448 On Clovers. 



the scraping's from a road whose material has been mountain 

 or even oolitic limestone, worked up with road-side parings, 

 hedge-refuse, &c., answers best. 



This clover, to the cultivated forms of which the names of 

 Broad-leaved Clover, Annual Clover, and Red Clover are in- 

 differently applied, differs greatly from the wild examples ; prin- 

 cipally, however, in the larger growth, rounded hollow stems (this 

 latter is caused by the pith not quite filling up the centre), 

 and by the general smoothness — absence of pubescence — of its 

 different parts. 



This hollowness of stem has given rise to some absurd theories. 

 It is well known that sheep put into a fresh clover-field in a 

 hungry ("leary"*) state are liable to become "blasted," and 

 this effect is sometimes attributed to the wind in the stalks of 

 common clover! It is, however, a suflficient answer to the 

 assertion to state, that the clover at an early stage of its growth, 

 before the hollowness of the stem is established, is much more 

 dangerous than when the wood is hard and the stem most hollow. 

 So much, however, do some of our west country farmers think 

 that this condition is brought on by the introduction of wind into 

 the stomach, that they often attribute it to the animals being 

 driven against the wind ; and it is quite true that the driving 

 starving sheep in the face of a cold, easterly wind to some early 

 clover, may greatly aggravate the mischief that may ensue, but 

 from a very different cause from that generally supposed. 



Trifolium pratense. Broad-leaved or Red Clover, both when 

 wild and when cultivated, is, perhaps, as protean in form as any 

 plant the farmer has to deal with. Some are more permanent 

 than others ; all are more or less hardy, and all more or less 

 productive, and these differences have a high significance. 

 However, it seldom happens that any particular type can be 

 obtained pure, though the value of the seed varies just in pro- 

 portion as it is so ; for if you have in a field three sorts of 

 clover, one of which flowers a fortnight before the other, one of 

 which has a tendency to vigorous growth while the other is 

 stunted, the luore prolific will take possession of the soil, and 

 overpower its rivals ; while it may incline to become an annual, 

 and so, after awhile, leave the ground to the dominion of weeds. 



There are, then, three desiderata with regard to clover. 



1st. A good sort or sorts. 



2nd. Pure seed of the sort. 



3rd. Seed from a known and suitable climate. 



* " Lear (1.), to learn. — North. 



(2.) Hollow, empty. The lear ribs, the hollow under the rib. — Var. dial. 

 (3.) Pasture for sheep. — Chesh. Stubble land is generally called leers." — Halle- 

 well's ' Dictionary of Provincial and Archaic Words.' 



