Book: Clovers and How to Grow Them

T >> Thomas Shaw >> Clovers and How to Grow Them




The seed may be threshed at once or stored. Storing under a roof is
preferable to storing in the stack, but the latter method will suffice,
if the tops of the stacks are well protected with a covering of marsh
hay or of some other suitable material. When the seed is not threshed at
once it is usual to defer threshing until cold weather, as with medium
red clover, as then the seed is much more easily removed from the seed
pod. Ordinarily, the work can best be done by clover hullers, the same
as are used in threshing medium red and mammoth clover, but grain
separators, with certain attachments, will now do this work in good
form. Much care should be exercised in winnowing the seed. It ought to
be so cleaned that it will grade as No. 1, and so bring the highest
current price. Due care in this matter will make the major part of even
ordinary seed bring the best price.

=Renewing.=--When the stand of the alsike is but partial, as, for
instance, when young plants have failed, or partially so, on the high
land, and are sufficiently plentiful on the lower land, a full stand may
sometimes be secured by simply scattering seed where it is needed so
late in the fall that it will not sprout before winter, covering with
the harrow and then top dressing with farmyard manure well decomposed.
But where the winters are so mild that the clover might be sprouted
during some warm spell followed by severe weather, the seed should not
be sown then.

On certain soils, as those naturally moist and porous, it may be
possible so to renew alsike clover that it will produce hay or pasture
crops almost indefinitely, by simply allowing some heads to seed every
year and fall to the ground. In meadows, this may be done by not
grazing after the hay has been harvested until other heads have formed
and ripened. A limited number of these will thus form after the crop has
been mown for hay. If the crop has been cut for seed, many heads will in
any event be left upon the ground. The same result will follow when
grazing the crop, if grazing is made to cease at the right time, and for
a period long enough to allow a considerable number of heads to mature.
This method of renewal will not prove a complete success on all soils,
as, for instance, on those very stiff and very light.

Natural meadows that lie low may be changed in whole or in part into
alsike meadows or pastures in some of the States, as has been previously
intimated, by sowing seed on them in the early spring. (See page 202.)
In some instances such change has been effected by sowing seed but once,
and at the rate of from 3 to 4 pounds per acre. In other instances it
has been found preferable to sow a less quantity for two successive
seasons, lest one of the two should prove adverse to successful growth
in the plants. But on some slough soils a stand cannot be secured by
this method of sowing, more especially when they are composed of raw
peat.




CHAPTER VI

MAMMOTH CLOVER


Mammoth Clover (_Trifolium magnum_) was long ago named _Trifolium
medium_ by Linnaeus. However appropriate the designation may have been at
the time, it is not so now, at least under American conditions, as in
this country there is no other variety of clover so large, unless sweet
clover (_Melilotus alba_). To apply to it the distinguishing term
medium, therefore, is positively misleading, since the smaller variety
of red clover commonly grown occupies such middle ground, as the term
medium would indicate. Because of this, the author has ventured to
designate it _Trifolium magnum_. It has also been classified, and with
no little appropriateness, _Trifolium pratense perenne_, which has
reference to the mildly perennial habit of growth in this plant. In
common phrase it is known by such names as Large, Tall, Saplin or
Sapling, Giant, Meadow, Perennial Red, Red Perennial Meadow, Pea Vine,
Zigzag, Wavy Stemmed, Soiling, and Cow clover or Cow grass. Each of
these names has reference to some peculiarity of growth in the plant.
For instance, the terms Large, Tall, Saplin and Giant have reference to
the size of the plant; and the terms Pea Vine, Zigzag and Wavy Stemmed
to the somewhat irregular and trailing habit of growth in the stems,
and so of the others. The designation Cow grass is an English term.

Mammoth clover is a large variety of red clover; in fact, the largest
variety of red clover in America. The plants are strong, stronger than
those of the medium red variety, and the stems are much larger. They are
softer than those of the medium red, which to some extent may account
for the less erect habit of growth which characterizes it. The leaves
are usually destitute of the white spot found on those of the other
variety. The heads are also probably larger and somewhat more open, but
there is no appreciable difference in the size of the seed. The plants,
notwithstanding, bear so much resemblance to those of the common red
variety that it is not easy to distinguish them unless by the large size
of the plants of the former. The roots are larger and stronger than
those of the medium red variety, and as a result have more power to
gather plant food in the soil.

Mammoth clover is biennial under some conditions and under others it is
perennial, although it is not usually a long-lived perennial. It has a
stronger habit of growth than the medium red, and is, therefore, rather
better fitted to thrive under adverse conditions, more especially when
it has once obtained a hold upon the soil. It grows chiefly in the first
half of the season, and makes but little growth, relatively, in the
autumn, or, indeed, any time the same season after the crop has been
harvested for hay. In the Northern States it comes into flower about
the middle of July, and in those of the South correspondingly earlier.

It is relished by all kinds of domestic animals kept upon the farm, but
the hay is relatively better adapted to cows and other cattle than to
horses and sheep. If cut too late, or much injured in the curing, it is
too dusty for horses, and the growth is too coarse to make first-class
hay for sheep. It makes excellent soiling food, because of the abundance
of the growth and the considerable season during which it may be fed in
the green form.

It is peculiarly valuable as a fertilizer and as an improver of soils.
In addition to the nitrogen which it draws from the air and deposits in
the soil, it brings up plant food from the subsoil and stores it in the
leaves and stems, so that when fed it can be returned to the land. It
also fills the soil with an abundance of roots and rootlets. These
render stiff soils more friable, and sandy soils less porous; they
increase the power of all soils to hold moisture, and in their decay
yield up a supply of plant food already prepared for the crops that are
next grown upon the ground.

Mammoth clover may also be utilized with advantage in lessening the
numbers of certain noxious weeds, and in some instances of eradicating
them altogether. This it does in some instances by smothering them,
through the rankness of the growth. In other instances it is brought
about through the setback which is given to the weeds by first pasturing
the crop and then cutting it later for seed.

=Distribution.=--Mammoth clover has long been grown in several of the
countries of Europe and Western Asia. It is also grown in certain parts
of Siberia. It was doubtless introduced into the United States from
Europe by emigrants from that continent, but when exactly is not known.
It has probably been many years since its introduction into America, but
it is only within the more recent of the decades that it has attracted
general notice. In some areas in this country it grows with great
luxuriance, fully equaling, if not exceeding, the crops grown in any
part of Europe.

Mammoth clover calls for climatic conditions about the same as those for
medium red clover. (See page 61.) It flourishes best in moist climates
of moderate temperature, and it will endure more drought than the medium
red variety and possibly more cold.

The distribution of mammoth clover covers nearly all the States of the
Union, but as with medium red clover the adaptation for it is relatively
higher in the Northern than in the Southern States of the Union. The
highest adaptation for mammoth clover is probably found in certain parts
of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the northern valleys of the Rocky
Mountain States, the elevated portions of those further south and the
country around Puget Sound. The adaptation is also high in much of New
York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska. In
the Southern States that lie northward, good crops may be grown in some
locations, but not in all. As the semi-arid belt is approached, mammoth
clover will grow further west than the medium red, but in the greater
portion of this region it will not succeed. The adaptation of the North
Atlantic States, including those of New England, is not of a high order,
but rather more so, probably, than for the medium red.

In Canada also the adaptation of medium and mammoth clover is much the
same as for the medium red. In some parts of Ontario, especially Western
Ontario, it grows remarkably well; but in the maritime provinces it does
not grow so well; nor does it thrive in the provinces of the Canadian
Northwest as it does in Ontario.

As with medium red clover, the distribution of this variety has not been
fully determined in either the United States or Canada, more especially
on soils of the prairie, where it does not succeed well at present. It
is probable that under some conditions on these soils, and also in the
South, the absence of the requisite bacteria in the soil may account, in
part, at least, for failure in attempts made to grow it. With the
introduction of these, the area of successful cultivation may be
considerably extended.

=Soils.=--Mammoth clover may usually be successfully grown in soils well
adapted to the growth of the medium red variety. (See page 65.) This
means that it will usually grow with much luxuriance in all areas which
produce hardwood timber, and are usually covered with a clay or muddy
loam soil underlaid with clay. It will also grow with great luxuriance
in the volcanic ash soils of the irrigated valley lands of the Rocky
Mountain States, and in the loam and light loam soils of the Puget
Sound country. It has greater power than the common red variety to grow
in stiff clays, in sandy soils underlaid with clay, and in areas where
moisture is insufficient near the surface soil. In stiff clays the roots
penetrate to a greater distance than those of the medium red variety and
gather more food. Consequently, a stiff clay soil that would only
furnish a light crop of the medium red variety in a dry season may
furnish an excellent crop of the mammoth. The quality of the hay is
likely to be superior to that grown on soils altogether congenial, since
it is not likely to be over-rank or coarse.

On sandy soils underlaid with clay, and especially where the clay is
some distance from the surface, this clover is more certain to make a
stand, since the vigor of the plants enables them to gather food until
the roots go down into the clay.

In areas where the moisture is more or less deficient, the other
conditions being favorable, this clover can send its roots down into the
subsoil, where moisture is more abundant than on the surface. Because of
this power, it is better adapted than the medium red to much of the area
of Southwestern Minnesota, Western Iowa, Western Kansas and Nebraska,
and, in fact, much of the area bordering on the semi-arid country.

On clay soils that are so saturated with water that in the winter or
spring the clover is much liable to heave, there is conflict in opinion
as to whether the mammoth or the common red variety will heave the more
readily, but the preponderance of the evidence favors the view that the
roots of the mammoth variety can better resist such influences than
those of the common red.

This clover, like the common red, is not well adapted to hungry, sandy
soils, to the blow soils of the prairie, to the muck soils of the watery
slough, or to the peaty soils of the drained muskeg.

=Place in the Rotation.=--The place for mammoth clover in the rotation
is much the same as for the medium red variety. (See page 70.) It may,
therefore, be best sown on a clean soil; that is to say, on a soil which
has grown a crop the previous season that has called for clean
cultivation, as, for instance, corn, potatoes, sorghum, or one or the
other of the non-saccharine sorghums, field beans, soy beans, cow peas
and field roots. But it is not so necessary that it shall be made to
follow either kind of beans or cow peas as the other crops named, since
these have already gathered nitrogen, which is more needed by leguminous
crops. This clover should rather be grown in rotations where more
nitrogen is wanted, when the soil will profit by increased supplies of
humus, and where strong plants are wanted, the root growth of which will
have the effect of rendering the cultivated portion of the soil more
friable when stiff and more retentive when sandy, and that will have the
effect of opening up many little channels in the subsoil when the roots
decay, through which an excess of surface water may percolate into the
subsoil. It may precede such crops as revel in humus and that feed
ravenously on nitrogen. These include all the small cereals, corn and
all the sorghums, rape, and all kinds of garden vegetables and
strawberries. It is, of course, better adapted to short than to long
rotations, because of the limited duration of the life of the plants.

The length of the rotation will, of course, depend upon various
contingencies. Frequently, the clover is cropped or pastured but one
season following the year on which the seed was sown, whatsoever the
character of the crops that precede or follow it, but in more instances,
probably, it is used as crop or pasture for two years. When timothy is
sown along with this clover the pasturing or cropping may continue for
one or more seasons longer before the ground is broken, but in such
instances the timothy will have consumed much or all of the nitrogen put
into the soil by the clover, save what has escaped in the drainage
water. One of the best rotations in which to sow mammoth clover, as also
the medium red, is the following: Sow in a nurse crop of rye, wheat,
oats or barley, as the case may be, in order that it may be pastured or
cut for hay the following season, and then follow with a crop of corn or
potatoes. This in turn is followed by one or another of the small
grains. This constitutes a three years' rotation, but in the case of
mammoth clover it is frequently lengthened to four years. The year
following the sowing of the clover, it is cut for hay or for seed, and
the next year it is pastured with or without a top-dressing of farmyard
manure. This rotation meets with considerable favor in certain areas of
Wisconsin, well adapted to the growth of the plant.

=Preparing the Soil.=--The preparation of the soil called for by the
mammoth clover is virtually the same as that required when preparing a
seed-bed for the medium red variety. (See page 74.) Clay loam soils,
whatsoever their color, cannot easily be made too fine and smooth, and
the same is true of sandy loams. Stiff clays should be made so fine as
to contain ample loose mold to germinate the seed readily, and yet they
ought not to be made so fine that they will readily run together under
the influence of a soaking rain. Usually, such soils are seldom made too
fine, but sometimes they are. The aim should be to firm sandy soils,
especially when light enough to lift with the wind, and to leave them
more or less uneven on the surface when the seed is sown.

In many States the ground should be plowed in the fall for spring
sowing, and in yet others it should be plowed in the spring. Conditions
of soil and climate govern this feature of the work. Usually, however,
the longer the soil is plowed and then properly worked on the surface
before receiving the seed, the finer, cleaner, firmer and moister it is
likely to be, and the larger the store of the available fertility to
promote the growth of the young plants. Because of this, after
cultivated crops, the ground is not usually plowed or otherwise stirred
on the surface.

When the soil is low in fertility, it may be necessary to fertilize it
before a crop of mammoth clover can be successfully grown. For such
fertilization, farmyard manure is very suitable. When soils are low in
the content of humus, before a good crop of clover can be grown, it may
be necessary to supply humus. But few soils are so deficient in
fertility that they will not grow clover if supplied with humus.
Farmyard manure supplies both humus and fertility, but in its absence, a
crop of rye buried in the soil will insure a stand of clover. In other
instances it may be necessary to follow with some kind of a crop that
has much power to gather plant food, as corn of some hardy variety, and
to graze or otherwise feed it from the land.

=Sowing.=--Much of what has been said about the sowing of medium red
clover will apply also to the sowing of mammoth clover. East of the
Mississippi and north of the Potomac and Ohio rivers, mammoth clover is
usually sown in the spring, and for the reason that the young plants are
frequently killed by the severity of the winter weather when sown in the
autumn. But when sown at that season, the seed being mixed with winter
rye and being deposited by the drill as early as September 1st, the
plants frequently survive the winter as far north as Marquette County in
Wisconsin. The rye in the line of the drill marks provides a sufficient
protection for the clover. But this only occurs where the conditions are
eminently favorable to the growth of the clover. Around Puget Sound it
may also be sown with advantage in the early autumn, as then it should
produce a full crop the next season, and the same is true of nearly all
the Rocky Mountain valley region, but in these areas it may also be sown
in the spring. Between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains and
Oklahoma and Canada, spring sowing is usually preferable, and in much of
the area is an absolute necessity to insure a stand. In the South the
seed may be sown fall or spring; which season is to be preferred should
be determined chiefly by the character of the soil. On soil much given
to heaving in the winter it is usually preferable to sow in the spring.
In all, or nearly all, parts of Canada spring sowing only is admissible.

When the seed is sown in the early spring, it should usually be sown
quite early, as early, in fact, as the ground is in condition to receive
the seed when the nurse crop has been sown the previous autumn. When the
ground is smooth and impacted on the surface, it is considered
preferable to defer sowing until the ground is dry enough to admit of
covering the seed with the harrow. When deposited at the same time as
spring-sown nurse crops, and with these, the time of sowing will be
determined by the most suitable time for sowing the nurse crop. This
plant may be sown under certain conditions as late in the spring as
moisture exists in the soil sufficient to produce vigorous germination
in the seed. This means that it may be sown as late as June, if sown
alone, and even later. When sown thus late it should be on soil that has
been well cleaned near the surface. When sown in the autumn, as with
medium red clover, the aim should be to put the seed in as early as the
arrival of the autumn rains, that the plants may be well rooted before
the arrival of freezing weather.

Ordinarily, mammoth clover, like the medium red, is sown with a nurse
crop, whether sown fall or spring. (See page 84.) The nurse crops in the
North include winter rye, winter wheat, barley, spring wheat and oats,
suitable, probably, in the order named, also such pasture crops as rape,
vetches, and various mixtures of grain sown on certain soils to provide
pasture for cattle, sheep or swine. The best nurse crops in the South
include winter rye, winter barley and winter oats, even though the seed
should not be sown on them until the spring. On certain sandy loam soils
a stand of mammoth clover is more assured if sown with a pasture crop
than if sown with a grain crop which is to mature. (See page 82.) Under
certain conditions of soil and climate, this crop may be sown on plowed
or disked land in certain of the States, after a crop of grain, and in
other instances by sowing amid the stubbles and covering with the
harrow. But there is more of hazard in growing thus than by other
methods. Sometimes this clover is sown amid standing corn, at the last
cultivation, but too much shade or too little moisture may cause only
partial success, or even failure, whereas at other times the plan may
succeed.

The modes of sowing the clover are virtually the same as those to be
followed in sowing medium red clover. (See page 78.) It will be sown by
hand, by hand machines, and by the grain drill, with or without
attachments. The seed of this variety, however, will, on the whole, be
more frequently mixed in with the grain than the seed of the medium red
clover, because of the stronger growth that it makes. This will
frequently be found the preferable mode of sowing it when sown in the
autumn.

When sown to provide hay, mammoth clover and timothy make an excellent
combination for the reasons, first, that they mature about the same
time; second, that more of this clover is likely to survive the first
year of cutting than of the common red; and third, that more food, it is
believed, will be furnished to the timothy in the dead roots of this
clover than of the medium red. The first year of cutting, the hay crop
is likely to be nearly all clover; the second year, clover and timothy
mixed, and the third year, timothy. But if alsike is sown in the
mixture, though it may be little in evidence the first year, it will
show itself the second year and probably the third year. When sown for
pasture in short rotations, this clover may be sown alone or with other
varieties of clover, timothy or tall oat grass being added. When sown
for seed, it is probably better to sow it alone, but there is no very
strong objection to sowing timothy alone with the clover, since the
latter may aid in sustaining the clover, and it is not difficult to
separate mammoth clover seed and timothy seed.

When mammoth clover is sown alone for hay or for seed, not fewer than 12
pounds per acre of seed should be used. When sown with timothy, 6 and 8
pounds, respectively, would be an average seeding. If alsike clover is
added, the seed of the mammoth may be reduced by one pound, and the same
amount of alsike added to the mixture. When sown with the medium red
variety to provide short rotation pastures, about 6 pounds of each may
be sown. The pasture furnished will be more continuous than where only
one kind is sown. If timothy or tall oat grass is added, a pound of one
or the other of these should be added for every pound of the clover
withheld from the mixture. For permanent pastures 6 pounds of the
mammoth clover may be set down as the maximum to sow per acre, varying
the quantity with varying conditions. And when the clover is sown with
small grain to be plowed under in the fall or early in the spring,
usually only very moderate amounts of seed ought to be used, especially
where the hazard is considerable that the dry weather may cause failure
in the catch of the seed.

=Pasturing.=--Mammoth clover furnishes much pasture when it is grazed,
on into July and sometimes even into August, because of the vigorous
character of the growth, but after that season the growth is usually
light. Nor is there generally much growth after the crop has been cut
for hay. The palatability of the pasture is much the same as that of the
medium red variety. More grazing is furnished where the crop is fairly
well grown before the pasturing begins, but it is not so palatable, and
when unduly rank, to defer pasturing thus long would result in a
considerable waste of pasture, which the stock would tread under foot.
When the crop is wanted for hay, there may be instances in which it may
be advantageous to pasture it for a time to prevent the growth from
becoming overly luxuriant. There have been instances in which the
clover has grown so rankly that the lodged clover killed nearly all the
plants by excluding the air from the roots. When grown on soils that in
a normal season produce a rank growth, the quality of the hay will, in
nearly all instances, be improved by grazing. This, however, should be
done soon after the growth begins and should not be long continued, and
it should be close, in order to promote evenness and uniformity in the
growth of the hay crop.

When grown for seed, mammoth clover is quite frequently pastured. In
fact, in a majority of instances it is either pastured or cut with the
mower when a seed crop is wanted. The pasturing usually continues until
June 1st, but in some instances it is prolonged far on into June. The
duration of the pasturing season should be gauged largely by the
character of the soil and weather. The better the conditions for growth
in the plants, the longer may the pasturing be continued, and _vice
versa_. There are also conditions in which such pasturing may not be
necessary. But when the grazing is not close, the mower should be run
over the field, otherwise the seeds will not ripen evenly.

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