Animals' earmarks

Usage examples of crops.

The mechanical condition of the soil immediately after growing these crops also favors the vigorous growth of the young clover plants, more especially when they are sown upon the surface of the land after some form of surface cultivation, rather than upon a surface made by plowing the land after cultivation has been given to it, but to this there may be some exceptions.

They should be grown with a view to gather food for other crops made to follow them, which have not the same power.

They should, therefore, be made to precede such crops as the small cereals, corn, the sorghums, the millets and cotton.

Enough of the seed of these crops may be allowed to mature to re-seed the land from year to year, and thus keep it producing.

Southern States Japan clover and burr clover will serve the purpose of catch crops better than the other varieties.

The clover may thus be made to furnish nitrogen indefinitely for the other crops, but in some instances it may be necessary to add phosphoric acid and potash.

In such instances green crops that can be grown on such lands, as rye, for instance, plowed under when the ear begins to shoot, will be found helpful.

When good crops can only be grown at long intervals, as, say, 5 to 8 years.

When sown on spring crops, as spring wheat, barley and oats, the seed cannot, of course, be sown until these crops are sown.

The earlier that these crops are sown the more likely are the clovers sown to make a stand, as they have more time to become rooted before the dry weather of summer begins.

When sown on spring crops and early in the season, it may not be necessary to cover the seed, except by using the roller, even though the seed should fall behind the grain tubes while the grain crop is being sown, or should be sown subsequently by hand.

Because of the several years during which alfalfa will produce crops when once established, it is deemed proper to sacrifice a nurse crop in order to get a good stand of the young plants.

The millets are objectionable as nurse crops through the denseness of the shade which they furnish and also because of the heavy draught which they make on soil moisture.

Peas and vetches should not be used as nurse crops, since they smother the young clover plants through lodging in the advanced stages of their growth.

When sown with nurse crops and simply to improve the soil, it is customary to sow small rather than large quantities of seed, and for the reason that the hazard of failure to secure a stand every season is too considerable to justify the outlay.