The First Book of FarmingGoodrich, C. L. (Charles Landon)
Science
The First Book of Farming
Goodrich, C. L. (Charles Landon)
Agriculture
_Mammoth Red Clover_, also called sapling clover and pea-vine clover,
closely resembles the red clover, but is ranker in growth and matures
two or three weeks later. It is better adapted to wet land than the
red clover.
_Crimson Clover_, also called German clover and Italian clover, is a
valuable green manure crop in the central and southern States east of
the Mississippi. It is a hardy annual in that section and is generally
sown from the last of July to the middle of October, either by itself
or with cultivated crops at their last working. Fifteen and twenty
pounds of seed are used to the acre. It makes a good growth during the
fall and early winter and is in blossom and ready to cut or plow under
in April or May. It grows at a season when the cowpea will not live.
Crimson clover will grow on soils too light for other clovers.
The _Soy Bean_, also called soja bean and Japanese pea, is another
leguminous crop used for green manuring (Fig. 81). It was introduced
into this country from Japan and in some localities is quite
extensively planted. It grows more upright than the cowpea and
produces a large amount of stem and foliage which may be used for
fodder or turned under for green manure The seeds are used for food
for man and beast. The soy bean is planted and cared for in the same
manner as the cowpea.
The _Canadian Field Pea_ is sometimes grown in the north as a green
manure crop.
_White Sweet Clover_, white melitot or Bokhara clover, grows as a weed
from New England to the Gulf of Mexico. In the Gulf States it is
regarded as a valuable forage and green manure plant. One or two pecks
of seed per acre are sown in January or February.
_Alfalfa_, or lucern, though grown more for a forage crop than for
green manuring, should be mentioned here, for wherever grown and for
whatever purpose, its effects on the soil are beneficial (Fig. 82).
This plant requires a well prepared soil that is free from weeds.
Twenty to twenty-five pounds of seed are planted per acre. In the
north the seeding is generally done in the spring after danger of
frost is past, as frost kills the young plants. In the South fall
seeding is the custom in order to give the young plants a long start
ahead of the spring weeds. One seeding if well cared for lasts for
many years. Alfalfa is pastured or cut for hay, four to eight tons
being the yield. Many fields run out in five or six years and the sod
is plowed under. This plant sends its roots thirteen, sixteen, and
even thirty feet into the soil after water and food, and when these
roots decay they furnish the lower soil with organic matter and their
passages serve as drains and ventilators in the soil. Alfalfa is grown
extensively in the semi-arid regions of the country.
NON-LEGUMINOUS GREEN MANURE PLANTS
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