154 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



select and propagate a hundred varieties of it. Many of 

 these varieties would be superior, too, to the common 

 assortment that one gets in commercial seed. Plants will 

 be found having a weak stem, lying almost as prone on 

 the earth as white clover; others that stand erect; some 

 very leafy; some with leaves of one shape and some with 

 another sort. Time of blooming and color and shape of 

 bloom vary also and, unfortunately, some of the best 

 varieties are poor seed producers. There is also a: white- 

 blooming variety; it is strange that some one does not: 

 propagate it, as it seems to be fully as desirable in man- 

 ner of growth as the red. In my opinion there are not 

 really two species of red clover, common and mammoth, 

 the so-called "mammoth" being a later-blooming form 

 of the common red, and a larger-growing variety. 



Red clover is commonly classed as a biennial, living two 

 years, ripening seed the second year and dying. It is 

 very loosely and irregularly a biennial. Sometimes plants 

 will ripen seed the year they are sown, and sometimes 

 the conditions will be such that a field will mostly bloom 

 and seed the first year. Many of the plants will then 

 die, as seed-bearing is the function for which clover lives ; 

 others will live another year in weakened condition. Most 

 often clover blooms but little the first year, but heavily the 

 second year, forming seed and most of the plants dying. 

 Always a few plants will survive for three or more years, 

 but after bearing seed they do not seem very vigorous or 

 useful. It is safe then to call red clover a biennial. 



Habit of Growth of Red Clover. Red clover sends 

 clown a strong tap root, sometimes to a distance of several 



