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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.