204 NORTHEAST EXPERIMENT FARM. 
one field of 3.37 acres was cut in the fall and gave 1.15 tons 
per acre. Ona second field of 15 acres, a portion was cut,a 
part pastured, and the rest plowed under. The year tollow- 
ing, the land that had this clover plowed in yielded 35 bu. 
oats and 14.5 bu. wheat, with a good development of straw 
in spite of the dry spring, while on some other fields the 
straw was scarcely long enough to harvest and yield very 
low. A part of this difference at least, should be credited to 
the clover. Again, in 1902, two fields, or about seven acres 
were plowed under about Sept. 5th when the clover was one 
foot to 18 inches high. Another field of 2.5 acres pastured 
75 sheep from Sept. 19th to Oct. 6th, furnishing in that time 
about two-thirds of their feed. A fourth field of 10.3 acres 
was divided, seven acres, already mentioned gave 10.3 tons 
of clover. The other 3.3 acres pastured 12 head of cattle 
from Sept. 15th till the second week in October. They ran in 
it after this date. 
Clover will often grow with such luxuriance in the year 
it is seeded that it producesa large amount of foliage by fall. 
If stock are allowed to run on this during August and early 
September when the clover is getting its strength and stor- 
ing up food inits roots for winter, with which to make the 
growth of the following spring, it cannot help but greatly 
damage if not utterly ruin the prospects of a crop. The 
leaves are the lungs and stomach of the plant and it cannot 
grow without them. But it is reasonable to suppose that 
after the-middle of September, or later, the functions of the 
leaves have to a certain extent been performed, and it may 
be a matter of economy to pasture them off rather than let 
the frost harvest them. But rather than create the impres- 
sion that this fall pasturing can do no harm, at any time, it 
would be better to take an absolutestand against it. Prac- 
tice indicates that yery late pasturing of very heavy seeding 
is not detrimental. The field which gave the heaviest yields 
in 1902, was pastured inthe latter part of Sept. 1901, by 
cows, for three weeks, evidently with no evil results. Fur- 
ther experiments are being conducted along this line. 
Clover, while so valuable acrop, both forits first and 
second crop, is not so easily cured in this latitude as could be 
wished. Promptness, and the cutting of the hay in cloudy 
