The seed may be sown by hand, by the aid of hand machines, by some makes
of grain drills in the same way as grain is sown, and by others with a
grass-seeder attachment. When sown by the latter, the seed should
usually be allowed to fall before the grain tubes to aid in securing a
covering for it; the covering thus provided should be supplemented by
additional harrowing and in some instances rolling. When sown by hand or
by hand machines on soils East and South, the roller should in many
instances follow and then the harrow, but on cloddy surfaces the harrow
should be used first and then the roller. No method of sowing the seed
is more satisfactory than that which sows it by grain drills, which can
deposit it in the soil as grain is sown, as it is then buried at an even
depth. Sowing to a medium depth, say, 1/2 to 1-1/2 inches, is preferable
to either extreme.
Whether it is advisable to sow a nurse crop will depend upon conditions.
When the seed is sown early, in hot weather the young plants are helped
by more or less of shade. Such shade is usually provided by the other
factor or factors of the mixture. But when shade only is wanted from the
nurse crop, a thin seeding of buckwheat has been found to answer. Melons
and tomatoes have in some instances furnished shade satisfactorily, and
in others upright growing varieties of cow peas or soy beans. The less
complete the preparation of the seed-bed, the greater also is the
necessity for shade. In orchards the shade of the trees is usually
ample, and in some instances excessive. The same is true of vigorous
corn and cotton crops.
Whether this clover should be sown alone or in mixtures will also depend
upon conditions. If the crop is wanted solely for the enrichment of the
land, it will usually be better to sow it alone, as crops other than
legumes do not bring as much fertility to the land. As a rule,
therefore, it should be sown alone in orchards. It should also, usually,
be sown alone for soiling crops and for hay, but in some instances for
both uses it may be sown with such crops as winter oats or winter
vetches. On some soils, however, these will too much crowd the clover
plants. On others the reverse will be true. For seed the crop should, of
course, always be sown alone.
For pasture, crimson clover is sometimes sown with rape, winter rye,
winter oats, the common vetch or the sand vetch. When sown with rape,
the date of the sowing should be early. With the other crops named the
most suitable date for sowing the clover will usually prove the most
suitable also for sowing these.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account