CLOVER 
197 
to stand about two weeks longer than when 
cut for hay. It should always be mowed 
either early in the morning, or late in the 
evening, when it is wet with dew, other¬ 
wise the riper pods with the best seed will 
fall off and be lost. After mowing it is 
turned once or twice and housed as soon 
as dry. It is thrashed with a elover-huller 
made expressly for clover seed, and then 
cleaned with a fanning mill with appro¬ 
priate sieves. In small quantities it may 
be more satisfactorily thrashed with the 
flail. Timothy seed is very nearly the 
same size and for its removal a fanning 
mill having a proper blast arrangement is 
required. As the alsike weighs 60 pounds 
to the bushel and timothy 45, there is no 
great difficulty in doing this effectually. 
On one estate in Sweden where 20 acres 
were set apart for raising the seed, the 
average annual production for five years 
was 133 pounds per acre, while the pro¬ 
duction one year was 200 pounds per acre. 
THE FUTURE OF ALSIKE CLOVER IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 
During the last few years a new condi¬ 
tion of things has arisen. More and more 
farmers who formerly grew red clover in a 
large way have found that their soil had 
become clover-sick—that is, deficient in 
lime to such an extent that they were 
forced to try some other crop. In some 
cases they have grown timothy; but the 
demand for this kind of hay is growing 
less and less because the automobile and 
farmers’ tractors are rapidly taking the 
place of horses. Timothy is well adapted 
for feeding horses. In the meantime diet¬ 
itians and the public' in general are begin¬ 
ning to learn the value of milk as a food, 
and especially milk as a restorative to those 
who have a weak digestion. Some sani¬ 
tariums are making a specialty of healing 
by the use of milk alone. In order to get 
plenty of milk, cows should be fed on a 
legume of some sort. Alsike, especially 
where the soil is deficient in lime, meets 
the situation. It costs only about half as 
much to seed a given acreage of ground 
with alsike as it does with red clover. 
Immediately following the period of the 
Great War help was scarce and high-priced. 
While the farmer knew that lime would 
restore his clover-sick soil, his lime cost 
money, and, moreover, it required extra 
help—help that he could not get—to put it 
on the land. As alsike readily grows on a 
soil deficient in lime the farmer put that 
into his ground, and, quite to his surprise, 
it made* rich and valuable hay for his 
cows; and, moreover, the farmer discov¬ 
ered that alsike hay would grow on land 
too wet or too dry for red clover. All of 
•these factors have made a marvelous in¬ 
crease in the use. of alsike clover over the 
clover regions of the United States. In 
some cases the red clover has almost disap¬ 
peared, and alsike has taken its place. In 
other instances the farmers have bought 
lime and put it on the land at the rate of 
two tons per acre. When thus applied 
they can grow red clover. But these cases 
were comparatively rare. 
There has been another powerful factor 
that has stimulated the use of alsike in 
place of red clover. The county agents, 
mentioned at the outset, have been urging 
the use of alsike in place of red clover 
where the farmer could not or would not 
lime his -soil. In some instances the county 
agent has been advocating a moderate 
amount of lime and seeding with alsike. 
The richer in lime, the better the growth 
of this valuable legume. 
The author believes, therefore, that al¬ 
sike, as well as the new annual sweet clover, 
will, to a great extent, in the future take 
the place of red clover. Both are invalu¬ 
able for dairy purposes; and as milk must 
be had in increasing quantities, especially 
during the hot weather, for babies, so al¬ 
sike and sweet clover will take the place of 
timothy and red clover. 
It is not necessary in a work of this 
kind to state that alsike is the greatest 
honey plant known to beekeepers east of 
the Mississippi River and north of the 
Ohio. Along with the demand for milk 
will come the demand for honey. In the 
language of the good Book, “Milk and 
honey shall he eat.” 
IS ALSIKE POISONOUS TO WHITE-NOSED 
HORSES ? 
Occasionally complaint is made that al¬ 
sike produces a form of skin disease in 
white-nosed horses. In reply Dr. J. Aiken- 
head says: “I have been practicing the 
