GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 199 



There are two varieties of red clover, known among farmers as &quot;the large&quot; and &quot;small 

 clover.&quot; The large is considered less valuable for hay or pastures, and is little cultivated, as 

 it yields biit a single crop of hay in a season ; but where wanted for manure only it is often 

 preferred to the smaller, on account of its heavy growth. 



Clover has been used as human food for generations by some tribes of Indians. The 

 Digger Indians of California eat it raw, and also cook it by placing a thick layer of green 

 clover between stones that had been previously heated. When young onions or chives and 

 grasshoppers are mingled with the clover, the dish is considered a great luxury! The 

 Apaches make what to them is a very savory and palatable dish, by mixing together clover, 

 pigweed, and dandelions in a vessel, which is afterward filled with water. Heated stones are 

 then put into the vessel, and taken out as soon as their surplus heat is imparted to the 

 water; this process being repeated until the mass is sufficiently cooked. 



Cultivation of Clover. Red clover will grow on almost all soils, except those 

 that are too wet. It will, however, not prove a very profitable crop on very light, sandy soils. 

 &quot;When it is desirable to enrich such soils by green manuring, it is well to sow some other 

 crop for the purpose. Clover is a lime plant, and the soils best adapted to its production are 

 tenacious or stiff loams. 



The analysis of Prof. &quot;Way found 35.39 per cent, of lime in the inorganic constituents 

 of red clover, that of Boussingault 32.80 percent., while the term &quot;clover soils&quot; is now 

 almost universally employed to denote a tenacious loam containing more or less lime in its 

 composition. 



A great advantage in its cultivation, aside from its superior nutritive properties, consists 

 in its rapid and luxuriant growth, but a comparatively short time being required from the 

 time of sowing the seed before it yields an abundant crop, that is greatly relished by stock 

 of all kinds. 



Mr. Gould says: &quot;The best soils for red clover are the best wheat soils; where the one 

 will grow luxuriantly, there will the other grow luxuriantly also. There are loams and 

 friable clays with some admixtures of calcareous matters to which it is well adapted, though 

 it will grow in tolerably stiff clays, if they are not too wet. In thin, sandy soils it is much 

 more liable to freeze out than in stiffer ones, and there seems also to be less of its natural 

 specific food.&quot; 



The growth of clover is known to differ very widely upon soils of the same geologic 

 formation, and to be equally luxuriant upon soils of very different geologic characters. The 

 richest clover region of Ohio is in a belt running east and west near the latitude 41. 



The best portion of this belt is in Monroe County, upon the Hamilton shales, but it grows 

 in equal perfection further west, on the cliff and carniferous limestone of Marion and Han 

 cock Counties. 



One of the finest clover regions of New York is on the Onondaga limestone, which is 

 precisely the same as the Helderberg limestone, being the same deposit; yet the clover grow 

 ing on the same rock around the Helderberg mountains is much less luxuriant. Some of the 

 finest clover that can be grown is found on the Moscow shales in the town of Romulus. 



Clover grows better when it is sown in connection with some other cultivated plant 

 which will give it shade during the early period of its growth; hence, it is generally sown on 

 winter wheat or rye in the spring. The best way of doing this is to sow it on a freshly fallen 

 snow in the latter part of March, which soon melts, and thus leaves the seed to sink into the 

 ground as deep as is desirable without any other care or attention. If it is not convenient to 

 sow it on winter grain, it is put in with oats or barley in the spring, the latter being decidedly 

 preferable. 



In the latter case care must be taken not to bury the seeds too deeply, as they will be 

 assuredly lost, if such is the case. Mr. Stirling, of Glenbervie, in Scotland, experimented 



