W» RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1043 
Sweet Clover as a Cover Crop 
| New Jersey Agriculturist , the excellent paper pub¬ 
lished by the New Jersey Experiment Station, prints 
the following article by H. R. Cox. The use of Sweet 
clover as a cover crop, seeded in corn, will be new to 
many of our readers who have used rye and vetch, or 
rye and Alsike clover. We have long felt that greater 
use should be made of Sweet clover, and this may be the 
place 'for it. We want to try it this year. By the way, 
what has become of Hubam clover?] 
NE of the best fields of cover crops in the State 
this year was plowed down by H. W. Kline of 
Middlebush, Somerset Co., who is master of the Mill¬ 
stone Grange. It consisted of Sweet clover—the 
biennial white-flowered kind. 
Mr. Kline had a field of wheat last year in which 
the clover and grass seeding had failed. Soon after 
wheat harvest he disked the stubble, sowed the Sweet 
clover seed and covered it with a scratch harrow. A 
good rain fell a few days later and a fine stand of 
sweet clover resulted. When plowed under in May 
of this year for corn the Sweet clover stood about 
1i/ 2 ft. high. Such a cover crop is worth many tons 
of manure to the acre, since Sweet clover is rich in 
nitrogen, the most expensive of all fertilizer ma¬ 
terials. 
Another field which was in corn last year was also 
sown to Sweet clover after the last 
cultivation. Here the Sweet clover seed 
was not scratched in. This is satisfac¬ 
tory if the surface soil is sufficiently 
moist during the critical period when 
the young seedlings are becoming es¬ 
tablished. Ordinarily, however, it is 
better to scratch in the seed lightly. 
The picture shows the crop of Sweet 
clover on this field in May of this year. 
As may be seen, the stand in the field 
was good. 
Biennial Sweet clover as a cover crop 
has a distinct place in New Jersey. It 
is true that in the vegetable growing 
sections of South Jersey hairy vetch 
and Crimson clover, especially vetch, 
are in many cases more used for cover 
cropping than Sweet clover. But in 
North Jersey Sweet clover may be used 
to advantage much more widely than it 
is at the present time. 
Mr. Kline’s success ■with this crop 
was not the result of chance. Sweet 
clover has certain definite requirements 
and they were supplied in this case. 
Mr. Kline makes a practice of liming 
his fields once every five years. He has 
also grown Alfalfa in most of his fields, 
usually in combination with grass and 
clover. Since Alfalfa takes the same 
inoculation as Sweet clover, the two 
fields mentioned were well inoculated 
to these crops. 
A sweet soil and inoculation seem to 
be necessary for Sweet clover, and 
many failures have resulted from not 
observing these two requirements. On 
the other hand, there have been cases 
of success with Sweet clover on land 
that had not been limed for many 
years, but which had been sufficiently 
treated with manure and fertilizers. 
The crop also needs a well-compacted 
seedbed. This requirement was filled in both of the 
two fields mentioned. The rate of sowing used by 
Mr. Kline was about 12 to 14 lbs. per acre. As the 
seed is fairly cheap, it is often best to use 20 lbs. or 
a little more to the acre. 
Since a mixture of two or more kinds of cover 
crops is often more satisfactory than a single crop, 
some men in North Jersey prefer to sow Sweet 
clover in combination with Alsike clover or Red 
clover, or even grass. When the soil conditions are 
not definitely known to be favorable to Sweet clover 
a mixture of these plants is usually best. And if the 
soil is known to be sour, Sweet clover might better 
be omitted altogether. In that case a mixture of 
Alsike clover with Timothy or Red-top has worked 
out satisfactorily as a cover crop when sown before 
the latter part of August. 
In sowing Sweet clover in the Summer, scarified 
seed is to be preferred. On the other hand, if Sweet 
clover is sown in the W l nter on frozen land, un¬ 
scarified seed is better. 
Copper Carbonate for Wheat Smut 
F ORMER TREATMENT.—For years the copper 
sulphate or Milestone method was used by farm¬ 
ers for the treatment of smut of wheat. The method 
was effective within certain limits, but there were 
always certain objections to its use; the method 
necessitated that the treatment be applied in solu¬ 
tion, involving the difficulty of drying the seed be¬ 
fore planting, the treatment and subsequent drying 
usually resulting in the killing of a certain percent¬ 
age of the wheat seed germ, depending on the care 
exercised by the operation and the strength of the 
solution. About 1S97 the copper sulphate method 
was superseded, especially in the East, by the forma¬ 
lin treatment. This method lacked some of the ob¬ 
jections to the copper sulphate method, but still the 
two main objections held; the treatment must be 
made in solution and was inconvenient and fre¬ 
quently resulted in the killing of the germination 
power of a certain proportion of wheat seed, depend¬ 
ing largely upon the subsequent treatment of the 
seed before planting. 
BLUESTONE AND FORMALIN.—The method of 
procedure in the Milestone and formalin treatment 
is pretty much the same. The wheat to be treated 
must be fanned before treatment, and then sacked. 
The sacked wheat is dipped in barrels or tanks of the 
solution of formalin or Milestone, and is then lifted 
out and allowed to dry. The sacks must be turned 
every six or eight hours. If for any reason the 
grain cannot be immediately planted a big loss in 
germination may result. With the Milestone treat¬ 
ment an extra operation of dipping in lime water is 
necessary to prevent undue loss of germination. A 
large amount of labor is involved, and the wheat 
must be sown within a few hours after treatment. 
COPPER CARBONATE METHOD—The copper 
carbonate treatment for smut was first developed in 
Australia in 1915 and 1916. It was successfully 
tridd out in California in 1920, and in Oregon and 
Washington in 1921 and 1922, with very pronounced 
success. Large areas of copper carbonate treated 
wheat were sown last Fall in California, Oregon and 
Washington, and the method is destined to spread to 
the wheat growing areas of the eastern part of the 
United States. The method is extremely simple. 
Seed wheat is treated at the rate of eight bushels of 
wheat to 1 lb. of copper carbonate dust, i. e.. two 
ounces to the bushel. It is essential that the wheat 
grains be thoroughly dusted with the copper car¬ 
bonate. Machines have been developed for this pur¬ 
pose, and are of such simple construction that any¬ 
one on the farm may construct one. The mixing 
machine is based on the whirling cylinder idea. A 
homemade cylinder constructed so as to hold a sack 
of grain; an old barrel or an old churn may be used 
for this purpose. This machine may be an elaborate 
one. run by an electric motor, costing as high as $65, 
or a very simple one, consisting of an old barrel sup¬ 
ported by gas pipe in each end resting on two fence 
posts, with a simple hinged door cut in the side of 
the barrel for 'the introduction of the grain and cop¬ 
per carbonate. A few rotary movements of the bar¬ 
rel after the introduction of the wheat and copper 
carbonate effectively treats the grain, when the bar¬ 
rel may be inverted and the treated -grain allowed 
to run into the grain sacks. The grain being in the 
dry state may be kept indefinitely, and planted at the 
convenience of the farmer, without any danger of 
loss in the germination of the seed wheat. This is 
one of the important advantages of the new method 
over either of the older methods. In fact, the ger¬ 
mination of the wheat seems to be slightly stimulat¬ 
ed by the copper carbonate treatment. This may be 
due to the fact that some other fungous diseases are 
also checked by the copper carbonate, or more prob¬ 
ably to the fact that copper carbonate itself is a 
plant stimulant when used in slight amounts. The 
benefit derived from the planting of grain treated in 
the dry state and that has not been injured by soak¬ 
ing in formalin solution or Milestone is estimated by 
various investigations as 20 per cent saving of seed. 
LOSSES FROM SMUT.—The losses in yield due 
to stinking smut of wheat in the Unit¬ 
ed States alone is estimated by the 
United States Department of Agricul¬ 
ture at 25.000,000 bushels annually, 
which assists very materially in in¬ 
creasing the cost of wheat production 
in the United States. Furthermore, the 
dark smut balls in the thrashed grain 
give off an offensive odor and injure it 
for milling purposes, thus bringing 
about further loss in dockage at its es¬ 
timated run around $10,000,000 annu¬ 
ally. Frequently, also, especially in 
the Northwest, further loss is sustained 
in numerous explosions at thrashing 
time, which wreck the thrashing ma¬ 
chines and often cause destructive fires 
of undetermined loss. The black smut 
balls are filled with minute spores, and 
when the balls break the spores find 
lodgment in the grooves on the wheat 
berry and in the little brush tuft at the 
end of the grain. The copper carbonate 
treatment is for the purpose of killing 
these spores. When allowed to grow 
they produce a fungus that throws out 
threads in the growing wheat plant 
which grow with the plant without any 
external evidence until the head is 
formed, when they enter the ovaries 
and develop spores which mature so 
that the diseased heads and the wheat 
mature at about the same time. 
SUPERIORITY OF COPPER CAR¬ 
BONATE. — The agronomists, plant 
pathologists and county agents of the 
Far Western States who have investi¬ 
gated the copper carbonate method of 
treating seed wheat are unqualifiedly 
in favor of it as being far superior to 
either of the older methods, The aver¬ 
age smut infection with copi>er carbon¬ 
ate treated wheat has been found to be 
from two to as high as 15 per cent less 
than the solution methods of treatment in various 
sections of the Northwest. The copper carbonate 
method is fully as efficient in destroying smut spores 
as the solution methods of treatment, and has the 
further benefits of convenience, cheapness, and 
avoids the loss incident to the destruction of the ger¬ 
mination quality of the grain found with the older 
methods. The copper carbonate method is probably 
not effective in treating oats or barley for smut, since 
the surface of those grains is covered with the hull 
which effectively prevents actual contact of the cop¬ 
per carbonate dust with the affected parts of the 
seed. The copper carbonate method is known at 
present to be effective only for the treatment of the 
stinking smut of wheat. Robert stewart. 
A Gasoline Horse for Cultivating 
I NOTICE that little is said about garden tractors. 
and conclude that few subscribers have tried them 
out. The writer used one all last season, and with 
good results. My purchase of the tractor was not 
decided upon until after a month’s fruitless search 
for a first-class cultivating horse. At that time T 
was skeptical as regards the practical value of the 
power cultivator. 
It is only fair to say that T am no mechanic, and 
the fact that my tractor, in the hands of a layman. 
White Sweet Clover as Cover Crop in New Jci-scy. I • </. 449. 
HH 
Garden Tractor in Strawberry Bed. Fig. 450. 
