Chapter 7
ALSIKE CLOVER
Alsike Clover (_Trifolium hybridum_) takes its name from a parish in the south of Sweden. From there it is probable that it was introduced into England. Linnaeus gave it the name of _hybridum_, imagining it to be a cross between the red and the white varieties. Botanists do not generally hold this view. It is known by various names, as Swedish, White Swedish, Alsace, Hybrid, Perennial Hybrid, Elegant and Pod Clover, but more commonly in America it is spoken of as alsike.
The plants of this variety are more slender than those of the medium red variety, although they grow in some instances to a greater height. The slender stems are much branched. The leaves are numerous and oblong in shape, the flowers are of a pinkish tint, the heads are globular and are about three-fourths of an inch in diameter, and the pods, like those in white clover, contain more than one seed. The roots are in no small degree fibrous, and yet the slender tap root goes down to a considerable distance.
Alsike clover is a perennial. In favorable situations it will live for many years. Ordinarily, it grows to the height of 18 to 24 inches, but in slough lands it sometimes grows to the height of 5 feet. The plants do not reach their full size until the second year, and in some instances until a period even later. They grow less rapidly than those of medium red clover, are several weeks later coming into flower, and grow much less vigorously in the autumn. Ordinarily, they furnish but one cutting of hay each year. Because of the more fibrous character of the root growth, the plants do not heave so readily as those of red clover. In moist situations they are much given to lodge; hence, the importance of growing this crop, when grown for hay, along with some kind of grass that will help to keep the stems erect.
Alsike clover furnishes a large amount of pasture. It is relished, at least, fairly well. The leaves are slightly bitter, but not enough to seriously interfere with their palatability. The quality of the hay is excellent. This arises from its fineness, from the number of the small branches and leaves on the stems, and from its fragrance when well cured. While it makes a very suitable hay for horses and cattle, it has peculiar adaptation for sheep, owing to its fineness.
As a fertilizer it is probably not equal to medium red clover, since the root growth is not so bulky. Nor does it produce a second cutting anything like so vigorous as the former. Nevertheless, the roots possess even stiff soils to such an extent that they not only furnish them with much plant food, but they also tend to disintegrate them and to render them more easy to pulverize.
As a honey plant, alsike clover is without a rival among clovers, unless it be in the small white variety. It is a great favorite with bee-keepers. Many of them sow it to enable them to furnish pastures for their bees. The bloom remains for a relatively long period. The honey is also accessible to the common honey bee, since the branches are numerous on the stems, and since each branch bears a head, the flower heads are relatively quite numerous. Since the honey is accessible to the common bee, pollination in the plants is assured; hence, the failures in the seed crop are few, and when other conditions are favorable, seed production is abundant. Because of the many good qualities of this clover it is deservedly a favorite wherever it can be successfully grown. When in full bloom, a field of alsike clover is a very beautiful sight. The flowers are a pale white at first, but gradually they deepen into a beautiful pink of tinted shades, and their fragrance is fully equal to their beauty.
=Distribution.=--Alsike clover is found in Europe, Northern Africa and Western Asia. In these it has been cultivated for a long time, but its favorite home in the Old World would seem to be in Northern Europe. It would doubtless be correct to say that it is indigenous to Europe, and probably that it is indigenous to each of the three continents named. It is not indigenous to America, but was introduced into the same probably from Great Britain or Scandinavia. In some parts of North America it grows with a luxuriance equal to, if not, indeed, greater, than that shown by this plant when grown under the most favorable conditions which Europe furnishes.
This plant is better adapted to a cool and humid climate than to one hot and dry. It is even more hardy than medium red clover, in the sense of enduring cold, and will live under conditions of climate so austere as to be fatal to red clover. It may, therefore, be grown further north than medium red clover, and under conditions so exposed as to cause medium red clover to fail. But it does not succeed quite so well as the former toward the southerly limit of the successful production of medium red clover; hence, the limit of production in the semi-arid belt ceases sooner than in the case of the other variety. The best climatic conditions for growing it are found not far from the boundary line between the United States and Canada, and in the vicinity of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the Great Lakes.
In the United States the best crops are grown in the States which border on Canada, and in these the highest adaptation, climate and soil considered, is found in Michigan, Wisconsin and Northeastern Minnesota. But in New York the adaptation is also high, and also in certain parts of Montana, Idaho and Washington. Good crops may also be grown in nearly all the second tier of States that lie southward from the Canadian boundary. The exceptions are those embraced in the semi-arid belt. Further south than the second tier of States to which reference has just been made, the successful growth of alsike generally lessens, and yet in parts of these States, as, for instance, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, good crops are grown. Some of the Rocky Mountain valleys, more especially those that can be irrigated, and that are also sufficiently elevated, grow excellent crops of alsike. Much of the province of Ontario has very high adaptation to the growth of alsike clover, and in several counties of that province large quantities are grown, not only for hay, but also for seed. In Ontario County in the said province, are certain clay soils rich in lime; in fact, almost marley in character, which have been found especially well adapted to growing alsike clover seed, and in certain areas in proximity to the Georgian Bay, adaptation exists about equally high. In some parts of Quebec good crops are also grown. But this variety of clover has not been grown as yet with much success in Manitoba, Assiniboia, Alberta or Saskatchewan. Both soil and climate, however, in these provinces should not be uncongenial to it in the main. In the cultivable lands of British Columbia, as in those of Washington, it grows remarkably well. Especially in the river bottoms and on the tide lands can immense crops be grown, as also on the tide lands of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but not on the upland sandy soils of these provinces.
=Soils.=--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.
=Place in the Rotation.=--Much of what has been said about the place for medium red clover in the rotation may also apply to alsike clover. (See page 70.) On upland soils its place in the rotation will be very similar to that of the other variety, but with the difference that the rotations will be longer, because of the perennial habit of growth in the alsike. It will be best sown, therefore, on clean land which has produced a crop that has been cultivated the previous year. Consequently, it may follow such crops as corn, potatoes, field roots and beans in the North, and the same crops in the South, with the addition of cow peas, soy beans and the non-saccharine sorghums. But it may be sown after other crops when necessary, especially when it is to be pastured. One chief objection to sowing it thus for hay is that the hay will be less free from weeds.
On upland this crop may be followed with any kind of a crop requiring much nitrogen. No crops can be made to follow it with more advantage, however, than corn and the sorghums, or potatoes. Rape will feed ravenously on the overturned sod, and wheat and the other small grains will also feed similarly.
On low lands, especially when they partake of the nature of sloughs, the rotation is different. In some instances alsike may follow the natural grasses produced by the slough in the drained or undrained form, as the case may be, and may be made to supersede them without breaking the land, but more commonly on these it is sown after the natural sod has been broken and has decayed somewhat, by growing on it some such crop as rape or flax. On these lands it is usually grown in long rotations for pasture and also for hay, and when the sod is again plowed, it is followed by corn, potatoes, rape, and grains grown for soiling uses, since such land has naturally high adaptation for these. Flax also is a favorite crop to sow in such situations after alsike clover.
=Preparing the Soil.=--The preparation of the land for alsike clover on ordinary soils is the same as for medium red clover. (See page 74.) Usually, that degree of fineness in the pulverization which best prepares the soil for the nurse crop with which alsike clover is sown, will also best prepare it for the alsike. But there may be some instances, as in strong clays, when a fine pulverization that would suffice for the needs of the nurse crop would be advantageous to the alsike. This finer pulverization can only be secured by the judicious use of the roller and the harrow. In loose-lying soils, more especially in areas where the precipitation in winter comes in the form of snow, and, therefore, does not wash the land as it does when it falls as rain, if the land on which alsike is to be sown is plowed in the fall, and only harrowed in the spring, or cultivated and harrowed when preparing it, the moisture will be better conserved than if it were plowed in the spring. When thus managed, strong clays in the area under consideration will usually have a much finer pulverization than can be obtained from spring plowing. When the preceding crop has been given clean cultivation, to plow land subsequently before sowing to alsike would bring up many weed seeds to the surface, where they would at once begin to grow. On slough lands, where water saturation is present during a portion of the year, even to the extent of appearing for a short interval over more or less of the surface, the seed may be sown without any previous preparation of the land, and in some instances successfully. In other instances it will fail should the following summer prove adverse. The stand is rendered much more certain in such instances by first burning off the grass, sowing the seed upon it, covering it more or less with the harrow and running the mower over the ground, say, twice in the season, to let in sunlight to the young plants. The grass thus mown may be left as a mulch. Pasturing, but not too early in the season, will in some instances give results equally good. In such situations the sowing should be done, and also the harrowing, before the frost has left the ground, except for a short distance from the surface, or the horses may sink too deeply when doing the work. The success is dependent in no small degree on the denseness or want of denseness of the root growth of the grass plants already covering the soil. The more dense these are, the less easy is it to obtain a stand, and the more peaty the soil immediately underneath the surface, the greater is the danger that the young plants will perish in a time of drought.
When alsike seed is sown on drained sloughs, the aim should be to reduce the excess of coarse vegetable matter, if present, and to secure a smooth surface, such as will facilitate the easy mowing of the crop. More especially should this be the aim if the alsike is sown to produce hay. This can be most easily and speedily done by growing on it some reducing crop, as flax or rape, and then smoothing the surface by implements best suited to such work, as, for instance, some form of plow leveler.
=Sowing.=--The time at which alsike clover may best be sown is the same as that for sowing the medium red variety; that is to say, the early spring. (See page 75.) Since it is hardier than the medium red variety, the danger is less that spring frosts will destroy the plants after they begin to grow. As with medium red clover, it may also be sown at sundry times, from the opening of spring until the late summer when the opportunity offers, and when the conditions for growth are favorable. For instance, there may be seasons when alsike clover, and, indeed, any kind of clover, will succeed along with a catch crop sown for pasture or to provide soiling food. But it should not be sown in the autumn unless where the winters are mild, or the young plants will not survive their rigors.
Alsike clover is more commonly sown with a nurse crop. As with medium red, the crops with which it may be best sown are the small cereal grains, as winter rye, barley, wheat and oats, favorable in the order named. But it may also be sown with flax, with rape, and with grain crops that are to be cut for soiling or to be grazed down.
The method of sowing alsike clover is virtually the same as that followed in sowing medium red clover (see page 78); that is to say, it may be sown by hand machines, with a grass-seeder attachment to the grain drill, or with the ordinary tubes of the grain drill and along with the grain. The seed is very small, and, consequently, may not admit of being buried so deeply as medium red clover, but in the open soils of the prairie it will sometimes succeed as well sown along with the grain as when buried less deeply, but in many soils the roller will provide a sufficient covering. Especially is this true in climates that are moist.
Alsike clover has special adaptation for being sown along with timothy and red top on slough soils, and soils made up of rich deposit. It matures about the same time as these grasses. They support the slender stems of the alsike, and in doing so prevent lodging more or less. This greatly improves the quality of the hay. The more numerous the plants in those mixtures, the finer also will be the quality of the hay. If but two varieties are wanted in the mixture, ordinarily these two should be alsike clover and timothy. Both furnish hay of excellent quality; hence, when the proportion of alsike is not too large, such hay sells readily to dairymen who have to purchase fodder.
Although this clover does not mature until three to four weeks later than the medium red, nevertheless, it may be well to add the latter to the timothy and alsike clover mixture. When these are thus sown in due balance, the first cutting will be mainly red clover, after which there will be but little of the red present. But the medium red clover will add much to the pasture after the first cutting for hay. Subsequently, the hay crop will usually consist of alsike and timothy. Alsike clover along with timothy may also be sown with mammoth clover, since the two mature about the same time. But the mammoth variety will monopolize the ground while the first hay crop is being produced. The advantage from sowing the seed thus lies chiefly in prolonging the period of clover production along with timothy grown chiefly for hay. It is not wise, usually, to sow alsike clover alone for hay, owing to its tendency to lodge. In the South it is frequently sown with red top and orchard grass, especially the latter. It fills in the spaces between the plants in the orchard grass, and in so doing adds much to the hay or to the pasture.
There may be conditions in which it would be advisable to sow alsike clover alone, as when it is wanted for seed, and subsequently for pasture. But ordinarily to provide pasture, it is better to sow it along with some other grass or clover, or with a number of these. It greatly improves a timothy pasture in the upland or in the valley. It has also been used with much advantage in strengthening alfalfa pastures for horses in winter in certain of the Rocky Mountain valleys. It would probably be correct to say that with the area of adaptation for this plant, no kind of pasture can be grown on reasonably moist land that would not be benefited by having alsike in it. Among the clovers it has, relatively, high adaptation for permanent pastures, because of its enduring character.
The seeds of alsike clover are small. They are considered to be less than half the size of those of medium red clover, consequently, the amounts of seed are relatively much less. When alsike clover is sown alone and for seed, from 3 to 5 pounds of seed should suffice per acre, according to the soil conditions. Four pounds are frequently sown. In the various mixtures given above, the amounts of seed will vary with local and other conditions, but the following amounts may be given as averages: Alsike and timothy, 4 and 6 pounds, respectively, per acre; alsike, timothy and red top, 3, 4 and 3 pounds; alsike, timothy and red clover, 3, 4 and 3 pounds; alsike, timothy and mammoth clover, 3, 4 and 3 pounds. When sown with other grasses for pasture, it would not be possible to give the amounts to sow that would best meet the needs of the grower under all conditions. But it may be said that 1 to 2 pounds of alsike seed per acre, sown under almost any circumstances in moist soils and within the alsike clover area, will be a good investment when laying down pastures of any considerable permanency.
This clover is also sometimes added to the seed sown in making lawns, more especially on farms where the lawn cannot be given that close attention which is necessary to keep it in the most presentable form. Because of its permanence, it is helpful in giving variety to the sward, and when mown but two or three times in the season, as is frequently the case with such lawns, it provides considerable bloom in the same, which is very attractive. The amount of seed to use on these lawns may vary to suit the desires of the owner. It is not usual, however, to sow in these more than maximum amounts for field crops. At the rate of 3 to 4 pounds of seed per acre should be ample.
=Pasturing.=--Alsike clover has by some authorities been assigned to a high place as a pasture plant. For such a use it has no little merit, but in the judgment of the author it is not nearly equal to medium red clover as a pasture plant, under average conditions, since it does not grow so well, relatively, on average upland soils, and because the aftermath is usually light, after the crop has been cut for hay or for seed. Nor is it thought to be relished quite as highly by stock as the medium red clover. Nevertheless, domestic animals eat it freely, and under suitable conditions it will furnish for them a considerable amount of grazing. This feature has been finely illustrated by an experiment in grazing conducted at the Agricultural Experiment Station of Montana, on irrigated land, at Bozeman, in the Gallatin valley. Full particulars relating to this unique experiment are given in Bulletin No. 31, issued by the afore-mentioned station. In the summer of 1900, 18 cattle, one and two years old, were pastured on 5.04 acres of alsike clover for 102 days, beginning with June 9th. The increase in the weight obtained from the pasture in the time stated was 4560 pounds. This gain was valued at the very moderate price of 4 cents per pound live weight; hence, the net return per acre for the pasture for the season was $36.19. It would scarcely be possible under any conditions, howsoever favorable, to obtain such results without irrigation.
Ordinarily, the results from pasturing alsike clover will be more satisfactory when one or two other plants are grown along with it, as, for instance, medium red clover or medium red clover and orchard grass, since both of these plants tend to prolong the period of grazing. In slough lands, red top and timothy add considerably to the value of the grazing. When grazing alsike clover, much more pasture will be obtained if it can be allowed to make a good start in the spring, and if it is then kept grazed so short that the plants do not come into flower. Such treatment tends very much to prolong the period of grazing for the season. Should the grazing be so uneven as to admit of certain areas in the pasture pushing on into the flower stage, the mower may sometimes be profitably used to prevent such a result. Weeds should also be kept from going to seed in the pastures by using the mower or the scythe, or both. Nor should the fact be lost sight of that the tendency to produce bloat in alsike clover is much the same as in medium red clover.
=Harvesting for Hay.=--Alsike clover is ready to harvest for hay when the plants are just beginning to pass beyond the meridian of full bloom. Some of the first blossoms will then have turned brown and some of the smaller ones will still be deepening their tints, since the season of bloom is about the same as for timothy, and since alsike for hay is more commonly grown with timothy than with any other grass, both may be cut when at their best, especially when intended for cows and sheep. But when the hay is intended for horses, it should stand a few days longer than the stage indicated above, in order to have the timothy in the condition best suited to feeding horses. But the alsike, in the meantime, would lose something in digestibility.
If grown alone for hay, the process of harvesting would be much the same as in harvesting medium red clover. (See page 95.) But since the stems of alsike clover are finer than those of the medium red, less time will suffice for curing it. It will also cure more quickly along with some other grass than if alone, since it does not then lie so closely in the winrow or in the cock. Grasses, as a rule, cure more quickly than clovers, and this also has a bearing on hastening curing in clover when the two are grown together; and also in lessening the degree of the fermentation after the crop has been stored. Ordinarily, when the weather is bright, alsike clover along with timothy may be cut in the forenoon, tedded once or twice soon after cutting, raked into small winrows the same evening and stored away the following afternoon. When thus managed, the hay loader may be used in lifting the hay from the winrows. Alsike clover growing alone could not be cured thus quickly. Nor would it be wise in showery weather to try and cure the crop without putting it into cocks, whether grown alone or with some other crop. When properly cured, the heads retain much of their bloom and the stems much of their greenness.
The yields of hay vary greatly with the soil. On dry, sandy uplands the yields of cured hay may not exceed 1/2 ton, while on rich loam soils it may exceed 3 tons. Ordinarily, on good soils a combined crop of alsike clover should yield from 1-1/2 to 2 tons per acre of very excellent hay. Some authorities speak of getting two cuttings per year, but this is not usual. Under quite favorable conditions it would be possible to get two cuttings for soiling uses, providing the first was taken when the plants were coming into bloom. Usually, the growth of the aftermath, when the hay has been removed, is very moderate.
=Securing Seed.=--Alsike is a great producer of seed. This arises in part from the relatively large number of the heads on the plants, and in part from the completeness of the pollinations, through the action of the honey bee. These are relatively much more numerous than the bumble bees, which alone among bees, it has been claimed, aid in the pollination of medium red and mammoth clover. Although the seeds are considerably less than half the size of those of medium red clover, as much as 8 bushels of seed have been secured from an acre. Frequently, however, the yields are less than 2 bushels. Good average yields may be stated as running from 3 to 4 bushels per acre. The best yields are usually obtained from the first crop, but under favorable conditions this clover may be cut for seed for two and even three years in succession. Better yields are usually obtained from crops of medium vigor than from those of excessive rankness. The latter lodge to such an extent as to reduce materially the yields of the seed, since the heads do not fill well. The cost of harvesting and threshing such crops is also greater, relatively, than of those of medium growth. To prevent such excessive growth in the seed crop, pasturing for a time is frequently resorted to. The grazing should begin reasonably early in the season before growth anywhere becomes so rank that the animals do not eat it in certain portions of the field, whereas, at the same time, they graze other portions of the field too closely. Rather close grazing, from the time that grazing begins, is preferable to grazing that leaves the crop uneven. When certain portions of the field are left ungrazed, or only partially grazed, the mower should be run over such portions about the time that the grazing ceases. If this is done a few days before the removal of the stock, they will eat much of the clover thus mown. Unless the mower is thus used, under such conditions the seed will ripen unevenly in the grazed and ungrazed portions of the same.
The duration of the grazing is much dependent on the soil and the season. The more moist and rich the soil and the more moist the season, the more prolonged should the grazing be. In Northern areas it seldom begins earlier than May 1st, and seldom extends beyond June 1st. If prolonged unduly and dry weather follows, the growth of the plants will not be enough to produce average crops of seed. Quite frequently on upland soils, the grazing should cease before the end of May.
Either cattle or sheep, or both, may be used in the grazing. Cattle do not graze quite so closely as sheep, which is so far favorable to subsequent growth. But sheep will glean weeds to a much greater extent than cattle. When the field is made to carry so much stock that the grazing is quickly and thoroughly done, the results are usually more satisfactory than when the opposite method is practiced.
It is important that weeds shall be prevented from maturing seeds in the clover. To prevent this, it may be necessary to run the mower over the whole field at the close of the grazing season. In crops that are not grazed, it may be necessary to use the scythe in clipping back weeds and in cutting off any stray heads of timothy that may be pushing up toward maturity. In some instances it may even be found profitable to use the spud in destroying weeds of more dwarfish growth than those which can be clipped with the scythe. It is more important, relatively, that weeds shall be thus dealt with in growing alsike clover than in growing clover of the larger varieties, since, owing to the small size of the seeds of alsike, it is more difficult to remove foul seeds with the winnowing