it grows slowly. Some other
plants can do this more effectively. It is pre-eminently the catch crop
for the orchardist and the market gardener, and yet it may be made the
catch crop also of the farmer, under certain conditions.

Crimson clover may be made to follow any crop, but it is seldom
necessary to have it follow another leguminous crop which has brought
nitrogen to the soil. Nor is it usually sown after a grass crop which
has brought humus to the land. It is frequently sown after small cereal
grain crops that have been harvested. It may be made to follow any of
these. Sometimes it is sown in standing corn. But oftener than anywhere
else probably, it is sown in orchards and on soils from which early
potatoes and garden vegetables have been removed.

It is peculiarly fitted for being grown in orchards. In these it may be
grown from year to year. It may be thus grown not only to gather
nitrogen for the trees, but to make them more clean than they would
otherwise be when the fruit is being gathered, to protect the roots of
the trees in winter and to aid in the retention of moisture when plowed
under. But this plant may also, with peculiar fitness, be made to
precede late garden crops. It may be plowed under sufficiently early to
admit of this, and when so buried it aids in making a fine seed-bed,
since the roots promote friability in the land. When grown under what
may be termed strictly farm conditions, it usually precedes a cultivated
crop, as potatoes, corn, or one of the sorghums. It is equally suitable
in fitting the soil for the growth of vine crops, such as melons,
squashes and pumpkins.

But in some localities this crop may be grown so as to break down the
lines of old-time rotations, since in some instances it may be
successfully grown from year to year for several years without change.
Potatoes and sweet corn, for instance, may be thus grown.

=Preparing the Soil.=--In preparing the seed-bed for crimson clover, the
aim should be to secure fineness of pulverization near the surface and
moistness in the same. The former is greatly important, because of the
aid which it renders in securing the latter at a season when moisture is
often lacking in the soil. As it is rather grown on soils deficient in
humus than on those plentifully supplied with the same, fineness in the
seed-bed is not so important as it is with some classes of prairie
soils.

In starting the seed, drought is the chief hindrance to be over