1010 . 
839 
THE LIFE OF RED CLOVER. 
Have you ever tried any experiments to 
show how many years Rod clover will con¬ 
tinue to grow and do well if it is cut^ early 
ard not permitted to make seed? We are 
told that the clover plant ends its life after 
seeding. Can we Keep it growing like 
Alfalfa if we can prevent it from going 
to seed? 
I have never tried to keep Red clover 
from going to seed. For several years 
we have cut the second crop for hay in¬ 
stead of for seed, but the seed, or at 
least the embryo seed, was formed, and 
I have not noticed that under such treat¬ 
ment the plant lived over any better 
than when the seed was let fully mature, 
and here is where the plan will fail in 
not being able to cut the second crop 
before seed forms. However, this year 
much clover in this neighborhood was 
not cut till after the middle of July, and 
the yield of the second crop will be in¬ 
significant. As this year’s seeding is 
poor in many places, it would be a good 
idea to clip some of tlie old fields and 
not let them form heads, and see if they 
can be carried over for another year. I 
shall try the plan. We have noted that 
some years when the seed is sown early 
and the season is favorable, the clover 
will get a good start, and if not clipped 
form seed the first year, and if so it is 
not much good the following year. 
Sometimes the second year the first crop 
will form seed. Three years ago a neigh¬ 
bor was delayed in .cutting his clover, 
and he noted that there was much seed 
in it, so he let it stand and ripen, and 
secured about 2 l /i bushels of seed per 
acre. The second crop was no good, but 
I thought it was on account of the late 
cutting of the first crop. 
CARY W. MONTGOMERY. 
Licking Co., O. 
We have made no experiments with 
clover. Our practice here is to sow in 
the Spring with oats and Timothy. The 
second year, whether used for pasture or 
meadow, there is very little clover; the 
following years there is more clover, 
but not often more than from 15 to 25 
per cent of the crop harvested. This 
clover is supposed to come from self- 
seeding. However, I know of no experi¬ 
ments to determine that; but there is 
no more clover the second year when 
pastured after a crop of hay has been 
taken than when the second crop is left 
and a crop of seed taken. j. s. 
Corning, Iowa. 
I believe that the seed of Red clover 
will often lie in the ground several years 
—if it is so deep as to be below heat, 
air and moisture combined. In no other 
way can I account for the growth of 
clover often seen, where no seed had 
been sown for years, either by design or 
accident. I certainly am no believer in 
“spontaneous germination.” I have seen 
clover live much longer than the allotted 
two years, and I have every reason to 
believe the roots lived over. I have a 
field which has not been plowed in over 
•40 years, largely Blue grass; yet this 
field always has some clover in it. Any 
seed sown when I was a small boy must 
have long ago germinated. This field is 
always cut very early, before any seed 
is formed, and then pastured, so there 
is no possibility of a second crop. We 
have cut to-day a field seeded in the 
Spring of 1008. Last year the first crop 
was cut from it, Alsike predominating. 
According to rule, there should be no 
Red clover this year. As a matter of 
fact, all through the Timothy and Red 
top there is a good deal of Red clover, 
and in the part of the field which has the 
most clay, there is fully as much clover 
as either of the two grasses just men¬ 
tioned, and the bulk of it is Red; a larger 
proportion than a year ago, and the field 
will go nearly or quite three tons to the 
acre. While it is possible that the Red 
clover lay dormant until this year, I can 
scarcely believe it, but incline to the be¬ 
lief that the favorable conditions last 
Winter and Spring made the clover live 
one year more. To sum up ; I would 
say that under ordinary conditions Red 
clover usually dies after the second year, 
or is a biennial. Quite often seeds of 
this plant will lie in the ground for a 
number of years, under favorable con¬ 
ditions to appear. Sometimes seeds are 
blown from other fields, which appear 
where no clover had been sown, or not 
sown for a long time. Occasionally when 
soil and weather conditions are just 
right, the Red clover, where it is not 
allowed to seed and exhaust itself, will 
live for many years. Happy is the man 
who has that sort of soil, for he has to a 
large degree solved the problem of fer¬ 
tility. EDWARD VAN ALSTYNE. 
A friend of mine, who is of a curious 
turn of mind, has cut off clover stalks 
year after year in his lawn, and finds 
that they live on until they produce seed. 
Clover ordinarily dies the second year. 
I believe its life can be prolonged simply 
by not allowing it to go to seed. I one 
time seeded a field of eight or 10 acres 
to Timothy, clover and Orchard grass. 
the RTJTHAE NEW-YORKER 
The clover was mixed, common Red and 
Mammoth. I kept it for 10 or 11 years, 
mowing it the latter part of June or early 
in July, pasturing down the aftermath 
after the seed had formed, with the ex¬ 
ception of two years when I took a seed 
crop. Some years the Timothy would 
predominate, and other years the clover, 
the Orchard grass maintaining its hold 
all the way through. I doubt being able 
to keep it growing as long as _Alfalfa; 
but the experiment is worth trying. 
Iowa. HENRY WALLACE. 
SUB-IRRIGATION ON ONE ACRE, 
Select the highest part of the acre to 
put in your distributing ditch, and from 
this part of the acre run your laterals 
as nearly at right angles to the dis¬ 
tributing ditch as is practical. Make a 
ditch with a turning plow as deep as 
you can go, then finish with hoe and 
shovels down to 12 to 18 inches, and 
smooth the bottom. Make the laterals, 
say 10 feet apart and parallel, and have 
a fall of two or three inches to every 
hundred feet, and in the bottom of this 
lateral place an inverted trough or gut¬ 
ter two feet long and made of four, five 
or six-inch lumber, one four and the 
other five inches wide, and nail together 
with five nails. Use the sap of pine if 
you can get it, as it takes creosote bet¬ 
ter, and after making up a lot put them 
in hot creosote brought nearly or quite 
to a boil; one end at a time can be 
treated. If no large pot can be procured 
handle troughs with some kind of tongs 
and do the work in your old clothes. 
When part or all are prepared place 
the troughs in bottom of ditch upside 
down and end for end, cover joint with 
handful of hay, grass or leaves to stop 
silt, when first turning on the water. 
Pull the dirt back on to these troughs 
and your lateral is 'ready to use. Of 
course, the water moving by gravita¬ 
tion should be run in from the highest 
point of the lateral. This distributing 
ditch should be across the end of these 
laterals, and dug somewhat deeper than, 
the laterals, sg as to hold the silt and 
prevent it from filling the laterals in 
course of time, and make the trough 
for this ditch out of three six or seven- 
inch plank, in length of five or 10 feet, 
or two feet, and creosote before placing 
in ditch. Just where each lateral is 
crossed gouge out soil enough to allow 
the water to flow easily into the lateral, 
or if each trough is 10 feet long, you 
can saw off a corner so as to make open¬ 
ing three-cornered. When ended to¬ 
gether in ditch cover joints with grass, 
hay or leaves, and you are ready to turn 
on the water from lake, tank or a well. 
If you leave the lower end of laterajs 
open, they become a drain tile if there is 
too much rain and to close them up 
when needed to be used for irrigation, 
just prize out a trough and stick it end¬ 
wise down into ditch. This is one rea¬ 
son I use two-foot trough; another is 
tree roots hunting water will clog the 
ditch some times, and so to relieve it, 
prize up a two-foot trough and dig out 
the roots, or some times a rat, or mole 
or toad will clog them, so you can easily 
remove any obstruction. 
I have laid some of my plant after 
garden was planted, and not disturbed 
the growing stuff. For the first two 
or four feet of ditch throw dirt up or 
down row, and set in one trough at 
a time, and throw loose dirt out of 
ditch back on to the lateral made. If 
your garden is hillside run your lateral 
around the hill or zigzag back and 
forth to preserve the two or threte 
inches of fall in the hundred feet. The 
saving of water is near 75 per cent as 
compared with surface irrigation and 
with sub-irrigation you use all of your 
land for growing stuff. With surface 
irrigation you lose one-tenth of your 
land with ditches, besides scalding it 
severely. I feel sure that thousands of 
acres of Alfalfa can be grown upon 
land with my plan of sub-irrigation, 
that at present cannot be used. The 
cost is not near so much as the stone 
tiling or burnt clay; besides the trough 
upside down is cheaper and allows the 
water to the earth quicker. I tried one 
ditch with tiling and one with troughs 
and I preferred the troughs. Some re¬ 
sults: I grew one hundred pounds of 
Dw "f Champion tomatoes to the bush 
on my sub-irrigated land and I caused 
two-year-old peach trees to grow large 
enough to yield one bushel of fine fruit. 
I can double the size of apples, peaches, 
plums, pears, apricots, grapes, berries, 
by putting the water to them at the 
right time. I can double the yield of 
Alfalfa, potatoes or turnips, so the plant 
can pay for itself the first year. 
Texas. cyrus t. hogan. 
Angler (who is telling his big fish 
story) : “What weight was he? Well, 
they hadn’t right weights at the inn, but 
he weighed exactly a flatiron, two eggs, 
and a bit of soap!”—Punch. 
fi IS 5.1 
r PE§tlOO SQ.FT. 
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THE 
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No matter how hard you try you can’t make an old stable with dirt floors 
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LOUDEN MACHINERY COMPANY.601 Broadway, Fairfield, Iowa. 
t Beal Alii 
rrjs&tzf' that some farmers 
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a wheelbarrow—the dirtiest, 
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i n j-*- 
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Mfrs. of Bam Equipments for 25 Years 
No. 103 Hunt Street - - Harvard, III. 
