To grow good crops of crimson clover, it is necessary that there shall
be a considerable amount of plant food in the soil that is readily
available. Farmyard manure when it can be spared or secured will supply
the need. But the results will probably be more satisfactory where the
manure has been applied to the previous crop, as, for instance, to
potatoes or corn, and for the reason, probably, that in the relatively
dry season at which the seed of this plant is sown, the residue of the
manure still in the soil is more readily available than freshly applied
manure would be. Good crops have been grown on land thus manured, when
at the same time seed sown on land under similar conditions and similar
in other respects failed to give satisfactory yields.
In a majority of instances farmyard manure cannot be spared for such a
use. When it cannot, if necessary, commercial fertilizers may be
applied. Those rich in phosphoric acid and potash are usually most
needed, but sometimes nitrogen also is necessary. When nitrogen is used,
it may be best applied on the growing crop and while it is young.
Phosphoric acid and potash may be fitly applied when the land is being
prepared, and in a way that will incorporate them with the surface soil.
These may be used in the form of wood ashes, bone meal, Thomas' slag,
Kainit, sulphate or muriate of potash, South Carolina rock and acid
phosphate. Acid phosphate and muriate of potash stand high in favor with
some growers when applied in the proportions of 9 and 1 parts and at the
rate of, say, 200 pounds more or less per acre.
=Sowing.=--The date for sowing crimson clover would seem to depend more
upon latitude than upon any other influence. North of the Ohio River it
should seldom be sown later than September 1st, lest the growth of the
plants should not be strong enough to endure the winter weather. Nor
should it be sown earlier than July 1st, lest the plants should reach
the blooming stage without having made a sufficient growth, an objection
which applies to sowing earlier than July 1st in any part of the United
States. All things considered, August is the most favorable month for
sowing the seed north of the Ohio and Potomac rivers. In the South,
sowing at a later period is preferable. In the latitude of Tennessee,
September would usually prove more suitable for sowing than an earlier
date, and near the Gulf, October. But it may be sown earlier and later
in these respective latitudes. It is a good time to sow the seed in much
of the South when the autumn rains begin to come, and the same is true
of the Puget Sound country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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