202 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



until it ceases altogether, the plant concentrates all its energies 

 upon the seed, all its juices flow thither, and the roots, as well as 

 the leaf and stem, are exhausted in the effort. The seed grows, 

 not directly at the expense of the soil and atmosphere, as the 

 plant has done, but at the expense of the plant itself. It is, in- 

 deed, true in all cases that the seed is formed from the plant itself; 

 but there are plants which, while feeding the seed from them- 

 selves, are still active in gathering food from external sources; 

 and there are other plants, like the cereals, which do not, at the 

 same time that they are elaborating seed, gather food from outside 

 sufficientl}' to maintain their individual life. 



In contrast with the cereals, look again at the clover plant. 

 This starts from a seed, grows vigorously, buds, blossoms, forms 

 seed, and the seed ripens ; but there is not that uniformity in the 

 time of budding, flowering and ripening of clover that is noticed 

 witli wheat. In a field of wheat, if the catch has been good and 

 everything as it should be, when one head is ripe all the heads in 

 the field, practical!} 7 , are ripe. Every stem heads out, blossoms 

 and ripens about the same time. In the case of clover, you have 

 a much greater diversity, especially when the soil is rich and the 

 plant grows thriftily. If the soil is poor, you will have a nearer 

 approach to uniformity. When yon are getting a large amount of 

 foliage, you will find on the same plant ripe heads and buds. If 

 you pick off the ripe heads the plant will still keep throwing out 

 new buds. The process of flowering and ripening is a continuous 

 oue, and it does not affect the vigor of the plant to nearly the 

 degree that happens to wheat. During all the period of the 

 growth of the clover plant until the seeds are ripe, the roots are 

 still active and the foliage still vigorous. The quantity of seed 

 produced by the clover plant is much less, relatively to the weight 

 of the plant, than the quantity of seed produced by the wheat 

 plant, and the energies of the clover plant are relatively less 

 occupied in ripening the seed than is the case with wheat. 



You would therefore expect these very different plants to have 

 a very different function in the rotation of crops. 



An annual plant, again, one that is sown in the spring, or in 

 the fall, perhaps, and is harvested within a ) r ear, other things 

 being equal, will be different in its relation to the soil, from a 

 biennial plant, which lives two years, or a perennial plant, which 

 keeps along indefinitely. Now, our ordinary grains are annuals, 

 as we cultivate them ; the clover plant is a biennial more nearly 



