For Blowing Soils
Categories:
Soils, Fertilizers and Irrigation
I am going to dry-sow rye late this fall. I want some leguminous plant
to seed with the rye for a wind-break crop, not to plow under. The land
varies from heavy loam to blow-sand. I have under consideration sweet
clover, burr clover, vetches. I see occasional stray plants of sweet
clover (the white-blossomed) growing in the alfalfa on both hard and
sandy soil. I read in an Eastern bee journal that sweet clover can be
s
wed on hard uncultivated land with success. Could I grow it on the
hard vacant spots that occur in the alfalfa fields?
You can sow these leguminous plants all along during the earlier part of
the rainy season (September to December) except that they will not make
a good start in cold ground which does not seem to bother rye much. But
on sand you are not likely to get cold, waterlogged soil, so you can put
in there whenever you like - the earlier the better, however, if you
have moisture enough in the soil to sustain the growth as well as start
it. We should sow rye and common vetch. Sweet clover will grow anywhere,
from a river sandbar to an uncovered upland hardpan, but it will not do
much if your vacant spots are caused by alkali.