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Used As A Green Manure

Categories: THE CLOVERS

Where dependence must be placed upon clover as

a fertilizer, little or no manure being returned to the land, at least

one of the two clover crops within the year should be left on the land.

The maximum benefit from clover, when left on the land, can be obtained

by clipping it before it is sufficiently heavy to smother the plants,

leaving it as a mulch. When the cutter-bar of the mower is tilted

upward, the danger of sm
thering is reduced. Truckers, remote from

supplies of manure, have found it profitable to make two such clippings

just prior to blossoming stage, securing a third heavy growth. The

amount of humus thus obtained is large, and the benefit of the mulch is

an important item.



Some growers clip the first crop for a mulch, and later secure a seed

crop. The early clipping and the mulch cause increase in yield of seed.



A common practice is to take one crop off for hay, and to leave the

second for plowing down the following spring. Early harvesting of the

clover for hay favors the second crop.



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