1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
143 
CLOVER FARMING. 
MAXA6EMKXT OF CLOVER IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
The Great Value of the Plant. 
Part II. 
USES OF CLOVER.—The clover will not only give 
us a crop of hay, but a crop of seed, and leave in the 
soil a crop of roots worth as much as the tops for a 
fertilizer. By feeding the hay and returning the ma¬ 
nure to the soil, we have in a good clover crop and 
the sod enough phosphoric acid for a crop of corn and 
wheat to follow. Dr. Kedzie claims enough nitrogen 
for four average crops, and potash for more than six 
average crops of wheat. The roots of the clover are 
worth as much or more than the tops for fertilizing. 
They weigh as much as the tops. This has been dem¬ 
onstrated by Lawes, by Voelcker, by Roberts and by 
several of our stations. If, then, land is run down 
so it will not grow wheat and corn profitably, is it 
wise to jump at the conclusion that clover will not do 
any good on such land? It is very doubtful whether 
v/e have any more land that is clover-sick than 
wheat-sick. The clover-sick land of Scotland seems 
to have a deficiency of soluble potash, and where pot¬ 
ash is applied, even the worst cases of that clover- 
sick land have produced clover. Sandy lands that dry 
cut quickly, clay lands that pack and are destitute of 
humus, black peaty lands that surface-dry quickly, 
are all hard lands to get a stand of clover on. 
A CASE OP SEEDING.—I once tried to get a stand 
of clover on a clay lot, on which tobacco or corn had 
been grown for 40 odd years, and no man had ever 
seen a pound of manure or fertilizer used on it. It 
was tobacco-sick and corn-sick. But I plowed in the 
Fall and top-dressed it 
with manure hauled 12 
miles from the stock- 
yards. As soon in the 
Spring as it was dry 
enough to harrow and 
cultivate, we worked it 
twice, drilled in six 
pecks of oats, and sowed 
six quarts of Medium 
Red clover and two 
quarts of Timothy seed 
to each acre, and never 
have seen a better stand 
of clover. On a neigh¬ 
bor's lot he had tried 
clover sown on wheat, 
and told me it was 
waste of seed to sow 
clover. My experience 
leads me to conclude 
that land must be either 
naturally well supplied 
with fertility and mois¬ 
ture or must be pro¬ 
vided these two factors, 
or clover will fail. Nor 
do I think that one kind 
of clover is any better 
suited to poor land than 
another. If a piece of 
land is so poor that 
clover will not grow on 
it after it has been Fall- 
plowed and top-dressed with stable manure, it is 
poorer than any I ever saw. 
WHY FALL-PLOW?—Because I know of no means 
of putting thin land in so fine condition for carrying 
a regular supply of soil moisture near to the surface. 
Top-dressing with stable manure will add needed fer¬ 
tility and increase the soil’s capacity to retain mois¬ 
ture. Shortage of moisture at the surface is destruc¬ 
tive to young clover, nor will it thrive on land where 
there is an excess of moisture. It is the same with 
Timothy, Blue grass and Orchard grass, that I find 
perish oftener for want of soil moisture than from 
any other cause. If one will prepare a good seed bed 
fine and compact, and sow any of these seeds in Au¬ 
tumn or Spring I find them as sure as wheat, but sown 
on carelessly-prepared ground, that dries quickly on 
the surface or to greater depth, the season must be 
an exception if one gets a good catch. The looser the 
texture of the soil the greater is the need of care to 
make the soil compact and have the seed covered. 
Going farther west, where prairie soil dries more 
quickly clover is covered with harrow, drill or drag. 
Farmers in the Miami Valley who have put extra 
work on the soil, and had it fine and firm, have by 
covering the seed with drill or harrow, made good 
success by sowing clover among corn after last culti¬ 
vation. To sow clover seed among corn, however, 
without such preparation of the soil, fails oftener than 
it hits. When the season is right clover catches so 
readily that the average farmer is slow to give the 
care needed to make failure the exception. 
MANURE FOR CLOVER.—Common Red clover is 
so valuable a crop for feed and for cleaning and im- 
pioving the soil, that we can afford to sow it often 
and to prepare the seed bed well, and on very thin 
lands to top-dress with stable manure. Even a very 
light dressing of manure well distributed seems to 
insure a good catch of clover. If on such land the 
crop is all turned under in .July for wheat with which 
200 or 300 pounds commercial fertilizer to the acre 
have been used, clover Avill start well the following 
years, under judicious farming. We cannot tell 
whether the light top-dressing of stable manure fur¬ 
nished the needed humus and fertilizer, or the bac- 
of corn, that will cut a furrow as to leave the young 
corn on a ridge; and moisture, with abundance of 
available plant food for our other crops. 
Butler Co., 0. l. n. boniiam. 
original BEACH PLUM. Fig. «1. 
teria, or both—possibly both. Our test of Fall plow¬ 
ing on a worn-out corn-sick and tobacco-sick clay 
hillside shows how easily and surely such land may 
be made congenial to clover. If I had land that I 
could not get a good catch of clover by sowing on 
wheat or barley in the Spring I would Fall-plow it, 
top-dress lightly with stable manure and sow a 
bushel of Spring barley and six quarts of Medium Red 
clover seed. Putting in the barley and clover with 
a drill would cover both more evenly, if the land was 
in good order and- had been rolled before the drill. 
The barley would mature earlier than oats, rye or 
wheat and come off before hot, dry weather. Any 
weeds that might start would be cut before maturing 
IMPROVED BEACH PLUM. Fio. 62. See Ruralisms, Page 148. 
seed, thus leaving a clean stubble. In an average 
season I would clip the clover again in August or 
early September, before any weeds would mature. 
The mulch thus left on the ground would help to re¬ 
tain moisture and add to fertility. It is well to re¬ 
member that the leaves of clover that fall on the soil 
carry a considerable amount of sulphuric acid and 
potash that help to corrode its earthy particles. 
PASTURING CLOVER.—The clover plant is hardy, 
but it will not excuse tramping when frosty; hence, it 
should never be pastured after frost appears, unless 
one is careful not to turn on in the morning before 
the frost has disappeared. Grazing late in the Pall 
and during Winter is very damaging and will usually 
kill so much as to make it unprofitable the following 
Summer. As the plant is a biennial, and not peren¬ 
nial, its proper place is in a rotation where it will be 
turned under the second year after seeding. Attempts 
to keep clover longer for pasture have invited attacks 
of Clover midge. Clover root-borer and kindred pests, 
that do not thrive where the plants do not occupy 
the ground longer than the second year, or until the 
crop has matured. Fortunately, we can hold in check 
the worst insect enemies of the clover crop, as we can 
those of the corn and wheat crop, by a rotation that 
does not keep the land in one crop more than a year 
or two. We find our rotation of corn, wheat and 
clover, each one year, is a good one for cleaning the 
land of weeds and insects. The cutworm and grub 
of the May beetle are the pests that are common after 
a clover sod. But Fall plowing of clover sod for com, 
and the use of a plow or cultivator for first working 
HENRY E. VAN DEM AN—A FRUIT EXPERT. 
We receive many letters from R. N.-Y. readers 
asking us to print a good likeness of our associate. 
Prof. H. E. Van Deman. We take occasion while our 
friend is 3.000 miles away (on the Pacific coast) to 
present at Fig. 58 one of the most characteristic por¬ 
traits we have ever printed in The R. N.-Y. Many of 
our readers have seen, at institutes and horticultural 
conventions, a short, sturdily-built man with a kindly, 
pleasant face, who seemed a perfect walking encyclo¬ 
pedia of fruit lore. Many more know him through 
the almost countless fruit questions he has answered 
in our columns. As a rule, people are not so much 
interested in what a man did years ago as they are 
in what he is doing now. We may briefly say that 
Mr. Van Deman came honestly by his fruit knowledge. 
He was born in Ross Co., Ohio—almost in an apple 
orchard—as he expresses it. He was a farmer's boy, 
knowing the hopes, ambitions and disappointments 
that fall to the lot of the average boy and young man 
on the farm. He received a good foundation in solid 
education, but like many other boys of his time, was 
unable to finish a college course. He studied botany 
by himself, and after his removal to Kansas, held the 
chair of botany at the Kansas Agricultural College. 
All through his busy and active life he had been iden¬ 
tified with fruit growing. He set commercial orchards 
of his own, and traveled near and far studying the 
habits and merits of va¬ 
rieties, and the results 
of different methods of 
' culture. When the Di¬ 
vision of Pomoiogy, in 
the National Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture was 
to be organized the au¬ 
thorities found in Mr. 
Van Deman a man well 
qualified to do practicai 
work for American fruit 
growers. He organized 
the Division on a broad, 
solid foundation. 
Our friend has lived 
an active, useful life— 
of far greater service to 
his countrymen than 
hundreds of so-called 
statesmen who for years 
manage to occupy the 
eye of the public. He 
has worked faithfully to 
improve the quality of 
our fruits and to teach 
growers the necessity of 
higher culture and nicer 
discrimination as to va¬ 
rieties. We think he is 
at his best in answering 
questions—asked in all 
sincerity by men who, 
brought face to face 
with a hard problem, need honest advice. We do not 
believe that there is a man in the country better 
qualified to do this work. Van Deman is himself 
a plain, every-day working man. He understands 
what the common people want, and he knows how to 
reach them. We look over a good many miles of 
“copy” during the year, but none requires less work 
w’ith the blue pencil than Mr. Van Deman’s. His pen 
writes few useless words. People say that they can 
understand without extra effort just what he is talk¬ 
ing about—and that is the highest compliment an 
author can ever receive. 
Our picture shows Mr. Van Deman at his favorite 
occupation of examining or naming varieties of fruit. 
An apple or pear means much to him. He sees in it 
things which the ordinary observer would hardly 
dream were there. He can probably name more va¬ 
rieties off hand and give their prominent character¬ 
istics without hunting up the printed references, than 
any man in America. This knowledge will be of great 
value to him in his present work of organizing a 
great fruit exhibit at the Pan-American Exhibition 
at Buffalo. Yes, it is a good—a natural picture of Mr. 
Van Deman as he sits with his fruits spread out be¬ 
fore him. It is a picture of a good and useful man, 
whose pen and tongue have brought him close to the 
lives of thousands of his countrymen. May he be 
spared for many years to come! 
Mr. Van Deman is now on the Pacific coast. This 
accounts for the tact that some questions sent him 
have not yet been returned. They will all be an¬ 
swered in time, and friends will understand from this 
explanation that they have not been neglected. 
