12 A TfEW TYPE OF RED CLOVER. 



HAIRY CLOVER A CAUSE OF BLOATING. 



Cattle are less liable to tympanites, bloating, or hoven, if fed on 

 the hairless Orel clover, as there is considerable evidence to prove 

 that the hairs of the hairy varieties of clover become aggregated 

 into balls in the rumen, and these may reach and block the pylorus 

 or even the entrance to the stomach, becoming wedged between the 

 lips of the esophageal groove. Either would tend to bring on 

 bloating, which is always directly due to the fermentation of food 

 material and the resulting formation and accumulation of gas. 



That cattle prefer the smooth form to the American strains is 

 undoubted. Mr. Jolm P. Young, in cooperation with whom the 

 experiments in N%braska were conducted, states in a recent report 

 that "the cattle fairly lick after every spear in one end of the rick 

 for that Russian strain (No. 16), while the other end remains full of 

 apparently just as good hay, put up at the same time and in the 

 same way." (See PI. I, figs. 1 and 2.) 



SOME GENERAL OBJECTIONS TO THE GROWING OF CLOVER. 



Two great objections have long been made against red clover 

 culture in the area where it can be grown. One is that the hay 

 crop matures at a time when the farmer's best interests demand 

 that he be either cultivating his corn or harvesting his small grains. 

 The other is involved in the fact that perhaps the most satisfac- 

 tory, or at least the most popular method of seeding clover for hay 

 or pasture is in mixtures containing either one or several of a number 

 of grasses, including timothy, bluegrass, rye-grass, orchard grass, 

 redtop, brome-grass, and others. Of these the most important by 

 far is the clover- timothy mixture, and against this it has ever been 

 argued that the clover matures so much in advance of the timothy 

 that the feeding value of either the one or the other is sacrificed on 

 account of the time of harvesting. This serious objection can be 

 overcome in either one of two ways — the discovery or breeding of 

 an earlier strain of timothy or of a later variety of clover. 



Another objection to clover growing which is not infrequently 

 heard is that the crop matures at a time in June when seasons of 

 rainy weather are of frequent occurrence, making difficult or impos- 

 sible the proper harvesting and curing of the crop, while beginning 

 with the latter part of June rainy weather is much less common, 

 conducing to the successful putting up of hay at this time. A 

 cursory examination of the weather records of a num])er of States 

 seems to indicate that there may be some ground for this objection. 



CERTAIN OBJECTIONS OVERCOME BY NEW TYPE OF CLOVER. 



The hairless Orel clover overcomes in an effectual way all the 

 objections cited by maturing practically two weeks later than the 

 domestic strains of medium red clover. This factor is of special 



9& 



