96 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 



the mode of curing it, with the results of practical experience 

 as to its value, will also be given in their proper place. 



White CloVer, Dutch Clover, Honeysuckle, (irifolivm 

 repens,') is equally common with the red, and often forms a very 

 considerable portion of the sward or turf of pastures and fields 

 of a tenacious and moist soil. Specific description : Stems 

 spreading, slender and creeping, leaves inversely heart-shaped, 

 flower heads small, white, pods four seeded, root perennial. 

 Flowers from May to September. Fig. 89. A magnified flower 

 is seen Fig. 90. 



White clover is widely diffused over this country and all the 

 countries of Europe. It is indigenous probably both to England 

 and America. Wlien first cultivated from seed collected from 

 wild plants, at the beginning of the last century, it was recorded 

 of a farmer that he had " sowed the wild white clover which 

 holds the ground and decays not." Its chief value is as a pas- 

 ture grass, and it is as valuable for that purpose as the red 

 clover is for hay or for soiling, though there are some who place 

 a low estimate upon it. It easily accommodates itself to a 

 great variety of soils, but grows most luxuriantly in moist 

 grounds and moist or wet seasons. . Indeed, it depends so much 

 upon a general distri])ution of rains through the season, that 

 when they are sufficiently abundant it conies in profusely even 

 where it was not observed in other years, and hence such sea- 

 sons pass under the term of " clover years." It is not appar- 

 ently so much relished by stock as from its sweetness we should 

 be led to expect, but it is, on the whole, to be cherished for 

 permanent pastures, and improved, as it undoubtedly may be, 

 by a proper selection and culture of varieties. For an accurate 

 analysis of this plant the reader is referred to a subsequent 

 page. 



Lucerne, Alfalfa, (medicago saliva, Fig. 91.) This genus 

 of leguminous plants has been known and cultivated from time 

 immemorial. This particular species, lucerne, was brought 

 from ^Icdiato Greece in the time of Darius, about five hundred 

 years l)cfore Christ, and its cultivation afterwards extended 

 among tlie Romans, and througli them to the south of France, 

 where it has ever since continued to be a favorite forage plant. 

 It does not endure a climate as severe as red clover, requiring 

 greater heat and sunlight ; but in a latitude equally suited to 



