The Farm.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume X, Issue 498, 27 October 1882, Page 25

The Farm.

Sowing Grasses and Clovers. — Although the spring time is usually set apait for the sowing of grasses and cloveis, they will be found to grow fr«ely if sown this month. ludee'l September is about the best month in the whole year in which to secure a full and even braird of grass, and there are many small farmers who would be glad to lay down a field in that month if custom and a doubt as to the propriety of so doiug did not deter them, and so prompt them to waste the whole season. It would suit many people to level their •arlypotato ridges and to sow with ryegrass in September for a crop to co&iMn next May or June, but the practice is an innovation, and they would feel doubtfnl as to its success We now write to tell such people that they may do so and be sure of a crop. Let them harrow and level the land well, then roll, shake the grasses, bushharrow and roll again ; and if this be done early in September a good braird of grass will be secured in time to stand the winter's frost. Clovers may be mixed with the grasses if desired. The common red clover, the peirennial clover, or the Alsike clover upon light lands may be tried. Where the former varieties have failed the Alsike will often be found to grow and thrive. There is another variety of clover, but little known in Ireland, which may be tried with advantage as a catch crop. We refer to the Trifolium Incai natum. or Scarlet Clove*, a very pretty variety which has of late years attracted much notice among farmers. The flowers are long, of a bright scarlet colour, and very pretty to look at. The plant is an annual, and from its appearance may readily be distinguished from the other varieties. It is not generally sown in a a mixture of clover and grasses, but is a good deal cultivated in England iathe sheep farming districts. It is sown in the autumn, generally after a corn crop, and in the character of a stolen crop. The pracii&e is to clear away the stubbles with a grubber or broadehare, and having cleared the lands of weeds, the seed is sown broadcast and harrowed in. It grows freely, gets well rooted before the winter sets iv, and in the spring furnishes an abundant supply of green food for early calving cows, ewes with lambs kc. The whole crop may now be cut and eaten away in time to clear the ground for a crop of turnips. We have seen this mode of treatment successfully practised in Ireland ; the cultivation is very Bimple, and there is no reason why it should not be tried by any farmer who deems it worthy ot notice. Clover, whether sown alone or with the grasses, often fails in an unaccountable manner, and there can be no doubt that this often arises from improper cultivation. By preference the soil for a clover crop is a deep loam resting on a limestone subsoil and with plenty of lime in the 3oil itself. We may here mention that the presence of lime in the soil is always necessary for the healthy production of clover, and it very often happens that cases of failure or " clover-sickness," as it is termed, may be traced directly to the deficiency of lime in the soil. It must not be supposed, however, that the growth of clover is confined to this class of soils alone. It is found to grow on almost every soil capable of ordinary cultivation ; still the farmer, in deciding upon sowing, will do well to remember the peculiarities of the clover plant and to endeavour in some way to adapt the soil to its requirements. Deep and well cultivated the soil should be iv every case, irrespective of its quality, if we would have it produce clover in perfection. The habit of the plant is to form large aud fleshy roots, aud to drive these deeply and vigorously into the soil, to seek their supply of nourishment at a considerable depth in it, ILnce, when clover is sown with a grain cropjuuder favourable conditions, both thrive lapidly because they do not iuterfere with each other, as, though each derives its supply of food from the same soil, it seeks it at a diff. rent stiata in the soil. This tendency to stake its roots deeply renders the giowtb of clover very advantageous on stiff clay soils, as it exeicises a mechanical effect upon them by rendering them to some extent open and porous. The crop, too, benefits by this power of penetration, for its routs, being deeply buried in the soil, have the power of obtaining moisture at a time when other plants of a different tendency are quite parched and languid from the effects of a dry season. Clover posrsses many advantages, such as a large leaf system and a deep and strong root sybtern, which enable it to grow on dry soils ; still it must be remembered that upon such it is grown at a disadvantage, aud its produce will ue lets than if the circumstance of growth were more favourable, and it were supplied with a due proportion of moisture. Not that by any means we would recommend its cultivation on lands which are uudrained and which probably have large quantities of stagnant water percolating through their under-strata, cropping up occasionally iv the form of little springs oroozings, and9ouring everything in the shape of vegetation which appears upon the surface. No thinking man would sow clover in such a soil, and we would never think of noting such a practice were we not painfully aware of i s frequency am iflfe^mall farmers in Ireland. Over and again has it been our lot to witness the la\ ish waste of seed and money incurred by men who persisted in sowiug clovers and grass seeds in such a soil. If sown witn a corn crop, the corn turned yellow and sickly, the clover failed altogether, and the great bulk of the grasses also, leaving a worthless coating of Yorkshire fog <>r some other indigenous grass, instead of the clover and grasses which were expected to appear in due season. Clover, if grown in rotation and intended for soiling, is invariably sown after a grain crop, and generally in mixture with grass seeds. Stiangely enough, this latter practice, though commonly prevailing, is opposed to the recognised principles which should regulaAg a rotation. Italian ryegrass is the gruss most generally selectee? to mix with clover for soiling, and is sown tocucceed a grain crop, and to be followed by another, although ryegrass belongs to the same natural order as the grain crops, possesses the same food requirements, and is a plant which rotatory principles, if strictly followed, would remove altogether from such a place in a rotation. As it is, farmers do not appear as yet to have hit upon a substitute, and science contents itself with proclaiming that the practice is a wrong one, and destined eventually to prove injurious to the general

produce of the farm. Of course where such mixtures are sown for permanent pastures, they do not become so objectionable. — i Nation.