Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1870 — Management of Clover after Haying. [ARTICLE]

Management of Clover after Haying.

A second or seed crop of clover should not be taken from a field of clover that Is cut or pastured the first year after it is seeded down. If it is cut for seed the first year, the clover will not last more than one or two yean, while if it is not allowed to ripen reeds till in its second year, having then well established its roots in soil, it is likely to last longer and yield better crops. After clover has been cut the first year, the field should be shut up, and allowed to regain a tolerable growth before being pastured, but If it is a second year crop, and to be cut for a second or seed crop the same year, stock may be allowed in it for two or three weeks after haying, before it is shut up. A dressing of plaster or ashes, or superphosphate, at the rate of a bushel per acre, given about the Ist of August, will be a great help toward making a growth of second clover crop. After a crop of seed has been taken from a field of clover 1 it is seldom worth cutting for hay again, so that it is rarely done except where it is intended to turn the land to pasturage, or break it up the following season, as the clover usually shows signs of running out afterit has been so severely taxed to produce a'eeed crop. Clover seed at best is a very troublesome and uncertain crop, rarely yielding more than three bushels of seed to the acre, and costing nearly all it is worth to obtain it. On farms where there are a number oi grown-up boys, and very little stock is kept, it rosy pay to cut a second crop of clover for the seed alone. But the best farmers would rather buy what seed they need than deprive their stock of so large an amount of autumn feed. If it is cut for seed, it so ripe that the stalks are es little value as fodder for stock, but when it is cut’early and cured properly for hay, a second crop of clover makes excellent fodder for cattle and sheep, and is much less exhausting to the soil and the plants than if allowed to ripen its seed.— Canada Farmer.