Preparing The Soil
Category:
ALFALFA
In preparing the seed-bed for crimson clover, the
aim should be to secure fineness of pulverization near the surface and
moistness in the same. The former is greatly important, because of the
aid which it renders in securing the latter at a season when moisture is
often lacking in the soil. As it is rather grown on soils deficient in
humus than on those plentifully supplied with the same, fineness in the
seed-bed is not so important as it is with some classes of prairie
soils.
In starting the seed, drought is the chief hindrance to be overcome in
the North, owing to the season at which the seed must be sown; hence,
the aim should be to begin preparing the seed-bed as long as possible
before the sowing of the seed. The preparation called for will be
influenced by the kind of soil, the crop last grown upon it and also the
weather; hence, the process of preparing the seed-bed will vary. The
judgment must determine whether the land should be plowed, or disked and
pulverized, or simply harrowed. After potatoes and other garden crops,
harrowing may suffice; after certain grain crops on soils not too stiff,
disking may suffice; but where much trash is to be buried, plowing would
be necessary, and when the ground is at all cloddy, the roller should be
freely used. In corn fields the last cultivation will make a suitable
seed-bed, and the same is sometimes true in cotton fields.
To grow good crops of crimson clover, it is necessary that there shall
be a considerable amount of plant food in the soil that is readily
available. Farmyard manure when it can be spared or secured will supply
the need. But the results will probably be more satisfactory where the
manure has been applied to the previous crop, as, for instance, to
potatoes or corn, and for the reason, probably, that in the relatively
dry season at which the seed of this plant is sown, the residue of the
manure still in the soil is more readily available than freshly applied
manure would be. Good crops have been grown on land thus manured, when
at the same time seed sown on land under similar conditions and similar
in other respects failed to give satisfactory yields.
In a majority of instances farmyard manure cannot be spared for such a
use. When it cannot, if necessary, commercial fertilizers may be
applied. Those rich in phosphoric acid and potash are usually most
needed, but sometimes nitrogen also is necessary. When nitrogen is used,
it may be best applied on the growing crop and while it is young.
Phosphoric acid and potash may be fitly applied when the land is being
prepared, and in a way that will incorporate them with the surface soil.
These may be used in the form of wood ashes, bone meal, Thomas' slag,
Kainit, sulphate or muriate of potash, South Carolina rock and acid
phosphate. Acid phosphate and muriate of potash stand high in favor with
some growers when applied in the proportions of 9 and 1 parts and at the
rate of, say, 200 pounds more or less per acre.
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