Book: Clovers and How to Grow Them

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




East of the States named, it would probably be correct to say that the
highest adaptation is found in New York and Pennsylvania, particularly
the former, in many parts of which excellent crops are grown. In various
parts of the New England States good crops may also be grown. Much of
the soil in these is not sufficiently fertile to grow clover as it can
be grown in the more Central States. The same is true of the States of
Delaware, Maryland and Eastern Virginia, east of the Rocky Mountains,
south from the Canadian boundary and west from Minnesota, Iowa and
Missouri, but little success has heretofore attended the efforts to grow
medium red clover. This statement does not apply equally to Eastern
Nebraska and Kansas. Usually the climate is not moist enough in summer,
the sweep of the cold winds is too great in winter, the snowfall is
usually insufficient to protect the plants, and it may be also that the
requisite bacteria is lacking in the soil. Sometime, however, these
adverse conditions may in part be overcome by man's resourcefulness. In
parts of States that lie south of the 37th parallel, it may be found
profitable to grow crops of medium red clover; but in these, other
legumes, as crimson clover, cow peas and soy beans, will probably
furnish food more reliably and more cheaply.

In Canada the highest all-round adaptation for clover is in Ontario and
Quebec, unless it be the mountain valleys and tide lands of British
Columbia. Because of the high adaptation in the soil of the two
provinces first named, and the plentifulness of the snowfall, clover in
these is one of the surest of the crops grown. The maritime provinces of
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward's Island, particularly the
former, have soils a little too hungry to produce the highest returns in
clover. On the open prairies between Ontario and the Rocky Mountains,
not much success has attended the attempts to grow any kind of clover,
owing probably to present uncongeniality in soils and more especially in
climatic conditions. However, there are good reasons for believing that
with the introduction of hardy varieties and through the use of Northern
grown seed, an inoculated soil, where inoculation may be necessary, that
medium red clover will yet be grown over wide areas in all the provinces
of Northwestern Canada, south of and including the Saskatchewan valley.

=Soils.=--Fortunately, this most useful plant will grow in a
considerable variety of soils, though, of course, not equally well.
Highest in general suitability, probably, are clay loams underlaid with
a moderately porous clay subsoil. They should at the same time be moist
and reasonably well stored with humus. On such a soil, in a climate with
sufficient rainfall and properly distributed, a stand of clover should
be looked upon as reasonably certain any season when properly sown. It
would also be correct to say that on the volcanic soils of the mountain
States in the West, clover will grow equally well when supplied with
moisture, and in these it is also very tenacious of life.

Next in adaptation are what may be termed loam soils, also underlaid
with clay. The proportion of the clay in them will exercise an important
influence on the growth of the clover. Loamy sands will grow clover
better than sandy loams, although both are very suitable, the other
conditions being right.

It would seem to be correct to assign third place to stiff clays,
whether of the white or red cast. The better that these are supplied
with vegetable matter, and the more moist the season, the better is the
stand of the clover likely to be. In seasons that are generally
favorable, excellent crops of clover may be obtained from such soils,
but in dry seasons it is easy to secure a good stand of the plants. They
are also considerably liable to heave in these soils in the spring of
the year from the action of the frost. The more perfectly they are
drained, the less will be the injury from this source, but it is
scarcely possible to drain such lands so perfectly that there will be no
loss of clover plants in these from the source named in the winters,
characterized by frequent rains, accompanied by frequent alternations of
freezing and thawing. The loss from this source in such lands varies
from nothing at all to 100 per cent.

Nearly, if not equal to the former, are dark loam soils with a gravel or
sand drainage underneath, providing, first, that the sand and gravel do
not come too near the surface, and second, that the normal rainfall is
sufficient. On such soils it seldom fails to grow, is not liable to
heave in the winter or spring, and usually produces excellent crops when
these soils are properly tilled. It has special adaptation for being
grown on calcareous or limy soils. It also, usually, grows well on soils
underlaid with yellow clay of more or less tenacity.

The black humus soils of the prairie vary much in their suitability for
growing medium red clover. Much depends on the clay content in such
soils. The more of this element in them and the nearer an underlying
clay subsoil is to the surface, the better will this clover grow on
them. In large areas of the prairie, red clover will grow more
successfully on the subsoil when laid bare than when on the surface
soil. It has been the experience in many instances that when the humus
soils of the prairie, porous and spongy in character, were first tilled,
clover grew on them so shyly that it was difficult to get a good stand
of the same until it had been sown for several seasons successively or
at intervals. Eventually, good crops were grown on these lands, and are
now being grown on them. This was the experience that faced a majority
of the first settlers on the prairie where excellent crops are now being
grown, and it is the experience which faces many to-day, who are
located on sections of the prairie but newly broken.

Two reasons may be given by way of explanation, but these may not
furnish all the reasons for the experience just referred to. First, much
of the land was so porous in its nature that in dry seasons the young
plants perished for want of moisture. As such lands become worn through
cropping, they lie more firmly and compactly; hence, there is less loss
of moisture through the free penetration of the soil within a short
distance of the surface of the dry atmosphere. And second, the requisite
bacteria is not in these soils until it is brought to them by sowing
seed repeatedly, more or less of which grows, and in growing increases
the bacteria in the soil until that point is reached when good crops of
clover can be grown with the usual regularity.

The suitability of sandy and gravelly lands for growing clover depends
much on the amount of plant food which they contain, on the character of
the climate, and on the subsoil. Such soils when possessed of some loam
when underlaid with clay, and in a climate with 20 inches and more per
annum of rainfall, usually grow good crops of clover; but when
conditions the opposite prevail, the growth of this plant is precarious.
However, when sandy or gravelly soils low in fertility are underlaid
with the same and the rainfall is sufficient, good crops of clover may
be grown if these soils are first sufficiently supplied with vegetable
matter and then sufficiently fertilized.

Muck soils do not seem to have the proper elements for growing clover in
the best form. But when these have in them some clay, and especially
when they are underlaid with clay not distant from the surface, they
will grow good crops of clover, especially of the alsike variety. Thus
it is that lands which have grown black ash and tamarack generally make
good clover lands also. But clover will not succeed well on unreduced
peaty soils, since it is not able in these to gather food supplies. But
when sufficiently reduced, some kinds of clover will succeed better on
these than on some other soils.

Deposit soils, such as are found in the bottom lands of rivers and
streams, vary much in the suitability for growing clover, owing to the
great differences in the compositions; but since they are usually
possessed of sufficient friability, fertility and moisture, good crops
of clover may generally be grown upon them where the climatic conditions
are suitable. The injury from overflow on such soils will depend on the
depth of the same and its duration, also the season of the year when it
occurs. Overflow in the spring season before growth has begun, or when
it is about starting, will be helpful rather than harmful, especially if
some deposit is left on the land by the subsiding waters. But if the
overflow should be deep and of any considerable duration, and, moreover,
if it should occur when the clover was somewhat advanced in growth, and
in hot weather, the submergence of the clover would probably be fatal to
it.

It may be proper to state here that the lands which grow hardwood timber
will usually grow clover. By hardwood timber is meant such trees as
maple, beech, birch, oak, elm, basswood, butternut and walnut. Where
forests are found comprising one or more varieties of these trees
anywhere on this continent, and especially comprising several of them,
the conclusion is safe that medium red clover will grow, or, at least,
can be grown, on such soils. If a considerable sprinkling of pine trees
is found in the same, the indications are not changed in consequence.
Where the forest is largely composed of maple and birch, excellent crops
of clover may be looked for when the land has been cleared. But because
of what has been said, the conclusion must not be reached that clover
will not grow well under some conditions where soft woods abound, but
rather that where the former abound the indications of suitability for
clover production are more certain than where soft timbers abound.

=Place in the Rotation.=--Medium red clover may be made to precede or to
follow almost any crop that is grown upon the farm. Notwithstanding,
there are certain crops which it precedes or follows with much more
advantage than others. Since it brings nitrogen to the soil from the air
and deposits the same for the benefit of the crops that immediately
follow, it is advantageous to plant such crops after it as require much
nitrogen to make them productive, as, for instance, wheat. Since,
through the medium of its roots, it stores the ground with humus, such
crops should come after it as feed generously on humus, as, for
instance, corn and potatoes. And since it tends to lessen weed growth
through smothering, it may with advantage be followed by crops for which
a clean seed bed is specially advantageous, as flax. It may, therefore,
be followed with much advantage by wheat, oats or barley, corn and
sorghum in all their varieties, flax, potatoes, field roots, vegetables
and such small fruits as strawberries. Where wheat is a success it is
usually first grown among the small cereal grains after clover, since it
is less able to flourish under the conditions which become decreasingly
favorable in the years that follow the breaking up of the clover.
Whether wheat or flax, corn or potatoes should immediately follow the
growing of clover, should be determined in great part by the immediate
necessity for growing one or the other of these crops, but also to some
extent by the crops that are to follow them.

Clover may follow such crops as require cultivation while they are
growing, and of a character that will clean the soil. This means that it
may with advantage be made to follow corn, sorghum, potatoes or field
roots. It may also follow the summer fallow bare, or producing crops for
being plowed under where these come into the rotation. Of course, since
clover can to a considerable extent supply its own nitrogen, it may be
successfully grown on lands that are not clean, and that may not possess
high fertility, but when thus sown the nurse crop with which it is
usually sown is not likely to succeed well, because of the presence of
weeds in it, and from the same cause the quality of the first of the
clover is likely to be much impaired. The conditions of the time of
sowing are also less favorable for getting a stand of the seed.

There is probably no rotation in which clover may be grown with more
advantage than when it is made to alternate with corn or potatoes and
some small cereal grains, as wheat or oats, growing each crop for but
one season. Of course the clover must be sown with the grain and
harvested the following year, taking from it two cuttings. In no other
form of rotation, perhaps, can clover be used to better advantage, nor
would there seem to be any other way in which land may be made to
produce abundantly for so large a term of years without fertilization
other than that given to the soil by the clover. It would fully supply
the needs of the crops alternating with it in the line of humus, and
also in that of nitrogen. In time the supply of phosphoric acid and
potash might run low, but not for a long term of years. The cultivation
given to the corn and potatoes would keep the land clean. Fortunate is
the neighborhood in which a rotation may be practised, and fortunate are
the tillers of the soil who are in a position to adopt it.

Medium red clover may be followed with much advantage by certain catch
crops sown at various times through the season of growth. It may be
pastured in the spring for several weeks, and the land then plowed and
sowed with millet or rape, or planted with corn, sorghum, late potatoes,
or certain vegetables, or it may be allowed to grow for several weeks
and then plowed, to be followed by one or the other of these crops. It
may also be harvested for hay in time to follow it with millet or rape
for pasture, and under some conditions with fodder corn. But when the
stand of clover is good, it would usually be profitable to utilize the
clover for food rather than the crops mentioned, since doing so would
involve but little labor and outlay. After the second cutting for the
season, winter rye may be grown as a catch crop by growing it as a
pasture crop.

=Preparing the Soil.=--Speaking in a general way, it would be correct to
say that it would not be easy to get soil in too friable a condition for
the advantageous reception of medium red clover seed. In other words, it
does not often happen that soils are in too fine tilth to sow seed upon
them without such fineness resulting in positive benefit to the plants.
The exceptions would be clays of fine texture in climates subject to
rainfalls so heavy as to produce impaction. On the other hand, the
hazard would be even greater to sow clover on these soils when in a
cloddy condition. The rootlets would not then be able to penetrate the
soil with sufficient ease to find enough food and moisture to properly
nourish them. Some soils are naturally friable, and in these a tilth
sufficiently fine can be realized ordinarily with but little labor.
Other soils, as stiff clays, frequently require much labor to bring them
into the condition required. Usually, however, if sufficient time
elapses between the plowing of the land and the sowing of the seed, this
work may be materially lessened by using the harrow and roller
judiciously soon after rainfall.

When preparing prairie soils so open that they will lift with the wind,
the aim should be to firm them rather than to render them more open and
porous; otherwise they will not retain sufficient moisture to properly
sustain the young plants, if prolonged dry weather follows the sowing of
the seed. Plowing such land in the autumn aids in securing such density.
The same result follows summerfallowing the land or growing upon it a
cultivated crop after the bare fallow, or after the cultivated crop has
been harvested prior to the sowing of the clover seed, otherwise the
desired firmness of the land will be lessened, and weed seeds will be
brought to the surface, which will produce plants to the detriment of
the clover. In preparing such lands for the seed, cultivation near the
surface is preferable to plowing.

When the clover is sown late in the season, as is sometimes the case, in
locations where the winters are comparatively mild, the ground may be
made reasonably clean before the seed is sown, by stirring it
occasionally at intervals before sowing the seed. This is done with some
form of harrow or weeder, and, of course, subsequently to the plowing of
the land.

=Sowing.=--The time for sowing clover seed is influenced considerably by
the climatic conditions. Under some conditions it may be sown in the
early autumn. It may be thus sown in the Southern States and with much
likelihood that a stand will be secured, yet in some instances an
inauspicious winter proves disastrous to the plants: all things
considered, it is probably safer to sow clover in the South at that
season than the spring, when vegetation is beginning to start. It may
also succeed in some instances in areas well to the North when sown in
the early autumn, providing snow covers the ground all the winter, but
should the snow fail to come the subsequent winter, or fail to lie when
it does come, the clover plants would perish. The element of hazard,
therefore, is too great in northerly areas to justify sowing the seed
thus. But on the bench lands of the mountain valleys there may be
instances in which the seed may be sown so late in the autumn that it
will not sprout before winter sets in, but lies in the soil ready to
utilize the moisture, so all important in those areas, as soon as the
earliest growth begins in the spring.

The seed may be sown with no little assurance of success in the late
summer. But this can only be done where moisture is reasonably plentiful
from the time of sowing onward, and where the winters are not really
severe. In some of the Central States this method of sowing may succeed
reasonably well. Clover and timothy sown thus without any nurse crop
will produce a full crop the next season. When the seed is sown thus, it
may, of course, be made to follow a crop grown on the land the same
season. It may also insure a crop the following season, when the clover
seed sown the spring previously may for some reason have failed.

While medium red clover is frequently sown in the South and in some
areas of the far West in the months of January and February on the snow,
in the North it is usually sown in the early spring. This also is in a
great majority of instances the best time for sowing. In many locations
it may be sown with safety as soon as the winter snows have gone. On the
whole, the earlier that it is sown in the spring the better, that the
young plants may have all the benefit possible from the moisture, which
is more abundant than later. But there are certain areas, as, for
instance, in the northerly limits of the Mississippi basin, in which
young clover plants perish by frost after they have germinated. This,
however, does not happen very frequently. When the seed is sown on the
snow, or while the ground is yet in a honeycombed condition from early
frost, it must of necessity be sown early. But where the hazard is
present that the young plants will be killed by frost, it will be safer
to defer sowing the seed until it can be covered with the harrow when
sown.

Whether it will be more advisable to sow the seed on bare ground earlier
than the season when growth begins, or to sow later and cover with the
harrow, will depend to a considerable degree upon the soil and the
condition in which it happens to be. On timber soils newly cleaned the
early sowing would be quite safe where the young plants are not liable
to be killed after germination, because of the abundance of humus in
them. On the same soils, early sowing would probably be preferable, even
when much reduced in humus, providing they were in a honeycombed
condition at the time of sowing. This condition is far more
characteristic of clay and clay loam soils, than of those sandy in
texture. To sow the seed on clay soils that are worn would be to throw
it away, unless in a most favorable season for growth. The same would
prove true of the sandy soils low in humus, since these do not honeycomb
at any season. Seed sown on honeycombed ground falls into openings made
in the soil, and is covered by the action of the frost and the sun on
the same. The rule should be to defer sowing the seed where the ground
does not honeycomb until it can be covered with the harrow.

In some instances the seed is sown successfully just after a light fall
of snow in the spring. The seed is carried down into little crevices or
fissures in the soil when these are present, but the seed should not be
thus sown. Usually it is not quite safe to sow clover seed where the
winter snow still lingers to any considerable depth, lest much of it
should be carried down to the lower lands by the sudden melting of the
snows. The chief advantage of sowing before the ground can be harrowed
arises from the benefit which the young plants derive from the plentiful
supply of moisture in the soil at that season. They are more firmly
rooted than plants sown later, and, therefore, can better withstand the
dry weather that frequently characterizes the later months of the
summer. There is also the further advantage that the labor of harrowing
at a season that is usually a busy one is dispensed with.

Various modes of sowing clover seed have been adopted. Sometimes it is
sown by hand. In other instances a sower is used which is strapped to
the shoulder and turned with a crank. Sometimes the seed is sown by a
distributor, which is wheeled over the ground on a frame resembling that
of a wheelbarrow. Again, it is sown with a seeder attachment to the
ordinary grain drill or to the broadcast seeder, and yet again with the
grain in the ordinary drill tubes, or scattered with the same by the
broadcast seeder; which of these methods should be adopted will depend
on such conditions as relate to season, climate and soil.

The seed may be sown by hand at almost any time desired, whether it is
covered or not. The advantages of hand sowing are that it may be done
under some conditions when no other method will answer as well, as, for
instance, when it is sown upon snow or upon the ground honeycombed. The
disadvantages are that it takes more time than some of the other
methods, especially when the sower only scatters the seed with one hand,
that it cannot be thus sown when the wind blows stiffly or fitfully, and
most of all, only a limited number of persons who sow seed are thus able
to sow it with complete regularity. A still time should, if possible, be
chosen for hand sowing; such a time is usually found in the early
morning. When one hand is used, the seed may be sown from a light dish
or pail or sowing-bag, but when both hands are used a sowing-box or a
sowing-sack suspended in front of the breast is necessary. Clover seed
may be sown when a considerable breeze is blowing by having a due regard
to the wind. When facing it, the cast of seed should be low; when going
before the wind it should be high. But when the wind is blowing at
right angles, much care must be observed by the sower as to where he
walks, in relation to the cast that is being sown.

When the seed is sown on grain that has been drilled, the rows of grain
will suffice to serve as a guide to the sower, and when the grain is not
up, the drill marks may be made to serve the same end.

The advantages of the hand seeder held in place by straps are that the
sowing may be done by an individual who cannot sow by hand, that the
seed may be easily distributed and that it may be used with advantage in
sowing seed among brush. The disadvantages are that it cannot be used
when much wind is stirring, and when using it stakes are sometimes
necessary for the guidance of the sower.

The advantages from using the seeder wheeled over the ground are that
the work may be done by any one able to wheel the seeder, that the seed
is distributed evenly, that it may be sown when a fairly stiff wind is
blowing, and that stakes are not necessary for the guidance of the
sower, as the distance of the cast may be gauged at least fairly well by
the wheel marks made. One disadvantage is that it cannot be used with
much satisfaction on certain soils when the ground is cloddy or frozen,
or when it is wet. There is also the disadvantage to all three methods
of sowing by hand, that it is frequently necessary to provide a covering
for the seed by subsequently using the harrow.

The advantages from sowing with the seeder attachment to the grain drill
are that the seed may be made to fall before or behind the tubes as may
be desired, or it may be sown with the seed along with the grain, and
that when sown by any of these methods there is much saving of time as
compared with sowing by hand. In some sections of the prairie the seed
is sown with the grain drill by driving the same across the newly sown
grain rows. If necessary to insure sufficiently thin sowing, the seed
should be first mixed with some substance such as common salt.

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