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and plump. Moreover, showery or muggy weather will soon greatly injure the crop. One or two days of such weather after the crop has been cut will stain the seed; two or three days of the same will cause much of the seed to sprout, and three or four days will practically ruin the crop.

Because of the ease with which the seed sheds off the heads, it is better to cut the seed crop while it is a little damp, or at least to refrain from cutting during the greatest heat of the day. In some instances it is cut with the mower and raked early or late in the day, put up in small cocks and threshed from these in four or five days after being cut. But this method of harvesting, however carefully done, is attended with much loss of seed. It is better to harvest with the self-rake reaper, the rakes being so adjusted that the hay will be dropped off in small gavels or sheaves, so small that in two or three days they may be lifted without being turned over. Much care should be exercised in lifting the sheaves to avoid shedding in the seed, and it should be drawn on wagons with tight racks.

While it is not absolutely necessary to thresh the seed crop at once, the work can usually be done at that time with less outlay and with less loss of seed. It is threshed with a huller or with a grain separator with suitable attachments. Some attention must be given to the arrangement of the teeth used in the machine, lest many of the seeds, which are large, should be split; and as it is not easy to separate the seeds from the haulms, specially made riddles and sieves must needs be used.

The seed crop is usually harvested in June north of the Ohio and Potomac rivers, and southward from these in the month of May. The yield of seed runs all the way from 10 bushels per acre downwards. The average crop is 4 to 5 bushels.

Renewing. Since crimson clover is an annual, but little can be done in the sense of renewing it on the same land without breaking the ground. But in orchards, it is sometimes grown from year to year by what may be termed a process of self-seeding. When the seed is not quite ripe in the heads, or even somewhat earlier, the orchard is plowed so as to leave some of the heads standing up along the line of the furrow. When these have matured, the land is harrowed, which scatters the seeds in the chaff, and from these another crop is produced. But to this plan there is the objection that it allows the clover to draw too heavily on the moisture in the soil before it is plowed under.

Facts Regarding Crimson Clover.—1. When crimson clover is sown so early in the season that it has at least three to four months in which to grow before winter sets in, the benefits to the land from sowing the seed will usually more than pay for the seed and labor, even though it should not survive the winter.

2. Prominent among the causes of failure where crimson clover does not succeed are: (a) The seed fails to germinate because of the want of moisture, or having germinated the young plants are killed by heat or drought; (b) they perish in the winter from exposure to cold winds or frosts, or by alter

nate freezing and thawing in the soil; or (c) the land is too low in fertility to produce a sufficiently vigorous growth in the plants.

3. The mechanical effects upon the soil from growing crimson clover on it are very marked, especially when it inclines to stiffness, owing to the strong development of the root growth.

4. When crimson clover has been sown in the spring, a reasonably good growth is usually obtained before midsummer, even as far north as the Canadian boundary line, but since hot weather checks further growth and frequently causes wilting in the plants, this variety is not equal to some of the other varieties of clover for being sown at that season.

5. In the Southern States, crimson clover has been found to render considerable service by aiding in preventing land from washing in the winter

season.

6. When plowed under in orchards, the work should be done at an early rather than a late stage in the growth of the plants, lest it should rob the trees of their rightful share of the moisture. Because of this, in some instances, if not in all, the plants should be buried before the season of full bloom and sometimes before the blooms begin to open.

7. The seed is more certain to germinate while yet enclosed in the chaff scales, and because of this, where home-grown seed is used, it may be worth while to secure it in this form by flailing out the seed or treading it out with horses.

CHAPTER VIII

WHITE CLOVER

White Clover (Trifolium repens) is also called Dutch, White Dutch, White Trefoil, Creeping Trifolium and Honeysuckle clover. The name Dutch clover has doubtless been applied to it because of the extent to which it is in evidence in the pastures and meadows of Holland; the name Creeping Trifolium, because of the creeping character of the stems, which, under favorable conditions, send roots down into the soil; and Honeysuckle clover, because of the honey supplies which it furnishes for bees. It is one of the plants known as Shamrock, the national emblem of Ireland.

White clover is perennial, the stems of which creep along the ground and, as above intimated, root at the joints; so that from this source plants are indefinitely multiplied. They also come from the seed. The leaves are small and very numerous, and with the exception of the flower stems and flowers, furnish all the forage obtained. The flowers are very numerous, especially when showery weather precedes and accompanies the flowering season. They are large for the size of the plant, are supported by a leafless stem of considerable length, and are white or tinted with a delicate rose color. The

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