THE CLOVERS 



Until recently Red Clover was the most important 

 leguminous crop known to American agriculture. It is 

 still so in the eastern United States, but in western regions 

 it has been eclipsed by Alfalfa, which seems likely also to 

 largely supplant the clover in the east. Two important 

 forms of Red Clover are grown: the Common or June 

 Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) and the Mammoth 

 Red Clover {YdLUQiy perenne). The former is smaller, 

 ripens earlier, and dies sooner than the latter, which by 

 contrast is larger, ripens later, and lives longer. 



Two other important clovers are the Crimson and the 

 Alsike Clover. The former is largely used as a cover 

 crop in orchards and the latter as a forage crop for 

 meadows and temporary pastures. Neither of them, 

 however, is so largely grown as Alfalfa or the Red Clovers. 



Clovers in Rotations 



The Clovers, especially the Red varieties, have long 

 been recognized as an essential crop for any good system 

 of crop rotation. Long before the way in which the 

 legumes are able to collect nitrogen from the air and 

 add it to the soil was understood, it was known that 

 they did increase the supply of nitrogen. So they were 

 largely grown to plow under as green manures and they 

 still hold a very important place in this respect. 



Clover will not thrive upon an acid soil. The nodule- 

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