THE RUK-A.lv NEW-YORKER 
843 
Sweet Clover Notes. 
Growing Sweei Ciover in New Jersey. 
I AM sending you, by express, sample plants of 
Sweet clover to show you it will grow in New 
Jersey. I sowed three acres of light sandy soil 
(too poor to grow Red clover) late in April, 1914. 
Hot dry weather set in before it got up, and started 
fairly well, so I did not get as good a stand as it 
should be, about one-half of the plot stands well, 
and it is now (June 0) two to four feet and not 
in bloom, i gave the soil a good dressing of ground 
limestone and a fertilizer of one-tliird each bone, 
acid phosphate and muriate of potash. The weeds 
grew thick last Summer so I mowed 
them down twice. The clover did 
not make much of a top last 
year on account of extreme drought, 
hut it has made it up this Spring. I 
never saw anything equal to it in 
growth, and it seems best on the light¬ 
est part of the plot. I did not inocu¬ 
late seed or soil. The land has never 
had Alfalfa or other clovers on it, but 
lias had cow peas on it. There are 
plenty of nodules on the roots. Our 
stock did not relish it at first, hut soon 
learned to eat it. It is too coarse for 
hay. hut will furnish a lot of green 
forage or pasture. Charles black. 
Mercer C’o., N. J. 
R. X.-Y.—The clover measured 4(4 
feet above ground, with 14 inches of 
root. It was very rank and green. 
Such a growth plowed into the soil 
and limed would surely be worth eight tons of ma¬ 
nure to the acre. 
Its Value for Poor Land. 
With regard to worn-out farms, let me suggest 
your going in pretty heavily for Melilotus alba, r 
have a farm which I purchased about four years 
ago, one that looked like a desert when I bought 
it. Everything was wrong, and even Blue grass did 
not grow. I have spent a good deal of money on 
it: have partially succeeded with everything that I 
tried, hut have finally settled on Melilotus alba as 
being the most useful plant that I have had on this 
place. The Soy beans have been very useful; the 
Winter vetch if properly handled is very good, but 
for an absolute standby, I will take Melilotus alba, 
and these fields today are, wherever I have been 
using it freely, a beautiful sight in¬ 
stead id' a bare blotch on the land¬ 
scape. There is just one thing you 
must do before sowing the melilot and 
that is have enough lime and proper 
inoculation. 1 failed dismally without 
the inoculation. 
One thing that I learned and which 
confirms what other people have told 
me for years is that wheat does de¬ 
cidedly better following Soy beans than 
any other crop. 1 even plowed up a 
Sweet clover sod, turning under noth¬ 
ing but just the stubble and roots, and 
secured poorer results than I did on 
the Soy bean ground. These beans 
leave the ground in beautiful physical 
condition. I do not think they add any 
fertility except when you plow them 
under. In fact, I think they are a lit¬ 
tle drain on the soil. At least my 
figures would indicate this, but to 
watch a crop of wheat following them 
upsets all the figures, and one is sim¬ 
ply amazed to see how much differ¬ 
ence this crop has made. I do not 
value Sweet clover as a hay plant very 
highly. It is pretty coarse and ditfi- 
cult to cure. As a pasture plant it has 
absolutely no equal in America, and as 
a soil builder it has no equal. I be¬ 
lieve I can pasture HO head of beef cattle on 20 
acres of it from the time it gets a fair start in the 
Spring until about July 1st. and not any more than 
keep it eaten down to where it belongs. 
Ohio. CIIAS. B. WING. 
Its Use on a Poultry Farm. 
You will remember that I sent you a sample last 
Summer of some Sweet clover that 1 had growing 
with Spring wheat. I have six acres of this, and it 
has made a very rank growth so far this Spring. 
I am very much interested in this plant and would 
like to get some more information about it. From 
what I have read about this plant, I assume that 
this being its second year, I can cut the first crop 
and the second crop will go to seed, and that the 
plants will then die. and that the only way of 
keeping along continuously in this crop is letting 
the second crop reseed it. Is the following plan 
practical in your opinion: I propose after the sec¬ 
ond crop has gone to seed and when it has arrived 
at that stage where it will separate itself readily 
from the plant, to mow it, and then run the hay 
tedder through it to shake out the seed, then to 
rake it and use the rakings for litter in the hen¬ 
houses. I assume that you will tell me that this 
plan is extremely wasteful, and that I should regu¬ 
larly harvest the seed and sow the piece with enough 
to reseed and sell the remaining seed for enough to 
pay all the expenses and leave a profit. If this can 
be done, how is the seed crop handled and thrashedV 
Connecticut. ered'k m. peast.ky. 
R. X.-Y.—We turn these interesting questions over 
Rye and Vetch in New Jersey. Fig. 310. 
to experienced farmers. The plan suggested will 
surely reseed the ground. 
A Crop of Rye and Vetch. 
A mixture of rye and vetch makes a very satis¬ 
factory and valuable crop for the farmer who keeps 
one or two cows as well as for the extensive dairy¬ 
man. It may he fed green or harvested for later 
feeding. A very satisfactory mixture is one-half 
bushel of vetch and one bushel rye, which frequent¬ 
ly yields as high as three tons of cured hay per 
acre which is fully as rich in protein as Alfalfa. 
The rye supports the vetch and makes if more 
easily harvested. When grown for the first time it 
Frost Protectors. 
Saving Tomatoes With Paper Tents. 
T HE picture shown at Fig. 311, is not, as one 
might suppose, a photograph of camp life in 
the European war, for these are not tents in 
which human defenders of their country lodge. 
This picture shows how a western New York farm¬ 
er at Middleport. N. Y., saved his tomato crop during 
a recent severe frost. He made these little paper 
tents or caps out of building paper, and placed a 
cap over each tomato plant. In this way the toma¬ 
toes were safely carried through the frost, and these 
fonts or cones can be packed as is shown in the 
. _ foreground and laid aside for another 
season. Of course there are all sorts 
of ways of fighting frost, and very 
likely this idea will reach the eye of 
dozens of people who have figured out 
various schemes of this sort, but as 
this one saved the tomato plants the 
owner is evidently satisfied with if. 
and ready to try it out again should 
danger threaten. 
Snakes: The Farmer’s Friends. 
T 
Tomato Plants Armed Against Frost. Fig. 311. 
is safer to inoculate the vetch with soil or com¬ 
mercial culture to insure a stand. 
The illustration. Fig. 310. represents an area of 
about 1(4 acre grown by a successful truck grower, 
who annually uses this crop as one means to reduce 
the feed bill, an important item to most truckers. 
By seeding in August and harvesting the last of 
May, the land is available for other crops the rest 
of the season. This mixture of rye and vetch makes 
a valuable cover crop, being considered superior to 
(Timson clover in many sections of Central New 
Jersey. The high price of vetch seed has prevented 
its more extensive use, but it has been demonstrated 
that a farmer can harvest 15 to 20 bushels of seed 
per acre by sowing the mixture mentioned above, 
and thrashing it with a flail, thus reducing the ex¬ 
pense of seeding to a minimum. s. p. d. 
Monmouth Co.. N. ,T. 
TIE first thought of a great many 
farmers, when they see a snake, 
is to kill it. There is a general 
aversion to the reptiles, but a little 
knowledge of the good that most of 
them do us would often stay the slay¬ 
ing hand. Unhappily, there is a great 
deal of misinformation, which makes 
matters worse. To begin with, all 
snakes are not poisonous (only the rattlesnake and 
copperhead are in the East, north of Virginia). 
Poisonous snakes inject their venom through fangs 
hollow teeth in the top of the mouth connecting 
with venom glands at the back of the head. A per¬ 
son must he bitten to lie poisoned. No snake's 
breath is poisonous: neither has any snake a sting 
in its tail. The forked tongue which is protruded is 
not a "stinger." but a delicate structure used as a 
feeler, and is perfectly harmless. No snake springs 
bodily from the ground at a person. As a rule, 
snakes avoid man, but will usually fight if cornered. 
The bite of a non-venomous snake is no more dan¬ 
gerous than any other wound. There is no such 
thing as a “hoop-snake.” Although cold to the 
touch, snakes are not slimy, but dry-skinned. A 
thick body and blunt head do not 
characterize a poisonous snake, for 
many harmless species present tin* 
same structure. In the East, a snake 
without a rattle, solidly colored, or 
with stripes running from head to tail, 
is sure to be harmless; those that are 
blotched are liable to be so. but the 
venomous snakes are likewise so 
marked, and it. is best to avoid them 
unless the species is known. 
Probably the best known and worst 
persecuted of our snakes is the black- 
snake. also known as the racer and 
the white-throat blacksnake. Being 
large and conspicuous, the snake is 
very frequently killed, under the im¬ 
pression that the community is being 
done a service. This reptile is harm¬ 
less, contrary to popular opinion, can¬ 
not squeeze nor "charm” one, and does 
not seek quarrels with man. It feeds 
largely upon rats and mice, and also 
eats other snakes, frogs and birds, al¬ 
though probably no more of the last 
than the average farm cat. The snake 
is distinctly beneficial, and should be 
protected. The pilot blacksnake is an¬ 
other species of much the same habits. 
Another common, beneficial, much- 
abused snake is the milk snake or 
house snake. It is commonly believed that this 
snake milks cows, but there is not an authentic case 
of sucli doings on record. Even if they did milk 
cows, it is inconceivable that a snake reaching a 
length of 3(4 feet, ' rith a capacity for liquid of 
about a tablespoon al, could make an appreciable 
difference in a cow’s yield. The milk snake feeds 
largely upon mice and rats, and will take other rep¬ 
tiles, crushing the victim in its strong coils. It is 
immune to snake venom. The farmer who murders 
one of these snakes does away with a rat-and-mouse 
destroyer far more effieient than cat, trap, or poison. 
The king snake, closely related to the milk snake, 
is a larger reptile of the same general habits. It is 
doubtless responsible for the death of many rattle¬ 
snakes and copperheads, being cannibalistic and im¬ 
mune to venom. 
A very curious reptile is the hog-nosed snake, 
