FORAGE CROPS 107 



year the plants produce blossoms and are cut for hay. Red 

 clover soon grows up again after being cut and blossoms the 

 second time. This second crop can be cut for hay or be 

 allowed to ripen and be cut for seed. When a plant goes to 

 seed it usually dies and there is no plant for next year. 



Making Clover Hay. — In cutting clover for hay, the green 

 plants are cut when about one-third of the blossoms have 

 begun to turn brown. At this time the clover plants will 

 make the most nutritious hay. The cut plants are allowed to 

 lie in the swath until almost dry, when they are raked into 

 windrows where they may dry more. Then the windrows 

 are gathered in piles or haycocks. These may stand in 

 the field a day or two or be hauled to the barn at once. In 

 making hay from any of the clovers, it should be the aim of 

 the farmer to save all the leaves, for they contain much food 

 material. 



Mammoth Clover. — This is also called Big English clover 

 and sometimes Pea-vine clover. It grows larger than the red 

 clover and makes only one crop in a season. Mammoth clover 

 can be told from red clover by the absence of the crescent- 

 shaped light green spot on its leaflets, which is found on the 

 leaflets of red clover, and by its larger size and later blossoming. 

 Mammoth clover grows well on wetter soil than red clover. 

 The seed is sown at the same time and at the same rate as 

 red clover. Mammoth clover does not make quite as good 

 hay as the red clover, because it is coarser and has more fuzz 

 on the stems, which makes the hay dusty. Dusty hay gives 

 horses the heaves. Mammoth clover does well to grow with 

 timothy for mixed hay, because the two plants blossom to- 

 gether. Red clover can be grown best with orchard grass, 

 for their time of blossoming is the same. 



