RED CLOVER. 89- 



nectar at the bottom of the tube. The tono^ue must elongate one-third or 

 the tube of the carrolla shorten one-third. The occasional visits of bees to 

 the flowers of red clover may be accounted for by supposing they seek pollen 

 or they seek the honey which has filled a considerable portion of the floral 

 tube. The upper portion of this honey can be reached, even with the 

 tongue of the ordinary honey bee. I again call your attention to what has 

 frequently appeared in former reports and lectures of mine. To raise seed 

 of clover which shall produce plants that are more hardy, larger, more vigor- 

 ous a)id more prolific of seed, mix seed grown in remote localities. 



CLOVER SICKNESS. 



This is a term used in Great Britain to indicate a failure of the plants 

 to thrive after they have once started. Many observations and experiments 

 have been made and much has been written on tlie topic in regard to the- 

 cause and remedies. Except in a very few places in the older portions of 

 the United States, no trouble of this natur*^ has appeared on this side of the 

 Atlantic. Kecent investigations by Kutzleb show that clover sickness is not 

 due to parasites, to lack of nitrogen, to lack of water, or to unfavoi-able 

 physical properties of the soil, but to a deficiency of easily soluble potash, 

 especially in the subsoil.* It is not improbable as our country grows older, 

 that repeated crops of clover may so deprive the subsoil of the potash that 

 clover sickness may become common. 



HOVEN. 



This is a term applied to cattle which have become sick and bloated after 

 eating too heartily of clover which was fresh and wet. At such times, till 

 the cattle have become used to the feed so as not to be greedy, they should 

 be turned off the clover after eating for a short time. 



TRIFOLIUM MEDIUM L. MAMMOXn, GIANT, OR PEA VINE CLOVER. COW- 

 GRASS [of ENGLAND]. 



The following description of the typical form as it appears in England, i& 

 mainly from 



hooker's FLORA. 



Plant slightly hairy ; leaflets oblong, obtuse, or acute; stipules herbace- 

 ous, free portion spreading; heads sub-globose, terminal, often shortly 

 peduncled, subtended by opposite leaves; calyx-teeth setaceous, spreading 

 in fruit, lowest, a little longest. June to September, perennial. Stems,. 

 straggling, flexuous, often zig-zag. Leaflets, 1-2 in., rather rigid, almost 

 quite entire, ciliate. Ileads^l-l^ in. diam. Flowers, | in., rose-purple. 

 Calyx-throat with a ring of hairs, tube 10 nerved glabrous; teeth reaching, 

 half way up the petals. Pod, often dehiscing longitudinally. Distri- 

 buted in Europe, Sibei'ia, Western Asia; introduced in North America. 



This clover is Trifolmm medium Vind so named along time ago by Linnaeus- 

 The common name might with propriety be " medium red cluver." I men- 

 tion this fact because farmers have lately got in the notion of calling the 

 early red clover "medium " clover. 



Mammoth clover is quite similar in appearance to the early red clover,. 

 but it flowers later, with timothy, is very often a perennial and is adiijtted 



♦ Note.— H. P. Armsby : Science p. U6, 1883. 

 12 



