Clovers and How to Grow Them

by Thomas Shaw

While medium red clover is frequently sown in the South and in some areas of the far West in the months of January and February on the snow, in the North it is usually sown in the early spring. This also is in a great majority of instances the best time for sowing. In many locations it may be sown with safety as soon as the winter snows have gone. On the whole, the earlier that it is sown in the spring the better, that the young plants may have all the benefit possible from the moisture, which is more abundant than later. But there are certain areas, as, for instance, in the northerly limits of the Mississippi basin, in which young clover plants perish by frost after they have germinated. This, however, does not happen very frequently. When the seed is sown on the snow, or while the ground is yet in a honeycombed condition from early frost, it must of necessity be sown early. But where the hazard is present that the young plants will be killed by frost, it will be safer to defer sowing the seed until it can be covered with the harrow when sown.

Whether it will be more advisable to sow the seed on bare ground earlier than the season when growth begins, or to sow later and cover with the harrow, will depend to a considerable degree upon the soil and the condition in which it happens to be. On timber soils newly cleaned the early sowing would be quite safe where the young plants are not liable to be killed after germination, because of the abundance of humus in them. On the same soils, early sowing would probably be preferable, even when much reduced in humus, providing they were in a honeycombed condition at the time of sowing. This condition is far more characteristic of clay and clay loam soils, than of those sandy in texture. To sow the seed on clay soils that are worn would be to throw it away, unless in a most favorable season for growth. The same would prove true of the sandy soils low in humus, since these do not honeycomb at any season. Seed sown on honeycombed ground falls into openings made in the soil, and is covered by the action of the frost and the sun on the same. The rule should be to defer sowing the seed where the ground does not honeycomb until it can be covered with the harrow.

In some instances the seed is sown successfully just after a light fall of snow in the spring. The seed is carried down into little crevices or fissures in the soil when these are present, but the seed should not be thus sown. Usually it is not quite safe to sow clover seed where the winter snow still lingers to any considerable depth, lest much of it should be carried down to the lower lands by the sudden melting of the snows. The chief advantage of sowing before the ground can be harrowed arises from the benefit which the young plants derive from the plentiful supply of moisture in the soil at that season. They are more firmly rooted than plants sown later, and, therefore, can better withstand the dry weather that frequently characterizes the later months of the summer. There is also the further advantage that the labor of harrowing at a season that is usually a busy one is dispensed with.

Various modes of sowing clover seed have been adopted. Sometimes it is sown by hand. In other instances a sower is used which is strapped to the shoulder and turned with a crank. Sometimes the seed is sown by a distributor, which is wheeled over the ground on a frame resembling that of a wheelbarrow. Again, it is sown with a seeder attachment to the ordinary grain drill or to the broadcast seeder, and yet again with the grain in the ordinary drill tubes, or scattered with the same by the broadcast seeder; which of these methods should be adopted will depend on such conditions as relate to season, climate and soil.

The seed may be sown by hand at almost any time desired, whether it is covered or not. The advantages of hand sowing are that it may be done under some conditions when no other method will answer as well, as, for instance, when it is sown upon snow or upon the ground honeycombed. The disadvantages are that it takes more time than some of the other methods, especially when the sower only scatters the seed with one hand, that it cannot be thus sown when the wind blows stiffly or fitfully, and most of all, only a limited number of persons who sow seed are thus able to sow it with complete regularity. A still time should, if possible, be chosen for hand sowing; such a time is usually found in the early morning. When one hand is used, the seed may be sown from a light dish or pail or sowing-bag, but when both hands are used a sowing-box or a sowing-sack suspended in front of the breast is necessary. Clover seed may be sown when a considerable breeze is blowing by having a due regard to the wind. When facing it, the cast of seed should be low; when going before the wind it should be high. But when the wind is blowing at right angles, much care must be observed by the sower as to where he walks, in relation to the cast that is being sown.

When the seed is sown on grain that has been drilled, the rows of grain will suffice to serve as a guide to the sower, and when the grain is not up, the drill marks may be made to serve the same end.

The advantages of the hand seeder held in place by straps are that the sowing may be done by an individual who cannot sow by hand, that the seed may be easily distributed and that it may be used with advantage in sowing seed among brush. The disadvantages are that it cannot be used when much wind is stirring, and when using it stakes are sometimes necessary for the guidance of the sower.

The advantages from using the seeder wheeled over the ground are that the work may be done by any one able to wheel the seeder, that the seed is distributed evenly, that it may be sown when a fairly stiff wind is blowing, and that stakes are not necessary for the guidance of the sower, as the distance of the cast may be gauged at least fairly well by the wheel marks made. One disadvantage is that it cannot be used with much satisfaction on certain soils when the ground is cloddy or frozen, or when it is wet. There is also the disadvantage to all three methods of sowing by hand, that it is frequently necessary to provide a covering for the seed by subsequently using the harrow.

The advantages from sowing with the seeder attachment to the grain drill are that the seed may be made to fall before or behind the tubes as may be desired, or it may be sown with the seed along with the grain, and that when sown by any of these methods there is much saving of time as compared with sowing by hand. In some sections of the prairie the seed is sown with the grain drill by driving the same across the newly sown grain rows. If necessary to insure sufficiently thin sowing, the seed should be first mixed with some substance such as common salt.

In the moist areas of the upper Atlantic coast, Ontario and the Puget Sound region, the seed is frequently made to fall behind the grain tubes on clay and clay loam soils, and is covered by running the roller over the ground subsequently; but in States more inland the seed is usually made to fall before the drill tubes, when, in some instances, the sowing of the grain will provide a sufficient covering; but in others the harrow is used in addition, and sometimes both the harrow and the roller. When clover seed is sown along with grain and by the same tubes, it will in some soils be buried too deeply, but in others the objection does not hold good. The young plants are also injured more by shade from the grain, since they grow only in the line of the row along with the grain, and yet this method of sowing clover seed in some localities seems to answer reasonably well.