358 Cultivation of Arable Land -Red Clover After-management of. 



ftate of fertility may be advantageous in preferving and invigorating the plants ; 

 but under other circumftances it is not ncceffary. There is, however, another cafe 

 in which the ufe of what is termed long ftable dung, when not in the ftate of 

 fermentation, may be found ufeful, by preventing the young plants from being too 

 clofely nibbled and eaten up by fhcep, which is that where the land is in the Itate 

 of commonage.* 



But when the clovers are to be continued for two or more years, the application 

 of a thin coat of manure, in the autumn or fpring feafon, is a practice from which 

 great benefit may be derived, efpecially on lands that are in the lefs perfect ftate 

 of heart. Jn the dryer forts of foil this bulinefs may probably be done with 

 the grcateft advantage about the latter end of February ; but where the lands are 

 foft, retentive of moi (lure, and poachy, the early part of the autumn, while the 

 ground is fufficiently hard, may be the molt fuitable feafon for the purpofe. Well- 

 rotted dung is perhaps the molt proper in thefe cafes. By performing the work 

 at this period there is lefs danger of the clover plants dying away in the winter 

 than is the cafe under other circumftances. -) At whatever feafon the manure may 

 be applied, it fh uld be fpread out over the furface in as even a manner as poflible, 

 and beaten perfectly fine. It is the practice in fome places to fow coal-ames over 

 the young clovers, in the latter end of January or the beginning of the following 

 month, w hen they are intended to be mown in the following fummer, in the pro 

 portion of about thirty bulhcls to the acre, by which means the crops are rendered 

 more abundant and the plants better preferved.J 



The methods of difpofing of crops of this fort are either by mowing them for 

 hay, cutting them occasionally as green food for different forts of live flock, or 

 feeding them down with cattle, Iheep, and other animals. 



Inthefirft mode a large quantity of hay for the purpofe of feeding working 

 horfes may be procured with but little expence or trouble. In thefe cafes the crops 

 fhculd be mown as foon as moft of the heads are in full blow, before they begin 

 to turn of a brown colour and die away. The moft proper time may be known 

 by attending to the foliage on the bottom parts of the plants, as when the leaves 

 on thefe begin to drop off and decay the crop mould be cut as foon as poflible, as 

 by ftanding afterwards it will lofe more in the bottom than it can gain in the top. 

 The crops ufually attain this ftate fome time about the middle of June, according 

 to the nature of the foil. Though it is fuppofedr by fome that clover takes lefs 

 harm by ftanding, after it is in a condition for being mown, than many other forts 



* Corrected Report of MiJdlefcx. t Ibui. J Hertfordflure Report, and Annals of Agriculture. 



Corretted Report of Middlelex. 



