985 



CLOVER. 



CLUB. 



8G 



France, are not so generally cultivated as the biennial, which pro- 

 duces a greater crop, and being sown along with the spring corn comes 

 up the first year under its shade, and gives a full crop in the second. 

 In good land it will sometimes stand another year, but it falls off in 

 quantity ; and unless other artificial grasses or perennial clovers have 

 been sown amongst it, to fill up the places where the biennial clover 

 has failed, it is seldom profitable to allow it to remain on the ground 

 more than one year after that in which it is sown. 



The most approved variety of the biennial clovers is the common 

 red or broad clover (Trifolium pratense), which is usually sown with 

 barley or oats, or sometimes among wheat or rye in spring. When 

 these are drilled and hoed there is an advantage in sowing the clover 

 seed among a crop which is already advanced in growth, because it is 

 kept under, and there is no danger of its injuring the chief crop by its 

 too great luxuriance. There is however some risk of the clover not 

 coining up so well, if the wheat or rye is very close on the ground. In 

 Scotland clover is often sown among wheat, in Norfolk invariably with 

 barley, and in Belgium among rye. This depends on the various rota- 

 tions adopted in different countries. The first crop is generally mown 

 and made into hay. In this process great care is taken not to break off 

 the tender leaves of the plant in drying ; the swathe ia not shaken out 

 as is done with meadow grass, but merely turned over ; and if the 

 clover can be dried and put in a stack without any shaking, it is so 

 much the more valuable. When clover is soaked with rain, no hope 

 of an improvement in the stack must induce the fanner to carry it 

 together, so long as the least moisture remains. If it is allowed to stay 

 in the field till it is perfectly dry, even when it has been soaked 

 repeatedly and is nearly black, and is then trod hard in a rick with a 

 sprinkling of salt over each layer, it will be readily eaten by cattle in 

 winter, and be far more nutritious than that which, having been 

 stacked in a moist state, will infallibly come out musty. A very good 

 method in those seasons when a continuance of dry weather cannot be 

 reckoned upon particularly when the second crop is cut in September 

 is to take advantage of two or three dry days to cut the clover, and 

 turn it as soon as the dew ia completely dried off the upper side ; the 

 next day do the same, and in the evening carry the green dry clover 

 and lay it in alternate layers with sweet straw, so as to form a mode- 

 rately sized stack. A fermentation will soon arise, but the dry straw 

 will prevent all danger from too much heating, and, acquiring the 

 flavour of the clover, will be eaten with avidity by the cattle. To 

 those who make clover-hay for the use of their own stock in winter, we 

 recommend this as preferable to the common method, even when there 

 is less danger from the weather. In northern climates it would pro- 

 bably save the crop two years out of three. 



It is usual to sow rye-grass (Loliitm perenne) in a small proportion 

 with clover seed, especially where clover, having been often repeated 

 on the same land, is apt to fail. It is a good practice ; and although 

 in the neighbourhood of London the unmixed clover obtains a better 

 price, there is no reason why it should be preferred, unless the rye- 

 grass has been allowed to stand too long and has grown hard. Young 

 rye-grass is a good corrective of the heating qualities of clover-hay. A 

 very extensive use of clover-hay in London is to cut it into chaff, and 

 to mix with oats and beans for dray horses, which have little or no hay 

 given them in any other way ; but the most profitable use of clover 

 i.s to cut it green for horses and cattle. With a little management 

 and the assistance of tares, green food may be given to all the stock 

 from the first day of May to the end of November. 



The land which has borne clover, although in a very good state for 

 producing corn, will not bear a repetition of that crop until several other 

 crops have intervened. In the regular Norfolk rotation, clover should 

 recur every fourth year ; but after a few rotations this is found to be 

 too quick a recurrence, and other grass seeds or pulse are substituted. 



The white or Dutch clover (Trifolium repens) is a perennial, which 

 grows rapidly, and forms excellent pasture ; but its bulk is not sufficient 

 to make it profitable to mow it for hay. It is excellent for sheep, Which 

 thrive well upon it. A light calcareous soil is best adapted for white 

 clover ; but it also grows well on heavy land, provided the bottom be 

 Round 'and dry. When land is laid down for permanent pasture, 

 white clover is always sown in considerable proportion with other 



Another perennial clover, called cow grass (Trifolium medium), is 

 found in all rich meadows. It is often sown in conjunction with the 

 white clover, in laying down arable land to grass. The lesser yellow 

 trefoil (Trifolium minm), and the hop trefoil (Trifolium procumbens), 

 are also valuable varieties found in good pastures. 



The only annual clover which is cultivated is the French clover 

 (Trifolium incarnatum), mentioned before. It is a most valuable 

 addition to the plants usually sown for fodder, from the short time in 

 which it arrives at perfection, if sown in spring ; so that where clover 

 has failed, this may be sown to fill up the bare places. Its principal 

 use is to raise very early food for ewes and lambs, which it does with 

 very little trouble or expense. Immediately after harvest, the stubble 

 is scarified and harrowed so as to raise a mould ; the Trifolium is sown 

 at the rate of 16 to 20 Ibs. per acre, and well rolled in. It springs up 

 and stands the winter well, and with the first genial weather in spring 

 it grows rapidly. It makes a coarse but tolerable hay, and what is left 

 produces seed most abundantly in the beginning of June, being 

 off the ground in good time to plough the land and clean it for turnips, 



[t is far superior to stubble turnips as an intervening crop, and more 

 rapid in its growth than tares. On light land a crop of turnips is 

 readily obtained after it. It has the property of smothering annual 

 weeds by its rapid growth, and for this reason is not so well adapted 

 for sowing with a crop of corn. The Italian rye-grass (Lolium pertune 

 Italicum) may be sown with it, and will grow as rapidly. After the 

 Trifolium has been cut, this will continue and give an excellent second 

 crop. It is advisable to have fresh seeds from southern climates from 

 time to time, or it will probably become later every year by assimilation 

 to the climate. English seed of the first year after importation seems 

 the best, being heavier and more free from weeds than the foreign. 



Some agriculturists have objected to the practice of sowing clover 

 with a crop of corn ; they prefer hoeing the intervals between the 

 rows of the drilled crops, by which the weeds are better kept down. 

 They plough the land immediately after harvest, and, harrowing it 

 well, they sow clover and grass seeds, which come in nearly as soon the 

 next year as if they had been sown in the preceding spring ; and the 

 land, when broken up, is in a much cleaner state than if the clover had 

 been sown with the corn. If this be not an improvement in the 

 system, it is at least worthy of notice, and experience alone can decide 

 whether the additional expense of ploughing is repaid by the improve- 

 ment in the crop. 



In France, and in the United States of North America, gypsum is 

 considered as a specific manure for clover. It is sown by hand over 

 the plant in spring ; and in some situations the advantage is evident, 

 in others scarcely observable. The quantity used is from three to 

 eight bushels of finely powdered gypsum per acre. 



On good laud, an acre of clover will produce as much as three tons 

 and a half of dry hay ; that is, two tons the first cutting, and one and 

 a half the second. Greater crops are obtained on very highly manured 

 land. The value of a ton of clover-hay to feed horses with is about 

 15 or 20 per cent, more than good meadow-hay. It is not however so 

 for good milch cows. 



When clover is intended to be left to ripen its seeds, it should be 

 mown early, or fed off by sheep in May. The first crop is seldom free 

 from various seeds of other plants which rise among the clover ; by 

 feeding it down or mowing it these are destroyed, and the clover, 

 which grows more rapidly than most other plants, rises again without 

 any mixture of weeds. When the blossom is thoroughly withered, and 

 the seed is nearly ripe, the clover is mown and left to dry on the 

 ground without much shaking. In very dry weather it may be housed 

 or stacked in a week ; but the process is much retarded by showers 

 and want of sunshine. It is, therefore, only in the drier parts of the 

 island that clover-seed repays the expense and risk of cultivation, espe- 

 cially as it is well known that the subsequent crop suffers if the clover 

 is allowed to stand for seed. It is seldom, therefore, that more seed is 

 saved, even in the most favourable situations and seasons, than is 

 required for the farm or immediate neighbourhood. The demand 

 from the north, where clover is sown to a great extent, could not be 

 supplied without a considerable importation from abroad; and the 

 importation of clover-seed from Belgium and Holland is very consider- 

 able, as it is more advantageous to purchase foreign seed than to raise 

 it, except in the case of the Trifolium incarnatum t vrhich produces early 

 and abundant seed. Foreign clover-seed should be well examined when 

 it is purchased, as it frequently contains the seeds of docks and other 

 noxious weeds. The usual mode of doing this is very simple. The 

 thumb is moistened and pressed on the sample, some of the seeds 

 adhere, and when it is turned up the quality is distinctly seen by the 

 colour and plumpness of the seeds. If any seeds of weeds are in it, they 

 must be detected after a few insertions of the thumb. As the calyx of 

 the flower of clover envelopes the seed closely, it is^diffieult to separate 

 them. Threshing-machines for this purpose are "in use; but if the 

 heads, after being separated from the haulm, are put together in a heap 

 and pressed, a slight fermentation takes place, and this makes the calyx 

 brittle, so that it breaks into dust, and the seed comes out readily ; it 

 is then easily cleared by the fan. 



When the seed is not intended for the market, the trouble of dealing 

 it of the husk may be saved, especially in the Trifolium imarnatum. 

 It will grow as well when sown with the husk as when cleaned ; and it 

 is easy to find the proportion required to be sown in that state by 

 allowing for the weight of the husk. 



CLOVES. [CARYOPHYLLUS.] 



CLUB is defined by Johnson to be " an assembly of good fellows, 

 meeting under certain conditions; " but by Todd, "an association of 

 persons subjected to particular rules." It is plain that the latter defi- 

 nition is at least not that of a club as distinguished from any other 

 kind of association, although it may not be more comprehensive than 

 is necessary to take in all the associations that in modern times have 

 assumed the name of clubs. Johnson's, however, is the more exact 

 account of the true old English club. 



It might not be quite safe to make a positive assertion as to the 

 antiquity either of the name or the thing in England. But the earliest 

 clubs remembered in our popular literature date about the end of the 

 16th or the beginning of the 17th century. It was then that there 

 was established the famous club at the Mermaid Tavern, in Friday 

 Street, of which Shakespere, Beaumont, Fletcher, Raleigh, Selden, 

 Donne, &c., were members. 

 Ben Jonson had another club, of which he appears to have been 



