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Show Snow Real Blanket for Clover Fields Winterkilling in Northern Sections With Severe Cold. Winterkilling of alfalfa an J clover presents examples that seem to be contradictory, lr. A. J. rulers es-UlaitKHi es-UlaitKHi to a galberins of seedsmen recently. Doctor- Tieters. who is one of the" foruge-erop specialists of the United States Department of Agriculture Agricul-ture in discussing the adaptation of alfalfa and clover to climatic extremes and in resistance to diseases, said imported im-ported seed was, ns a rule, inferior to native reed and that strains successful success-ful iu one region in the United States were to he recommended only for other oth-er regions having approximately the : ;ime extremes of temperature. Temperature Tem-perature averages are of small service us guides, he said. He also emphasized empha-sized the important role which srow-fall srow-fall plays in the wintering of alfalfa and clover, particularly in the northern north-ern sections where winters are severe. "We need to know the lowest temperatures," tem-peratures," said Doctor I'ieters. "Not only that, hut we need to know whether wheth-er these low temperatures will reach the plant. When plants are covered during winter under a heavy blanket of snow, the cold recorded by the weather bureau may never reach them. In the Northeast low temperatures tempera-tures are usually accompanied by heavy snowfalls, so that these low temperatures do not operate effectively effective-ly on plants at the ground level. As an illustration, Italian clover at Chatham in the northern peninsula of Michigan has never winterkilled so much as it has near Lansing, Mich., or in Ohio, though the air temperatures at Chatham are much lower. The snowfall begins early and the plants are protected by several feet of snow during the entire period of severe weather." |