Leguminous Plants for Green Forage and Hay. 187 



yield is not large. At the Illinois Station 1 Hunt and Morrow se- 

 cured 1.2 tons of alsike hay per acre against 2.1 tons of medium 

 clover. Alsike flourishes on land that is too acid or too moist for 

 other clovers, tho it will not grow in really wet soils. While red 

 clover usually dies out the second year, alsike often lives for several 

 years, a feature which greatly increases its value for pasture. 



257. Crimson clover, Trifolium incarnatum. This plant grows 

 best in the region south of New York and east of the Mississippi 

 river, flourishing in the middle Atlantic seaboard states. It has 

 proved vastly helpful to agriculture in Delaware and Maryland. 

 Crimson clover is an annual, thriving best when sown in the fall, 

 in which case it blossoms the following spring, and, producing seed, 

 dies by early summer. While its main use has been to enrich the 

 soil, it furnishes green forage, and makes hay of fair quality when 

 cut early. Garrison of the South Carolina Station 2 reports a yield 

 of over 7 tons of green and 1.75 tons of dry crimson clover per acre. 

 (676) 



The blossom heads of crimson clover are covered with minute 

 barbed hairs, which become rigid as the heads ripen. Coville of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture 3 writes: "If overripe 

 crimson clover is fed to horses, the bristly hairs (of the heads) will 

 accumulate in the stomach or intestines in spherical balls, which 

 are increased in size by repeated additions of the same matter to 

 their surfaces, the whole mass tending to become more compact 

 because most of the hairs, upwardly barbed, are constantly push- 

 ing toward the center, base foremost. When a ball has reached 

 sufficient size, ... it acts as a plug in the intestines, interfering 

 with the vital functions, and finally, after a few hours of intense 

 suffering, the horse dies." This trouble can be averted by cutting 

 and curing crimson clover at the proper stage. Hay from overripe 

 crimson clover and the refuse chaff left when seed is threshed should 

 not be fed to horses. 



258. Japan clover, Lespedeza striata. This plant has proved most 

 helpful to southern agriculture because it adds nitrogen to the soil, 

 binds it together, prevents washing, and furnishes a nutritious food 

 for stock. On sterile land it grows freely but yields pasture only, 

 while under favorable conditions it reaches a height of from 20 to 

 30 inches, furnishing in extreme cases as much as 3 tons of hay per 

 acre, which, according to Tracy, 4 is equal to the best clover hay. 



1 Bui. 15. 3 Div. of Botany, Cir. 8. 



2 Bui. 123. 4 Miss. Expt. Sta., Bui. 20. 



