CRIMSON OR GERMAN CLOVER, 
The value of this clover arises not so much as a hay crop, though it 
makes good hay if cut as soon as it blooms, but for winter pasturage and 
plowing under in the spring. It is an annual. A stubble field is one of 
the best places to sow the crimson clover. While it is better to run a 
harrow over the surface it is not necessary. The seed may be broadcast 
upon the stubble without preparation. The seed should be sown in 
August. In standing corn or cotton or some other late cultivated crop 
is the best place to sow crimson clover, since we have all the conditions 
for growth in a well prepared soil, and have also the needed shade. 
Where a red clay land, strong with potash, is kept successively in corn, 
it would be well to sow crimson clover just as the corn is laid by. This 
will give good winter pasture if needed, and a good sod to turn under 
before replanting corn the following spring, thus improving the land and 
gaining a crop. Many failures in producing good stands of clover are 
due to the lack of potash in the land. While an average red clay soil is 
strongly impregnated and tenaciously holds this chemical, yet it can be 
exhausted, in which event fertilizers containing a large per cent, of potash 
should be used. 
THE APPLE. 
There are few sections where the apple cannot be grown in some 
varieties profitably, at least for home use. Soil exhaustion is the cause 
of most failures in fruit raising. Trees in the orchard need feeding, for 
a good crop of apples will remove more mineral matter from the soil 
than three crops of wheat. The cultivation of the apple is given with some 
detail, as it is essentially the typical American fruit. The conditions, which, 
if carefully observed in regard to the selection of varieties, planting and 
general care to the point ot maturity, may be equally applied to the other 
standard fruits, such as the Peach, Pear, Apricot, Plum, Cherry and Quince. 
WHAT AGE TO PLANT TREES. 
Buy one year old trees of all kinds of fruit, and head them not over 
two feet from the ground. At this age they are easier to transplant, and 
are more apt to live and grow well. 
PREPARATION OF THE LAND FOR THE ORCHARD. 
The preparation of the land before planting an apple orchard is of 
the greatest importance, for any lack of preparation before planting can 
hardly be remedied after the trees are set. The chief point in the prepara¬ 
tion of the land is deep plowing of the soil. The land for the orchard 
should be prepared early in the fall, by plowing as deeply as a pair of 
horses can pull a plow, and behind this team another team in same fur¬ 
row, with a subsoil plow to break the clay still deeper, till the whole land 
is broken to a depth of 15 inches. This deep preparation will be the best 
investment the planter can make in setting the orchard. 
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