Clover culture

Preface

The scientific facts pertaining- to agriculture, so far as they have been discovered, are scattered through many books and other publications, comparativeh' few of them being accessible to the ordinary farmer ; the practical experience in the application of these facts, so far as knovs^n, is in the possession of the thousands of widely scattered farmers and larg"ely beyond the reach of the public.

It has occurred to us that we might do some service to the farmers of the United States, and especially of the West, by collating as man}' as possible of the facts that are accurately and certainly known, and the experience of farmers over as wide a district as possible, on the one subject of "Clover Culture," and presenting- them to the public in compact form, in language within the comprehension of ever}' farmer and at an expense within the means of every man who grows an acre of clover. We began the investigation of the subject some years ago with the sole purpose of solving the difficulties encountered in obtaining satisfactory stands of clover (m several hundred acres of land in western Iowa. Discussion of various phases of the subject throug-h the Homks'I'kad has brought us hundreds of letters from farmers in many states who were meeting the same or similar difficulties, and the following pag-es are the condensed results of our study of the subject, of the experience of our correspondents, of our own experience and our observation both at home and abroad.

As such wc submit it to the thf)Ug'htful reader.

The book is not written for the instruction of the scientist, nor is it intended as an exhaustive discussion of the subject, but to place in the hands of the practical farmer such information, both scientific and practical, as he needs on the subject under c<msideration. We have therefore, wherever possible, translated scientific terms into every-day Eng^lish and have aimed to put the fodder in the rack where even the lambs can reach it. Such has been the aim; how far we have succeeded the reader must be the judg-e.

HENRY WALLACE.

THE CLOVERS AND OTHER GRASSES.

Chapter I

In the very outset of our investigation of the subject of the clovers, it is important to notice the distinction between these and the other grasses. While in popular usage we apply the term grasses to all kinds of herbage that is summer food for the lower animals, botanically speaking clover is not a grass. The term grass < pertains to plants with simple leaves, stems generally jointed and tubular, husks or chaff, technichally called glumes^ in pairs and seeds single. A slight observation will show that the clovers do not belong to this class. The true grasses include all our commonly called grasses, the clovers excepted, and besides nearly all our grains, such as wheat, oats, barley and corn and also the sorghums. Clover belongs to the LeguniiitoscB, or Pulse familiy, and to the same family belong peas, beans, and vetches, sanfoin, lupines and many others among what are popularly termed grasses. It includes a large number of weeds such as wild indigo, wild peas, shoestring, etc., also a. large number of shrubs such as the Wisteria, Carragana, Robinia, etc., and forest trees of which the locusts are the best known in the temperate zone and logwood and mahogany in the torrid zone. There are 6500 known species of LeguminoscB^ it being surpassed by but one family, that of the CompositcB^ to which belong the goldenrods, asters and sunflowers, and in the wealth of its products for the supply of human wants the family of the LeguminoscB surpasses all others.

The Clovers as a rule differ from the other grasses in theii habit of root growth. Most true grasses throw out their roots horizontally, and while these often reach to great depths, much further than those who have not particularly investigated the matter believe, they penetrate to these depths only after having exhausted the fertility of the surface, and then in seoarate rootlets, while the cultivated clovers go down with along, straight tap-root, some of them, as the alfalfa, reaching, under favorable circumstances, to a depth of eight or ten feet, and sometimes from fifteen to twenty, while three to four feet is by no means an uncommon depth to be reached by the ordinary red clover. The most striking difference between the clovers and the other grasses is in their power to increase the fertility of the soil, and in a way which has, until recent years, been unaccountable on any known scientific principles. This power is now believed to be shared by the entire family of plants called Legiiminosce^ of which the best known cultivated varieties in America are j)eas, beans and the clovers.

This mysterious power of enriching the soil, while at the same time taking from it large crops of the highest feeding value, has been well known to practical farmers ever since agriculture had a history, and no doubt for a long time before. We find Virgil, for example, more tfian a century before the Christian esa, singing in the first Georgic:

'*A.t least, where vetches, pulse and tares have stood, And stalks of lupines grew (a stubborn wood)

The ensuing season in return may bear The bearded product of the golden year.

For flax and oats will burn the tender field And sleeping poppies harmful harvest yield."

— Georgic I st^ Drydeji' s Trans.

The fact that good grain crops may be expected after a crop of Legumes was as well understood in those far-off days as it is now, and it is only in very recent years that scientists have been able to offer any adequate explanation. Flax seems to have had as bad a reputation as a soil robber as it has now, and we suspect our modern wise men know as little of the real reason as did the ancients. We find Virgil giving directions as to sowing the legumes in the following: "Sow beans and clover on the rotten soil,

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Vile vetches would you sow and lentils lean, The growth of Egypt, or the kidney bean,

Begin when the slow Waggoner descends, Nor cease your sowing till midsummer ends."

—Ibid.

The old poet had some notions about clover as food for dairy cows, for he sings:

"If milk be thy design Bring clover grass. ' '

—Ibid.

It is a matter of history well known to all students, that the revival of English agriculture, which has made such wonderful development mail lines in the last century, wassynclj^ronous with the introduction of clover and turnips, the clover enriching the soil in the material needed for the production of turnips, and the turnips furnishing the winter feed that has enabled Englishmen to bring to perfection their famous breeds of live stock. Nor need we go to a remote age, nor to foreign 1-ands to notice this wonderful distinction between the clovers and the other grasses.

While it is generally conceded among intelligent farmers that exclusive grain-growing impoverishes the soil, and that grassculture must be resorted to in order to restore wastes of the soil robber, it is not generally known, as it should be, that this restoration comes almost exclusively through the medium of the clovers. Hence, we find that wherever farming is conducted on scientific principles, clover culture assumes a position of prime importance. At first, farmers are disposed to believe that grasses of any kind add to the fertility of the soil. In a measure this is true, but mainly true because they are grown in connection with some of the varieties of clover. The discovery that the recuperative power of the grasses lies almost wholly in the clovers comes to some farmers as a very great surprise, and often in connection with blasted hopes. How often have farmers who have sown their lands to timothy exclusively, and after mowing two or three years and then plowing them up and planting them to corn, been grievously disappointed in the results? It is a matter of common observation and remark that while timothy alone is a doubtful and uncertain crop, when sown with clover it yields abundantly and nearly as much timothy is grown with the clover as without and a fine crop of clover besides. The next year it will be noticed that while the clover is said to be "frozen out," but really dying out by the natural limitation of its life, the timothy grows most luxuriantly, and the faith of the farmers in this crop revives. The common explanation that clover keeps the land moist or that it keeps it loose, is wide of the mark. The true explanation is that clover feeds the timo thy with nitrogen by means of its decaying roots. Farm-

(. CLOVER CULTURE.

ers have also noticed how difficult it is to maintain a bluegrass sod for a series of years, unless it isaccompanied by white clover. Blue grass maintains its selfish monopolizing policy for a year or two, but is compelled to yield sooner or later to the white clover and the two ever after grow together, for the simple reason that the blue grass, being a greedy nitrogen feeder, and always nitrogen hungry after the natural resourcesof the soil have been exhausted, is compelled to depend upon the nitrogen furnished by the white clover. If blue grass were used as a meadow grass, and the entire crop taken from the soil, it would be clearly seen to be as exhaustive of fertility as is timothy or grain crops. Every farmer understands that all kinds of grain or grass crops grow more luxuriantly when planted or sown with clover or on clover sod. This fact points out the clear and wide distinction between the clovers and the other grasses. All other grasses outside of the Leguminosae^ the principally cultivated classes of which in America are the clovers, are great nitrogen feeders and always nitrogen hungry and, having no means of obtaining nitrogen except from the soil itself, are dependent either upon farm yard or artificial manure or the clovers for their supply, when once the virgin fertility of the soil in nitrogen is exahusted.

The most vital distinction, then, between the clovers and the other grasses is this: that the clovers, together with other v^xi^XA^soiLegianinosae^ are able to obtain a supply of nitrogen, the most costly element of fertility, from a source quite independent of the stored fertility of the soil or of applied manure. It is important for the farmer to keep this distinction in mind in order that he may understand not only the reason why the cultivation of the clovers has always accompanied the introduction of improved farming, but also the bearing which their cultivation will have upon the development of the resources of the West, and in fact of the entire Nation.

The sources from which clover obtains nitrogen, the relation which nitrogen sustains to the other two great elements of fertility in the soil, potash and phosphoric acid, and the place which the clovers and other species of Leguminosae occupy of necessity in any cheap and practical feeding ration and their relation to the improvement of live stock as well as to the production of grains which will be demanded by the rapidly increasing population in America, will be discussed in the concluding chapters of this work. It is enough now to point out the facts which are clearly recognized by agricultural students and which have in the last few years been clearly demonstrated and for the first time really understood. Our object at present is to call the attention of our readers to the wide distinction betwixt the clovers and the other grasses, and to point out the fact that the cultivation of some variety of the Leguminosae is essential to any great improvement, either in grain production, the production of livestock or the conservation of the fertility of the soil.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE CLOVERS.

CHAPTER ir.

If the statement in the last paragraph of the previous chapter be true that "the cultivation of some variety of the LeguvtinoscB is essential to any great improvement, either in grain production, the production of livestock or the conservation of the fertility of the soil," then the distribution of the legumes, and especially of the clovers, becomes a question alike of great scientific and practical importance. A crop that can not only supply itself with nitrogen, to a great extent independently of the nitrogen of the soil, but, by the decay of its roots and haulm supply other crops with nitrogen, is the very keystone of the arch of successful agriculture whereever its cultivation is possible.

The importance of the subject is greatly enhanced when we take into consideration the relation it sustains to the fertility of the soil, to growing crops and to the structure of all animals. Nitrogen, while the most costly and an absolutely essential element in soil fertility, in plant growth and in animal life, is one of the most abundant elements in all nature. It constitutes about four-fifths of the atmosphere, where it seems to be used merely to dilute the oxygen. It enters into no chemical combinations with it, but co-exists simply as a mixture, like sand in sugar. The process by which the free nitrogen of the atmosphere is transformed into the nitrogenous compounds of the soil has long been a puzzle to scientists, a puzzle all the more complicated and difl5cult of solution because it has been held until quite recently by all scientists and investigators that plants can not appropriate free nitrogen from the atmosphere. It is a striking fact, however, that all the sources from which either the nitrogen of

■commerce or that which enters into grain, grasses or the animal forms is drawn are either the sedimentary rocks, the remains of animal or plant life, the soil in which plant life Nourishes, or, finally the atmosphere itself. The sedimentary rocks abound in animal and vegetable remains, and the atmosphere before rains, and especially after protracted drouths, contains available nitrogen in the form of ammonia which the rains bring down. It is evident that this latter form is a mere exhalation from decaying plant or animal life on earth, a supposition rendered still more evident by the fact that the amount of ammonia brought down by the rains is greater near large cities where decey is greater than it is in agricultural districts. Two methods alone have been suggested with any show of proof, by which the nitrogen of the atmosphere may be transformed into the nitrogenous compounds that make up the fertility of the soil — the one the combination called nitric acid, and believed to be a result of powerful electrical action in the air during thunderstorms, and the other the action of the legumes through the microbes in the tubercles on their roots. The last has been demonstrated to be a fact, but the exact way in which it is done seems to be as mysterious as ever. May it not be (and we put the question merely as a suggestion, never having heard it advanced by any scientific authority) that the supply of nitrogen for the support of the life of the plant or animal is mainly, if not wholly, obtained from the legumes which alone of all plant life have been clearly demonstrated to have the power to procure it, in a way not yet explained, from the free nitrogen of the atmosphere?

Speaking, more particularly of the place of nitrogen in the animal economy, it, or rather the albuminoids, (the form in which the nitrogen is appropriated by the animal), forms the lean meat of all animals, much of the blood, the white and yolk of the egs, and is in fact the flesh-former and strength-giver of the animal economy. Potash, lime and the phospates enter into the bony structure, and to some extent into the flesh. Carbon is the main element of the fat, but without the albuminoids there can be no muscular formation, and hence no animal life. It is perfectly clear that the animal can receive nothing into its organization except through the food it consumes, and hence the flesh-forming element must be in the plant, the grass, the grain, or new milk fed to the young, and in the proportion adapted to the age of the animal — about one of nitrogen to four of carbo-hydrates in its >outh, and in decreasing proportion after the muscular system has been built up. It will be seen, therefore, that the great problem of feeding lies in supplying nitrogen or albuminoids in this proportion, and consequently in supplying foods which in their combination have this proportion. On account of its relative scarcity to the elements that make up bone, or that keep up heat, it is always the most costly, and hence any plant or any class of plants that can draw supplies from the atmosphere instead of the soil becomes invaluable in the economy of the farm and the economy of nature. It is this fact that makes the distribution of the Leguminosce^ and especially of the clovers, a matter of such great importance in agriculture.

The LegiiminoscB as we have seen constitutes a very large class of plants in all parts of the world, and in all conditions of soil and climate. It embraces some of the largest trees of the forest, especially in tropical countries, and, in the temperate zone, one of the most distinctive varieties is that of the locust, and the fact that the Leguminosae are able to procure nitrogen from the atmosphere explains what has doubtless been a puzzle to many readers, why grain crops can be grown close to a locust tree while they refuse to grow for rods around an oak, sugar tree or a walnut. They are found in all wild pastures, both in the shape of weeds and grasses. The wild indigo, the vetch and shoestring may be cited as prairie illustrations. If, as we have suggested, it is mainly through the LeguminoscB that the nitrogen of the air can be appropriated for the use of vegetable life, it will be clearly seen that the absence of the legumes would make plant lite impossible. Whether this be true or whether science may yet reveal other hidden secrets of nature, showing that she is not limited to this class of plants, it is but reasonable to expect that they should have a wide distribution in every soil that is at all capable of supporting plant life. Without speaking ofother leguminous plants, such as peas, beans, vetches and lupines that have been highly prized by agriculturists in all parts of the world, and in all ages, it is worth while to nptice that there are in America more than forty native varieties of the clovers, in addition to those introduced since the settlement of the country, and that among these are species apparently adapted to all climates and to all varieties of soir,^and all of them noted for being nitrogen feeders ofother plants and restorers of the wastes created, in the first years of cultivation in every country, by the soil robber. The clovers in some of their varietres seem to be adapted to almost every soil where the plow can provide the means of human existence. Were nature as thoughtless as man, some portions ot the earth would become a desert waste. She is ever aiming to build up and restore, and much of the skill and success in agriculture depends upon noting carefully her processes and working with her instead of at cross purposes.

As an example of this we might note the fact that the, Japanese clover, {lespedeza striata) sown by no human hand, spreads over the abandoned fields of the South and restores the wastes of the cotton planter, the robber of the Southern soils. The Bur clover, {medtcago deiiticulata) and half a dozen varieties of trifolia ,sown by the hand of Nature herself, gives richness to the pastures of California with its rainless summers; the alfalfa, {medicago sativd) makes the desert bloom like the garden of the Lord wherever the hand of man furnishes the lifegiving water; the white clover, {trifoliutn repens) follows hard after the soil robber of the prairies and kindly binds up the broken-hearted land; the alsike camps in the sloughs and swales and along the bottoms, providing pasture for the bees while reclaiming the marshes; the white sweet clover, {melilotus alba\ and the Bokhara^ a closely related variety, take possession of the highways; the crimson clover, {trifolium incarnatum\ flourishes all along the line between the cotton lands of the South and the distinctively corn landsof the North, while the medium red and the mammoth {trifolimn pratense) pre-empt the carboniferous and calcareous soils wherever there is twenty inches of rainfall, mainly in the growing season. None of these ever take a foot-hold in the soil without enriching it and none ever fellowship with other grasses without increasing their luxuriance.

As this work is intended to be practical rather than scientific, for the guide of the farmer and not the instruction of the scientist, dealing in scientific facts and conclusions only in so far as it is necessary for the farmer to understand them in order to deal intelligently with clovers, we discuss the distribution of the clovers only in so far as it interests the American farmer. The mammoth and common red have a very wide distribution, and we group these together because they are not different species, as many suppose, but merely an early and late variety of the same species. This distinction is important, and because of the failure to note it carefully, many farmers have been led into serious error in their methods of handling mammoth, otherwise known as * 'pea-vine" or "sapling" clover. They regard the red as a species that produces two crops in a year, and seed only in the second crop, and the mammoth as a variety that produces seed in the first crop but furnishes none in the second.' This is a mistake. The common red does produce seed the first crop wherever it has an opportunity of insect fertilization. We have cut on our own farms as much as three bushels of seed per acre from the first crop and from a thin stand, but ordinarily it is only the late blooms that become fertilized. This is owing to the scarcity of bumble bees, and to the fact that during the season of first blossoming there is an abundance of preferred bloom which prevents the Italian bees from visiting the clover.

Farmers have abundant proof of this fact when they cut timothy for seed, in which they find more or less clover seed when the common red is grown with timothy. The mammoth would yield a second crop if the season were long enough. If a mixed crop of mammoth and medium red is cut by the 15th of June, or even the 20th, and the season is favorable, many plants of the mammoth will ripen seed, and if they are both cut by the loth of June, a crop of seed may be expected from both. As proof of this we cite the fact that we have mown a meadow of mixed varieties for ten years and the mammoth in this meadow holds its own, which it could not do were it not annually ripening seeds. ' It has never, except on one occasion, been mowed prior to the 4tb of July. The mammoth is simply a late-maturing variety of trifolium pratense^ the botanical name for both, its season of growth being from two to three weeks longer for the crop than that of the medium red. This distinction will be more fully pointed out when we come to discuss the best methods of the management of each. These two varieties ot the trifolium pratense have a very wide distribution, being co-extensive with the limestone and calcareous soils over the entire continent,,. limited on these only by the amount of rainfall. They grow luxuriantly on all the limestone soils of the Eastern and Middle states and refuse to grow with a profitable luxuriance wherever the rocks are deficient in the mineral elements peculiar to these soils. They reach far south on the Appalachian range, and their limitation by soil formation is most striking in Tennessee; They grow luxuriantly in Middle and East Tennessee, but whenever we pass west of the carboniferous formations into West Tennessee, they there disappear or fail to grow in desirable luxuriance.' They may be found in North Alabama and Georgia, and even far south.

•wherever the peculiar geolog-ical formation of the Appalachian range appears, and they disappear with this formation.

The peculiar composition of the drift soil that covers the prairies of most of the Western states gives these varieties a very wide distribution. It is well known that most of these soils are not made in situ; in other words, they are not the result of decomposition of the rocks that underlie these states, although in many places modified by them. This drift is the result of the decomposition of rocks far distant and is mingled so thoroughly that scarcely any section may be found in the Western states in which there is not abundance of car- "boniferous or calcareous matter to develop a luxuriant growth of clover. The calcareous soils of the Missouri Valley, the deposit of the calcareous formations of the Upper Missouri, furnish material for the growth of clover in the greatest abundance.

We have for several years past been endeavoring to locate in crude outline the western limit of the medium and mammoth clovers. Without coming to any very definite conclusions and leaving the matter as yet undetermined, it is safe to say that in ordinary seasons these varieties may be grown successfully on fair soils as far west as the longitude 96° 40 m. west from Greenwich, and in favorable seasons there is practically no western limit; in other words, the limit is determined not by the structure of the soil, which on good lands is favorable for clover everywhere, but by the rainfall. Magnificent examples of common red and mammoth, white and alsike have been sent us this year from the extreme western boundary of Nebraska, longitude io2°3om., showing conclusively that the soil conditions are of the best on the edge of what is known as the desert, and all that is lacking is the rainfall. The northern limit of the growth of these clovers has not yet been determined. It is safe, however, to say that the reports of the destruction of these crops by freezing during the severe winters in many cases are the result of not understanding the nature of the plant, which is that of a biennial or short perennial and when used as a hay crop would naturally disappear at the second year whether the winters were favorable or unfavorable. *

The white, trifoliiim repens, has even a wider distribution than the mammoth and common red, {trifolium pratense),

* Note. — It is more than probable that under the name of common red clover we have several varieties of tri/olium, some of which are biennials and some short Derennials.

being able to grow on soils on which the larger varieties do not succeed and to grow on all soils in which they do.

Thealsike, {trifolium hybridiim) ^\s, distributed less widely, mainly because to grow a profitable crop it requires a much larger amount of moisture and it is especially valuable for wet lands where none of the other varieties succeed so well. It takes its technical name from the mistaken belief of the earlier botanists that it is a hybrid, or cross between the red and the white. This has long since been ascertained to be an error. The technical name is further objectionable because the term "hybrid" is properly applied only to the results of those violent crosses such as that of the ass and the horse, of which Nature forbids the reproduction. Alsike is preferred to the mammoth or common red, not only on wet sloughs, but on soils where it is believed that these varieties winterkill. We are inclined to the belief that its preference in northern latitudes is due not so much to any peculiar ability to stand extreme cold, but to the fact that unlike the two former, it is perennial, and hence does not ordinarily perish at the end of the second year. The illustrations that will be furnished when we come to discuss the best methods of the cultivation of each will enable the reader to clearly distinguish these different varieties.

Alfalfa is the clover peculiarly adapted to the .semi-arid regions and to the arid regions where irrigation is possible It is entirely true that it can be cultivated on any good corn lands, that are not underlaid with rock, hard pan or heavy clay, provided it is protected during the first winter in northern latitudes, but when thus grown is much inferior to' the mammoth or common red in latitudes where these can be grown profitably, and hence its cultivation under these circumstances is not advisable. It is, however, to be preferred to any other in the regions of deficient rainfall, or where the rainfall, however abundant, in any given year, cannot be depended upon for a succession of years. It has been grown very successfully over Central and Western' Kansas, every county in the state but three reporting more or less alfalfa, and these counties lying in the eastern part of the state where red clover is so pronounced a success that farmers do not need to look further. The extreme length of its root enables it to go down in the years of sufficient rainfall to depths where it is in a measure independent of surface moisture, and the normal dryness of the climate furnishes the condition for curing it into excellent hay, a difficulty that is almost, insuperable in sections of the country which enjoy an abundant rainfall in the months of June and July. It is therefore in the semi-arid regions 4he best of all substitutes for other clovers.