Crimson Clover.--Wherever crimson clover is sufficiently hardy to withstand the winter, as in Delaware and New Jersey, it is a valuable aid in maintaining and increasing soil fertility. It is a winter annual, like winter wheat, and should be seeded in the latter half of summer, according to latitude. It comes into bloom in late spring. The plant has a tap-root of good length, but in total weight of roots is much inferior to the red. This clover, however, compares favorably with red clover in the total amount of nitrogen added to the soil by the entire plant when grown under favorable conditions. It is peculiarly fitted for a cover crop in orchards and wherever spring crops are removed as early as August, or a seeding can be made in them, as is the case with corn. Even when winter kills the plants, a successful fall growth is highly profitable, adding more nitrogen before winter than red clover seeded at the same time. Where the plants do not winter-kill, they are plowed down for green manure when in bloom in May, or earlier in the spring to save soil moisture and permit early planting, although a good hay for livestock can be made, and the yield is about the same as that of the first crop of red clover. In the northern states a large amount of money has been wasted in experimental seedings with crimson clover, and it is only in exceptional cases that it continues to be grown. There is reason to believe that many of these failures were due to lack of soil inoculation. The Pennsylvania experiment station is located in a mountain valley where winters are severe. Crimson clover is under test with other cover crops for an experimental orchard, and success with it has increased as the soil has become fully inoculated. This view is supported by the experience of various growers in the North, and while crimson clover can never make the success in a cold climate that it does in Delaware, there is a much wider field of usefulness for it than is now occupied. Experiments should be made with it under favorable conditions respecting moisture and soil tilth. Fifteen pounds of seed should be used, and the seed should be well covered, as is the case with all seeds sown in mid-summer. CHAPTER VI ALFALFA