Clovers and How to Grow Them

by Thomas Shaw

In the Northern States east of Minnesota, the New England States, and the provinces of Canada east of Lake Huron, the considerable covering on the ground is not so important, relatively, to protect the plants against the coming winter, but it is also of considerable importance, as sometimes the early snows melt so completely that the fields are left bare in midwinter. The warm temperatures which melt the snow may be followed by a cold wave, which may be greatly injurious to the plants. There may be instances, as where the snow usually falls very deeply, in which the covering left would prove excessive, and so tend to smother the plants; hence, sometimes it may be necessary to guard against too much covering.

If the plants should lack age or vigor on entering the first winter, a top-dressing of farmyard manure will render great service in protecting them. This, however, is only practicable with comparatively limited areas. It is sometimes practiced in the North Atlantic States, where the manure thus applied will prove greatly helpful to the growth of the alfalfa during the following season. These precautions to guard against the severity of winter weather are not nearly so necessary in the Rocky Mountain States where irrigation is practiced. In these, alfalfa spring sown is sometimes pastured during the following winter, and without any great harm to the crop. Thus greatly do conditions vary.

It may also be well to remember that where rainfall is usually plentiful and sometimes excessive, that a better stand of the young plants can be obtained when the rainfall is moderate than when it is copious. Saturated ground is hurtful to the young plants. They will not grow properly under such conditions and are likely to assume a sickly appearance. Mildew may appear and the plants may fail in patches. And this may happen on land which will ordinarily produce reasonably good crops of alfalfa after they have once been established.

The value of alfalfa in providing pasture is more restricted than in providing hay. This arises in part from the injury which may come to the plants from grazing too closely at certain times, and in a greater degree from injury which may result to certain animals which may feed upon the plants, more especially cattle and sheep, through bloating, to which it frequently gives rise.

This plant is pre-eminently a pasture for swine. They may be grazed upon it with profit all the season, from spring until fall. No plant now grown in the United States will furnish so much grazing from a given area in localities well adapted to its growth. Swine are very fond of it. Some growers do not feed any grain supplement to their swine when grazing on alfalfa, but it is generally believed that, under average conditions, it is wise to supplement the alfalfa pasture daily with a light feed of grain, carbonaceous in character, as of rye, corn or barley, and that this should be gradually increased with the advancement of the grazing season. One acre of alfalfa will provide pasture for 5 to 15 head of swine, through all the grazing season, dependent upon the degree of the favorable character of the conditions for growth in the alfalfa, the age of the swine, and the extent to which the pasture is supplemented with grain. But in some instances the area named will graze at least 15 hogs through all the growing season without a grain supplement.

Swine may be turned in to graze on alfalfa when well set, as soon as it begins to grow freely in the spring. It should be so managed that the grazing will be kept reasonably tender and succulent. For swine pasture the plants should never be allowed to reach the blossoming stage. This can be managed by running the field mower over the pasture occasionally when the stems are growing long and coarse. Close and prolonged grazing by swine will tend to shorten the period of the life of the alfalfa. The extent to which this result will follow will depend upon soil and climatic conditions and the closeness of the grazing. To avoid such a result and also to secure the utilization of the food to the utmost, some growers advocate cutting the alfalfa and feeding it to swine as soiling. The advisability of handling it thus will be dependent to some extent on the relative price of labor.

The best results, relatively, from growing alfalfa to provide pasture will be found in the Western valleys, where alfalfa grows with much vigor, and in certain areas of the South, where it grows freely and can be pastured during much of the year. In areas eminently adapted to the growth of clover, it is not so necessary to grow alfalfa for such a use. In Western areas, where Canada field peas are a success, and especially where artichokes are not hidden from swine by frost, pork can be grown very cheaply, and without the necessity of harvesting any very large portion of these crops, except through grazing them down by swine.

Such conditions would be highly favorable to the maintenance of health in the swine, and the quality of the pork made would be of the best. In some instances a small stack of Canada field peas is put up in the swine pasture that the swine may help themselves from the same the following year, as in rainless or nearly rainless climates, where such grain will keep long without injury.

Alfalfa furnishes excellent grazing for horses, more especially when they are not at work. Like other succulent pastures, it tends too much to induce laxness in the bowels with horses which graze it, without any dry fodder supplement. But it has high adaptation for providing pasture for brood mares, colts, and horses that are idle or working but little. While it induces abundant milk production in brood mares, and induces quick and large growth in colts until matured, it is thought by some practical horsemen that horses grown chiefly on alfalfa have not the staying power and endurance of those, for instance, that are grazed chiefly on Kentucky blue grass and some other grasses. There is probably some truth in the surmise, and if so, the objection raised could be met by dividing the grazing either through alternating the same with other pastures or by growing some other grass or grasses along with the alfalfa.

The alfalfa furnishes excellent grazing for cattle, whether they are grown as stockers, are kept for milk producing, or are being fattened for beef. For the two purposes first named it has high excellence, and it will also produce good beef, but alfalfa grazing alone will not finish animals for the block quite so well without a grain supplement as with one. But the danger is usually present to a greater or less degree that cattle thus grazed may suffer from bloat, induced by eating the green alfalfa. This danger increases with the humidity of the atmosphere, with the succulence of the alfalfa, and with the degree of the moisture resting on it, as from dew or rain. This explains why in some sections the losses from this source are much greater than in others. It also explains why such losses are greater in some areas than in others. It is considered that grazing alfalfa with cattle in the mountain valleys is less hazardous than in areas East and Southeast, as the atmosphere is less humid, the danger from the succulence can be better controlled by the amount of irrigating water supplied, and because of the infrequency of the rainfall. Nevertheless, the losses from bloat are sometimes severe in both cattle and sheep in the mountain States, notwithstanding that some seasons large herds are grazed upon alfalfa through the entire season without any loss.