VOL. LXI
INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 27, 1906.
NO. 43
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SOWING CLOVER ON WHEAT.
The Weather Tells the Story.
1st Premium.—To get a good stand of
c lover in wheat the weather conditions
must be favorable. Sow early, the latter
part of February, or first of March, if you
can find the soil "honeycombed" as some
«all it. You may sow even earlier than
Ihis if you find the soil in the above condition. If you do not find it in this condition anl wait till later I would advise
you to wait until the soil is dry enough to
go through with a disk lmrrow. Set the
disks almost straight, and if it does not
go in deep enough weight it down. Disk
ilie way the wheat was sown. Now sow
your clover seed, and follow up with a
spike tooth harrow, with the teeth slanting backward. Harrow the same way
yoa disked the field. A great many farmers put a great deal of stress on the time
you sow, some on the condition of the
soil, some even on the sign; but the weather conditions tell all. The last spring
was very dry here for about four weeks,
last week in April and three in May,
which put the fixing to our clover—all
gone, regardless of time, sign, etc.
Now as we don't all raise wheat I
would say to those who sow oats, if they
want a good stand of clover on oats ground,
don't plw your ground, but disk it, and
disk  it  right. Cut   your  ground,   sow
your oats, t hen cut it again the same way
it was cut before (don't cross-cut the second time), harrow, sow your clover seed,
then go over it with a drag. Don't think
after you have harrowed your oats in that
the stoil is in fine condition to leave, but
drag after you sow the clover seed; this
will hold the moisture if it should turn
dry. Reader.
Carroll.
March 1st to 15th About Right.
2d Premium.—Taking everything into
consideration, from, my experience I think
the best time to sow clover is from the
first to the 15th of March, and some years
probably a little later; that depends a Utile on the spring. If the spring be late
or early I prefer a little snow; then the seed
remains where it falls, and as the snow
melts, and with the freezing and thawing, the seed gets covered, and in that
way I have as good success or ibetter than
any other way for getting a good stand
of clover on wheat. I do not like to
sow clover when there is a deep snow. In
the first place, if the snow should go with
rain the seed is likely to be washed away,
especially if the land is rolling. Then
too it is very tiresome walking; for I think
the use of a hand machine that turns with
a crank is the best way to sow clover seed.
I do not like to sow any earlier than the
first of March, for the season that if there
should be a warm spell, as there often is
in February, and the seed is sprouted, and
then there is some terribly cold weather in
March, without any snow for protection,
the tender young plants are likely to perish. I have sometimes sowed late and
followed with the harrow, which plan has
its objections. In the first place it destroys some of the timothy seed. I never
sow wheat without clover, neither do I
sow clover without timothy, for the reason that it is difficult to get a uniform
stand of clover alone, because it is so liable to perish in places, and if we sow a: little timothy we are a great deal more likely
to get a satisfactory stand of grass. A
little timothy along with the clover makes
A GOOD PLAN FOE A FARM HOUSE.
By Geo. S. Kingsley,    Architect.
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One of the signs of the times is the
progress being made in the design and
plan of the houses erected by farmers
throughout the United States. Once
upon a time, and not very long ago, the
farmer paid little attention to the plan
of his house. As long as it had four
walls and a roof, and sufficient space inside) for his needs, the farmer was satisfied. But that state of affairs has ceased
to exist and the credit belongs in a good
many cases to the farmer's wife. She
has been reading articles in her weekly
paper and monthly magazine on various
ways of planning houses, and has put two
and two together and embodied them in a
plan that would meet the needs of her
family. And she has given particular
attention to" the design of the house, always striving to build a house that would
be pleasing in appearance as well as practical in plan. The illustrations shown
in connection with this article  are  of a
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small house suitable for a small family
in the country, or for a village home.
There are three rooms on the first floor
and three rooms and bath on the second
floor. The dining room is extra large in
this plan being 12 feet by 19 feet in size.
This will make an excellent sitting room
for long winter evenings and save the
parlor  for  company. By   placing  the
fire place in dining room, one chimney only becomes necessary for the house. The
stairway is of the open pattern and makes
a nice appearance from parlor. The
rear stairway leading to basement also has
a door on a level with the ground, which
allows it to serve as the rear outside entrance to kitchen and to 'basement. My
estimate of the cost of this house if built
within 500 miles of Chicago, is $1800. This
estimate includes hardwood finish on the
first floor, plumbing and furnace. Any
further information regarding this plan
will be cheerfully given by author.
better hay and more of it, and just as good
pasture. I sow my timothy seed with
the drill when I sow wheat. I sow two
quarts of timothy seed to the acre and
four quarts clover seed. Another objection I have to sowing clover seed late and
harrowing is that there are always soft
places in the field where a team will do a
great deal of damage, both to the wheat
and to itself, unless we wait till it is
too late. G. B.
Kosciusko Co.
Before Wiater Sets in.
3d Premium.—The first thing necessary
to get a good stand of clover, sown at any
time, is to have good seed. The next
thing it to sow that seed at such a time
that it will germinate at the proper season; and under such conditions as will not
expose it to the hard freeze that we so often have in spring after a few warm damp
days that have sprouted the seed; and not
lale enough to have the seed on the top of
the ground, thereby endangering the life
of the plant, with ouly a small, short
r»ot with which to withstand the long continued drouth so common in this part of
our country. Therefore we must sow our
clover seed as early in the fall or winter
as is possible, after the earth has become
ccol enough to stop the germination of all
plant seeds. Sow if possible while the
tiny clods are yet resting on the slope and
ou top of the ridge made by the drill, so
that the seed may be covered by the melting of the little clods in the rain and by
the freezing and thawing. If the seed is
covered a very little with soil they will lie
dormant in the cool earth, and not be
sprouted by the first two or three warm
days we have, only to be killed by the cold
snap in March, that is nearly always sure
tc follow these little warm spells. Sometimes even in April we have the weather
cold enough to kill the young plants, if
the seeds are just open and the tender little stem still in the curl and on top of that
hard, smooth surface of the field on which
so many people sow seed in February and
March thus exposing it to the hard freezing weather that we are sure to have in
early spring, and to the burning rays of
the hot sun, later on, without any protection, no possible chance of ever being
protected, except where a seed by chance
may fall into the cracks in the ground, or
when we have a rainy season, such as no
farmer can afford to hope for at this season of the year and which would be greatly to his disadvantage if he did get it So
always sow clover seed in November or
December, if the ground becomes cool
eiiOugh, and by using a little good judgment we may have our seed covered and
so protected that no freeze nor drouth will
destroy our most valuable crop for our
land, the clover crop. A. S.
Shelby Co.
Premiums of $1, 75 cent* and 50 cents
are given for the best, second and third
best articles for the Experience Department each week. Manuscript should be
sent direct to the Indiana Farmer Company, and should reach us one week before date of publication.
Topics for future numbers:
No. 556, Nov. 3.—Tell some things that
can be done to make the home comfortable during winter.
No. 557, Nov. 10.—Explain- how you
raise turkeys successfully.
Elizur W Sage, who recently fell heir
to $50,000 thru the will of the late multimillionaire, Russell Sage, has shown sound
judgment by investing a large portion of
his inheritance in good farming land in
his neighborhood He turned down all
schemes proposed to him by get-rich-quick
sharks who were after him in great numbers
Electrical storms caused a great deal of
loss by fire in Allen county during the past
summer. Lightning played havoc in that
section to such an extent that losses by
fire were reported after every thunder
storm.