Soils

Category: ALFALFA

The most suitable soil for alsike clover is a moist clay loam,
not too friable nor too dense, and moist and deep. A goodly impregnation
of lime in the same is favorable to maximum production. Abundant
moisture conduces to the same end. This plant will, however, produce
good crops, and in a moist season, excellent crops, on the stiffest
clays, whether white or red, after a good stand has once been secured,
providing hard pan is not found near the surface, but in dry seasons it
is not easy to secure a stand on such soils. The plants send their
fibrous roots down into the soil in all directions, and in this way
render it much more friable when it is broken up.

Next in adaptation, probably, come slough soils, even though covered
with humus to a considerable depth, providing that clay lies under the
humus. Enormous crops of hay or pasture can be grown on such soils, but
the crops of seed are not usually so large as on the moist clays
referred to above. On these also the hay is much more liable to lodge,
unless supported by some kind of grass growing along with it.

After slough soils come those that have been deposited by the action of
water, as in river beds and on lake bottoms, when the waters have
subsided, providing the clay element so necessary to the successful
growth of this clover is plentifully present. In some instances the very
best crops of alsike can be grown on such lands, but in many other
instances these deposit soils have in them too much sand to produce
these.

Good crops can be grown on sandy loam soils, if well stored with
vegetable matter, and at the same time fairly well impregnated with
clay, but if one or both of these elements is lacking, adaptation in
these soils will be correspondingly reduced.

On the average upland prairie soil, alsike clover does not grow so
vigorously as the medium red. The less of density that these possess
under ordinary conditions, the less suitable are they to the needs of
this plant, but when ample moisture is present, good crops may be grown
on much of the soil in prairie areas.

Soils lowest in adaptation to the growth of alsike include infertile
sands and gravels, and the vegetable soils of the prairie so light that
when cultivated they lift more or less with the wind. On such soils the
growth of alsike is short and feeble, and any lack of moisture renders
it increasingly so.

This plant not only requires much moisture to insure the most vigorous
growth, but it is also able to thrive under conditions of soil
saturation such as some of the useful forage plants could not endure.
When the weather is cool, it may be covered with shallow water for
several days in succession without apparent injury. The possession of
this characteristic makes it possible to grow alsike clover in sloughs
not yet drained, but which are dry certain portions of the year.

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Clovers

Soils