is a nitrogen
gatherer, when it has fertilized the land sufficiently by bringing to it
a supply of nitrogen and by putting humus into it, crops should follow
such as require much of growth to grow them in best form. Such are
cotton, corn and the small cereal grains. Owing to its power to grow on
worn and even on abandoned soils, and to crowd weeds that grow on them,
on such soils it comes in between the cessation of cultivation and the
resumption of the same. It frequently grows as a volunteer crop along
with Johnson grass, and where it comes, it tends to crowd grasses of but
little value, as brown sage.

Where pasture is desired winter and summer, it should be quite possible
in some localities to obtain it by sowing such crops annually, as winter
oats and sand vetches (_Vicia villosa_) every autumn, and the seed of
Japan clover on the same. The crops first named would provide winter and
spring grazing, and the clover, summer and autumn grazing. The clovers
and the vetches would both aid in fertilizing the land.

=Preparing the Soil.=--While careful preparation of the land will result
in more certain and uniform germination in the seed, and more rapid
growth in the plants, careful preparation of the seed is not so
necessary with Japan clover as with many other pasture and hay plants.
The seeds are strong in germinating power and the plants are much able
to grow, even under adverse conditions, when they do germinate. Usually,
the preparation which is suited to nurse crops, amid which this clover
is sown, will be suited also to the clover when it is sown thus.

In many instances, however, it is allowed to re-seed itself where it has
been once sown, or even where it may have come into the soil without
sowing. In this way successive pasture crops have been obtained. But
usually where hay crops are wanted, it will prove more satisfactory, all
things considered, to sow the seed.

In many instances, simply scarifying the ground has been found a
sufficient preparation for the seed. Any implement that will pulverize
the surface for a few inches downward will answer for such work. In very
many instances, seed, of course, self-sown has become rooted and grown
vigorously on unplowed land.

=Sowing.=--Japan clover is more commonly sown in the spring, but it is
sometimes sown in the autumn. There is more or less of hazard in sowing
it in the autumn north of the Gulf States, since when the plants are
young they will not stand mu