sandy soils a good
growth will be obtained when these have been fertilized and sufficient
moisture is present. On stiff clays the growth is too slow to produce
crops highly satisfactory either North or South, and in dry weather it
is also difficult to obtain a stand of the plants. The alluvial soils of
river bottoms in the South produce good crops. The vegetable soils of
the prairie do not grow the plants very well, and the adaptation in
slough or swamp soils is even lower. Good crops will not be obtained on
soils underlaid with hardpan which comes up near the surface, whatsoever
the nature of the top soil may be, since the roots cannot penetrate
these.

=Place in the Rotation.=--It cannot be said of crimson clover, in the
ordinary usage of the word, that it is a rotation plant. It has probably
no fixed place in any regular rotation, and yet it can be used almost
anywhere in the rotation that may be desired, and in any rotation
whether long or short, regular or irregular. As previously intimated, it
is usually grown as a catch crop, and primarily to fertilize the land;
and since its growth is chiefly or entirely made in the late summer,
autumn, winter and early spring, that is to say, when the land is not
otherwise occupied, the only hindrances to using it anywhere in the
rotation are such as arise from the nature of the weather, the
mechanical condition of the land and the needs of the crops that are to
follow. For instance, at the usual season for sowing it, the weather may
be so dry as to preclude the hope of successful germination in the seed.
This influence may also make it impossible to bring the land into that
mechanical condition which makes a good seed-bed without undue labor,
and ordinarily it would not be necessary to have crimson clover precede
another leguminous crop; since the latter, under many conditions, can
secure its own supply of nitrogen. To this there may be some exceptions.
There may be instances, as on light, porous and leechy soils, when it
might be proper to grow crimson clover as an aid in securing a stand of
the medium red variety, or in growing a crop of peas for the summer
market. Ordinarily, however, this crop is grown to increase the supply
of plant food in the soil for crops which require nitrogen, and to give
soils more or less porous, increased power to hold moisture and applied
fertilizers. It is probably seldom grown to improve the mechanical
condition of stiff soils, since on these