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>#' GARDEN: •: ' ms VOL. T-Tftn j PUBLIC LIBRAKTI INDIANAP0LIS. APRIL 25, 1908. ' ' ■ ■ i, . NO. 17 Why the Clover Fails. It is no wonder that there are now many pocf stands of clover, because the oats and clover seeding is done with a rush, and only half done; the oats are sown too thick, and the clover is given second consideration. Farmers must not expect to succeed with clover hy any less careful methods than those that insure success in other lines of farming, and that the farmer must think more of the clover than he does of the nurse crop. In the exceptionally dry year of 1901, when the clover plants off all ordinary soil in Wisconsin died, there was a fine, thrifty stand upon a strip of virgin soil where an old rail fence had stood. An institute speaker drove ten miles to see it. All the neighboring ground would have grown clover fifty years before that time, but the continual cropping had exhausted the humus supply from the soil, so that it did not retain sufficient moisture for clover growth. The trouble to get a stand of clover today results from farming the land to death. It is exhausted of its humus and hence unable to retain sufficient moisture for tbe young clover plants in a dry time. It is the farmers' own fault and the trouble -will become greater still if he does not change his methods. "We must put back into the soil as much plant food as we take out, or we are sure to come to grief." It takes good ground to grow clover. The soil can be made so rich that it cannot help but grow clover. A man took a worn-out timber farm and by manuring it, brought it up to a point where it grows immense crops of eorn, oats and elover. The farmer will never get his ground to j.tow clover by selling the crops from the farm and returning to the land. Even if the ground now grows clover well, it will not continue to do so if the products are removed from the land year after year. Even the man • who grows corn oats and clover in rotation. selling the products and returning nothing to the soil, is sure to come to a time when he cannot grow clover. There is not a farm in Illinois so rich in plant food that it can stand such treatment. This is true of the black prairie scil as well as the others. If we have good ground we will havo moisture, for ground is good in proportion as it is supplied with humus: and humus is the element that will retain sufficient moisture in a dry time to furnish water for growing plants. The catch of clover does not depend so much upon the prepara lion of the seed bed as it does on the quality of the soil, and the sunshine. The idea] seed bed is not newly plowesl ground, because it is too loose; it wil! dry out too readily. It is not a good wing to plow the clover ground in the spring, neither is it necessary to work lf with a disk or cultivator. The best swd tied and the one that has given the speaker splendid results the past fifteen years, is secured by sow- Wg the clover seed on corn ground, "Sn oats ns a nurse crop, using a good ■"am drill for both oats and clover, without any ground. "arrow, tunes. There is no breaking of the w<Ue ladder" and drying out of the Ss.] j_ Much of the trouble in getting clover Parted is due t,, the sbasle of the nurse -roP- It is a critical time for the clover previous preparation of tlio Then harrow with a smoothing once or twice or any number of when the nurse crop is removed. Much of the clover dies at this time. It does uot die from lack of moisture, because it previously hold its own while the nurse crop was taking moisture from the ground. What would you think of the farmer that would plant his corn and then put a shade over it, if it were possible, and compel it to grow for three months in the shade; then in the middle of the summer, in the. hottest weather, remove that shade and then blame the corn plant because it dies? Or will the gardner offer for sale plants stalk than to grow three stalks. Many a farmer thinks more of the yield of oats than the catch of clover, and spoils the chance for clover by heavy seeding of oatls. Many farmers who use good judgment in planting corn, lose their heads when they sow oats as a nurse crop for clover. It is an utter impossibility to grow good, strong clover plants, such as are needed to stand the heat of the sun when the nrrse crop is removed, if these plants are grown in the dense shade resulting from a heavy seeding of oats. In the Allegheny Mountains. that have been grown in the shade and expect to find a market for them—little yellow spindling plants, made so for want of sunshine? One plant grown in the sun is worth a hundred grown in the shade. But this is the very thing that many farmers do with their clover. They grow it in the shade of a nurse crop that is sown too thick, and the results is small, tender, spindling plants. What the clover needs is the sunshine every day, from the time that the seed is sown until the r.urse crop is removed. The sunshine for the clover can be secured by planting it with an early oat. like the Early Champion, which ripens from ten day to two weeks earlier than the late varieties. The second help is tss make a thin ssaediug of oats—not more than one bushel per acre. This may seem a very small amount of seed, but the speaker has found such a seeding very good for the clover, and also that it produces a fair crop of oats. The farmer is very particular to get a corn planter with which he can drop exactly a certain number of keniels per hill, knowing tliat too many stalks will resluce the yield. But the farmer takes no such pains with liis oats seeding. He uses an end gate seeder and usually sows 3 or 4 bushels per acre, getting a dense sliasle for the clover, a lot of straw, and small heads ssf oats. If a farmer wants good oats he must use the same judgment in the amount ssf seed tsown that he does in planting corn. One head of oats with 100 grains is worth more than 1 heads with 25 grains each, because they are larger and better grains, and less plant food is required to grow one If the drill is driven north and south in sowing the seed, the sun shines directly down on the young clover in the middle of the day, when it exerts its great power.—Mr. C. D. Smith, in address before Illinois Farmers' Institute, per Arthur J. Bill. Theory Put Into Practice. Edltora Indiana Farmer: When the writer was called to organize the w'ork of the Winona Agricultural Institute at AVinona Lake, Indiana, the Institute had devoted its efforts mainly to the work of a Preparatory School, or in other words, it was an Agricultural Institute without agriculture. At first, lectures were delivered on the importance of the agricultural industry and the broad fields filled with opportunities for young men who would take up the work as a means of insuring future prospects. Then crops were discussed and how they grew and also the different chemicals found in the soil that helped to make crops thrive. Asa means by which the students were made familiar with comnien ial fertilizers samples of sulphate or potash, muriate of potash, Kainit. Bone phosphate, nitrate of soda, and other fertilizing materials were brought to the Laboratory, where hj sliscussisins ami lectures the students were taught the value of the different ingredients and thi' Important role each one played in crop production. Although the season was well advanced, a small field was prepared for wheat, the sssil of the field, however, was iu a poor physical and chemical condition, owing to consecutive cropping for a number of years. On one acre of this prepared field was broadcasted two hundred pounds of bone meal; on the second acre, one hundred and fifty ponnds of bone meal and twenty lbs. of Sulphate of Potash was applied; the balance of the field was left unfertilized. The field was harrowed once over, then seeded with an ordinary grain drill. A close wateh of the crops was kept by the students with much speculation as to the result, as they were about to witness a practical demonstration iu the fi,eld of what they had been taught in the class room. The germination of the seeds was up to the average, but no marked result in the crop was noticed until the plants were about three inches high, then the students reported that the fertilized acres appeared much greener and the plants stronger than the unfertilized. During the winter the question of crop rotation was discussed and plans were made for seeding, the whole Seld of wheat with clover. By the middle of April, a much later date than the farmers were iu the habit of sowing clover seed, a team was hitched to a harrow and one of the young men proceeded to harrow the wheat fielsl length wjjii.'. ths' drills, sowing clover ss'esl. 1 peck to the acre, with 1 hand and driving the team with the other. Thus it will be seen that the harrow was performing the double work of breaking up the surface, which had been compacted with the winter snows and spring rains and also covering the clover seed. The young clover plants in time appeared, but as the growth of the wheat prevented close observation of the clover, more attention was given to the wheat It was quite noticeable that the stand of wheat was much better on the acre fertilized witb bone than that on the unfertilized land, and the acre fertilized with bone and potash was even better than either, which condition continued to the harvest time, showing a marked improvement in the crop on these plots. Moreover, what has been said of the wheat crop, would apply to the clover also. In the class room these young men hail been taught that fine ground bone was a standard fertilizer and would produce results; however, it was emphasized that potash was also necessary, and it was with that end in view that the potash was added to the bone, which in this experiment proved advantageous, as was shown not only with the wheat crop, but further confirmed at the harvest of the first crop of clover the following season. The clover vas much heavier on the portion where the potash was applied thau where bone was used exclusively. The neighboring farmers and students voted the experiment a success. E. J. Hollister. Hasbrouck Heights, X. J. Farm* in i en mark. Denmark has nearly 200,000 farms and farm-gardens of 10 acres or less, and about 100,000 farms of between 10 and 15 acres. There are less than 1000 farms in the entire kingdom of 500 acres or over, the aggregate of these last named being less than a million acres. There are 1,085 cooperative dairies with 158,170 members, 3." bacon factories with 91,000 members, and a co-operative egg exporting society with 500 local centers. The business transacted by these cooperative concerns is enormous.
Object Description
Title | Indiana farmer, 1908, v. 63, no. 17 (Apr. 25) |
Purdue Identification Number | INFA6317 |
Date of Original | 1908 |
Subjects (LCSH) |
Agriculture Farm management Horticulture Agricultural machinery |
Subjects (NALT) |
agriculture farm management horticulture agricultural machinery and equipment |
Genre | Periodical |
Call Number of Original | 630.5 In2 |
Location of Original | Hicks Repository |
Coverage | United States - Indiana |
Type | text |
Format | JP2 |
Language | eng |
Collection Title | Indiana Farmer |
Rights Statement | Content in the Indiana Farmer Collection is in the public domain (published before 1923) or lacks a known copyright holder. Digital images in the collection may be used for educational, non-commercial, or not-for-profit purposes. |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Date Digitized | 2011-03-23 |
Digitization Information | Original scanned at 300 ppi on a Bookeye 3 scanner using internal software. Display images generated in CONTENTdm as JP2000s; file format for archival copy is uncompressed TIF format. |
Description
Title | Page 1 |
Subjects (LCSH) |
Agriculture Farm management Horticulture Agricultural machinery |
Subjects (NALT) |
agriculture farm management horticulture agricultural machinery and equipment |
Genre | Periodical |
Call Number of Original | 630.5 In2 |
Location of Original | Hicks Repository |
Coverage | Indiana |
Type | text |
Format | JP2 |
Language | eng |
Collection Title | Indiana Farmer |
Rights Statement | Content in the Indiana Farmer Collection is in the public domain (published before 1923) or lacks a known copyright holder. Digital images in the collection may be used for educational, non-commercial, or non-for-profit purposes. |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Digitization Information | Orignal scanned at 300 ppi on a Bookeye 3 scanner using internal software. Display images generated in CONTENTdm as JP2000s; file format for archival copy is uncompressed TIF format. |
Transcript |
>#'
GARDEN:
•: ' ms
VOL. T-Tftn j PUBLIC LIBRAKTI INDIANAP0LIS. APRIL 25, 1908.
' ' ■ ■ i, .
NO. 17
Why the Clover Fails.
It is no wonder that there are now many
pocf stands of clover, because the oats
and clover seeding is done with a rush,
and only half done; the oats are sown too
thick, and the clover is given second consideration.
Farmers must not expect to succeed
with clover hy any less careful methods
than those that insure success in other
lines of farming, and that the farmer
must think more of the clover than he does
of the nurse crop.
In the exceptionally dry year of 1901,
when the clover plants off all ordinary
soil in Wisconsin died, there was a fine,
thrifty stand upon a strip of virgin soil
where an old rail fence had stood. An
institute speaker drove ten miles to see it.
All the neighboring ground would have
grown clover fifty years before that time,
but the continual cropping had exhausted
the humus supply from the soil, so that it
did not retain sufficient moisture for clover
growth.
The trouble to get a stand of clover today results from farming the land to
death. It is exhausted of its humus and
hence unable to retain sufficient moisture
for tbe young clover plants in a dry time.
It is the farmers' own fault and the trouble -will become greater still if he does not
change his methods. "We must put back
into the soil as much plant food as we take
out, or we are sure to come to grief."
It takes good ground to grow clover.
The soil can be made so rich that it cannot help but grow clover. A man took
a worn-out timber farm and by manuring
it, brought it up to a point where it grows
immense crops of eorn, oats and elover.
The farmer will never get his ground to
j.tow clover by selling the crops from the
farm and returning to the land. Even if
the ground now grows clover well, it will
not continue to do so if the products are
removed from the land year after year.
Even the man • who grows corn
oats and clover in rotation. selling the products and returning
nothing to the soil, is sure to come
to a time when he cannot grow clover.
There is not a farm in Illinois so rich in
plant food that it can stand such treatment. This is true of the black prairie
scil as well as the others.
If we have good ground we will havo
moisture, for ground is good in proportion
as it is supplied with humus: and humus
is the element that will retain sufficient
moisture in a dry time to furnish water for
growing plants. The catch of clover
does not depend so much upon the prepara
lion of the seed bed as it does on the quality of the soil, and the sunshine.
The idea] seed bed is not newly plowesl
ground, because it is too loose; it wil!
dry out too readily. It is not a good
wing to plow the clover ground in the
spring, neither is it necessary to work
lf with a disk or cultivator. The best
swd tied and the one that has given the
speaker splendid results the past
fifteen years, is secured by sow-
Wg the clover seed on corn ground,
"Sn oats ns a nurse crop, using a good
■"am drill for both oats and clover, without any
ground.
"arrow,
tunes. There is no breaking of the
w |
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