160 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



the second year and putting the land to some crop that 

 will utilize the fertility that it has stored. Corn or po- 

 tato seems the best crop for this place. 



Sowing Clover Mixtures. I have found that mixtures 

 of clovers result in heavier growths and better forage than 

 red clover alone. This is especially true when the clover 

 is to be pastured. A mixture of red, mammoth and alsike 

 clovers with a dash of little white clover and a goodly 

 sprinkling of alfalfa has with us resulted in astonishingly 

 good pasturage throughout the season. With this can be 

 sown timothy if it is for subsequent mowing, though it is 

 not of much use if it is to stand for but one season. How- 

 ever, the seed is cheap and it will at least repay that much. 



Mammoth Clover. This was until recently called Tri- 

 folium medium, now Trifolium perenne. It seems rather 

 a distinct variety, maturing later, being of coarser growth 

 and lasting longer in the ground. While I accept it is a 

 distinct variety, yet the common beliefs concerning it are 

 mistaken. It has been held that mammoth clover was 

 worthless for hay ; that it would not grow after being cut, 

 so that two cuttings could not be taken off in one year, 

 and that it had little or no value for pasture. The clover, 

 as I have observed it, is simply a later-blooming, later- 

 maturing variety of common red clover, and there are all 

 sorts of intermediates between, perhaps caused by cross- 

 fertilization of the blossoms by insects. Mammoth clover 

 makes good hay if cut soon enough, though it is coarser 

 in stem than the common clover ; if cut early it will make 

 a second growth the same year, and it makes good graz- 

 ing for stock. For poor soils mammoth clover is doubt- 



