much more satisfactory results 
the first mowing, but the seeding lasted no longer 
than before. The rye was also very unsatisfactory. 
It grew luxuriantly but the straw was light in weight 
and dark in color, and it did not fill well; besides 
which the strain on the binder to cut the stuff as well 
as on the temper of the man who ran it was fearful. 
He would certainly think evil words if he did not say 
them, which I suppose is just as bad for the morals. 
After this I tried wheat, and the first year I thought 
I had just “hit it.” That rich land on which the rye 
lodged, bore a beautiful crop of wheat, that all stood 
up, and went 35 bushels to the acre, and was followed 
by a magnificent seeding. The next year I sowed a 
10-acre plot adjoining with wheat, all the conditions 
up to March 1 the same; after which we had freezing 
and thawing weather, and by April 15 I could have 
drawn all the wheat on the field in my one-horse 
business wagon. The Timothy looking well, I sowed 
the piece lightly with clover, and by the last of July 
cut the best piece of hay I had on the farm that year, 
I then reasoned that if this was the case with the 
ground occupied by the wheat all through the Fall, 
how much better chance the grass would have had if 
it had had all the strength of the land to itself. So 
the next Fall I determined to try the “Clark method.” 
I had learned that I could grow a profitable crop of 
oats on that land, after the corn, by the use of potash, 
phosphoric acid and no nitrogen; and later that they 
grew and yielded just as well with the potash left 
out also, using South Carolina rock, 14 per cent, 200 
pounds per acre. As soon as the land was cleared of 
the oats I at once thoroughly plowed it, then top- 
dressed about two-thirds of the field with stable ma¬ 
nure, that we had made through the Summer, and the 
remainder of the field with a high-grade fertilizer, 500 
pounds to the acre. The land was harrowed as fast 
as it was plowed, so that it "worked up fine, before 
the surface had time to harden. Then it was gone 
over with a disk harrow. We probably went over it 
two or three times; I have no set rule, but work the 
land until it is fine. I think I never went over a piece 
with the disks more than four times. Then the seed 
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 5, 1903. 
was sown with a wheelbarrow seeder, going over the 
ground both ways, the Red-top being in the chaff. 
(We now use the re-cleaned seed.) This was covered 
by the w'eeder, and then all rolled down. We used 
half Timothy, one-quarter each of Alsike and Red- 
top, sowing half a bushel to the acre. I have since 
learned that it is better for me to use one-eighth Al¬ 
sike. This was sown the first week in September. 
The seed came nicely and there were practically no 
weeds to bother with. 
We had allowed a little time to elapse between the 
first harrowing and the final fitting so that one crop 
of weeds was killed. The last of the following March 
some friends who looked at it said they did not think 
I would get much grass there, nor did I at that time, 
but it began to grow, and the second week in July 
we cut from the six acres 23 loads of hay, all we could 
load on a 15-foot rigging. It was not so tall, but a 
perfect mat all over the ground; in fact, where the 
manure was used there was a good deal lodged that 
we could not cut. There also came a very rank after¬ 
growth which I left on the ground. In this I found 
I had made a mistake, as much of the grass was 
A PROUD AND PRECOCIOUS PULLET. Fig. 236. Skk Pagk 638. 
smothered the next season. This was remedied by 
seed worked in and a dusting of nitrate of soda. The 
plot was mown five years (this year it is in corn 
again); last year we took off 14 large loads, about 
half Red-top, which sold for $13 per ton. 
The above line has been followed each year since 
with equally good results, except in 1900, when it will 
be rememebered it was very dry. I was able to get 
the ground plowed right after the only rain we had 
until October, and had it seeded the last week in Au¬ 
gust. I was particularly proud of this job, and felt 
sure that with the fine tilth that the soil was in and 
the heavy dews that always fall on those lands the 
seed would come through all right. It sprouted, but 
when the sun shone on it with fervent heat, because 
it had not much depth of root, it withered away. I 
learned a lesson then; in a dry time to let land lie 
long enough after plowing before seeding, for the 
capillary cells to form between the subsoil and that 
on the surface. Some one will ask, “Why plow at 
all?” Because on this land where there grows with 
the oats a great amount of Summer grass it is very 
difllcult to get it all under. I can get a better .seed 
bed for less expenditure of labor than with the Cut¬ 
away. I have tried both ways. In 1900 it would have 
been better not plowed. I find it better to mow a 
second crop or judiciously pasture than to let the 
large aftermath go down, then apply the next Spring 
some commercial fertilizer. If I expect to mow three 
or four years more use four-per-cent nitrogen (nitrate 
of soda), 12 per cent phosphoric acid (bone and South 
Carolina rock preferred), and two to four per cent 
potash (muriate), using from 300 to 600 pounds per 
acre. If I only expect to mow one year more I use 
from 150 to 200 pounds of nitrate of soda. I find the 
hay, as I said, is very thick on the bottom and free 
from weeds. We sometimes have to take out by hand 
some such weeds as dock or mustard. After the 
third year the Timothy begins to decline but the Red- 
top will occupy the ground, and we get good crops of 
salable hay for at least five years. 
Columbia Co., N. Y. edward van alstyne. 
MISTAKES IN GROWING PEA SEEDS. 
In The R. N.-Y. of July 4, in “Notes from the Rural 
Grounds,” reference is made to the apparent loss of 
vitality in Gradus and Nott’s Excelsior pea«, and you 
express the hope that good seasons in future may en¬ 
able stocks to regain their original vigor. Are the 
seasons responsible for this deterioration of seed 
stocks? I do not think so. After 20 years observation 
I do not recall a single instance where a dwarf 
wrinkled pea has retained its full vigor beyond five 
or six years. This I attribute to the general method 
of growing peas for seed. Probably 98 per cent of the 
dwarf garden peas sold by seedsmen are grown in pre¬ 
cisely the same manner as are common field peas. 
When 60 grown the vines of Nott’s Excelsior, Wm. 
Hurst, American Wonder, etc., rarely exceed eight 
inches in length and often not over four inches. This 
practice if followed year after year, as it is, there 
must certainly follow a loss of vigor. Surely a six- 
inch plant, with three or four half developed pods, 
grown in an uncultivated, crowded, weed-smothered 
field, perhaps the descendant of a half dozen genera¬ 
tions of like degenerates, cannot be expected to pro¬ 
duce seed that will make healthy, prolific plants. As 
well select the nubbins of corn with the expectation 
of securing a good crop and of maintaining a vigorous 
standard. I abandoned this method years ago and 
have since grown this class of peas in rows 28 inches 
apart, cultivating the same as beans. I have this 
year seen hundreds of acres of dwarf peas sown in 
the old way that were not to exceed six inches in 
length, and would cost the grower more to harvest 
than he would receive for the crop. On the other 
hand, those planted in rows made a growth of 14 to 
18 inches and were loaded with pods. I put out one 
field of Nott’s on Timothy sod in which the vines 
averaged 20 inches, were strong and well colored. 
In one field Gradus averaged three feet. 
If I were selecting a list of peas for my own gar¬ 
den Gradus (also known as Prosperity and Ideal), 
would not receive a moment’s consideration. It is 
without exception the best advertised and most un¬ 
profitable pea in the whole Hist, unprofitable alike to 
the seed grower, the dealer and to the one who plants 
it for home use, because the poorest yielder of all. 
It has the weakest constitution of any variety I know 
and is the most difficult to keep true to type, while 
it does not get within a mile of American "Wonder in 
quality. It certainly is the largest early pea, both in 
pod and vine. Everything else is sacrificed to those 
two points. Thomas Laxton is a trifle smaller In pod, 
a little better in quality but fully as weak in consti¬ 
tution. EDWARD. E. SVAN8. 
Ogemaw Co., Mich. 
