CLOVES 



1440 



CLOVIS 



White clover is also very valuable for pas- 

 turage, and its fragrant blossoms furnish nectar 

 for the highest-priced honey on the market. 

 It is seldom grown alone, however, as it does 

 not yield as much as red clover. It is usually 

 mixed with grasses and other clovers. 



Alsike, or Swedish clover, is like the white 

 clover, but has straighter, stouter and more 

 juicy stems. It is strongly recommended for 

 cold, moist, stiff soils, and is the only clover 

 which can be grown by irrigation. 



Then there are the crimson, or Italian clover, 

 used as a cover crop in orchards, sometimes 

 cultivated for grazing and hay, and also raised 

 by florists for ornament; the Dutch, or honey- 

 suckle clover, a good bee plant ; the yellow, or 

 hop clover, of the roadsides; the white sweet or 

 tree clover, so common in prairies; the silky 

 flowered, gray-pink rabbit-foot clover, just an 

 attractive little plant on worn-out lands; and 

 numerous others. 



The value of clover as a soil-improving crop 

 is being realized more and more each year, 

 but in many sections it no longer grows as 

 easily as at one time. In some places certain 

 necessary elements in the soil have been ex- 

 hausted, in others diseases have caused failures 

 of the crop. Covering with straw and burning 

 to prevent spread is the best cure for clover- 

 rust, clover-rot, leaf-spot and dodder, and plow- 

 ing under is advised if one would be rid of 

 the worst clover insect pests. 



Before planting, to obtain a good, clean crop, 

 the seed should be carefully examined and 

 wire-cloth screened to remove weed seeds, 

 especially dodder. Good red clover seed is 

 plump, shiny and colored from violet to light 

 yellow. Toledo, O., is the greatest clover seed 

 market. 



Value of Clover Crop. The United States 

 produces about three and a quarter million tons 

 of clover annually, valued at nearly thirty 

 million dollars. The East North Central states 

 furnish over half that amount, Illinois leading 

 in individual production, followed by Indiana. 

 Almost twenty-five million tons of timothy and 

 clover mixed are produced each year, valued at 

 about $260,000,000. 



The hay and clover crop in Canada amounts 

 to about eleven million tons yearly, valued at 

 $155,000,000, Quebec and Ontario contributing 

 most of the product. M.S. 



CLOVES, klohvz, a spice, the dried, un- 

 opened flower buds of a tree which is a native 

 of the Molucca, or Spice, Islands. It is now 

 .cultivated in Sumatra, Jamaica, the West In- 



dies and Brazil. The tree is a handsome ever- 

 green, from fifteen to thirty feet high, with 

 large, oval, smooth leaves and numerous pur- 

 plish flowers on jointed stalks. When gathered, 

 between October and February, the buds are 



CLOVES 

 Flower, leaves, and cross-section of bud. 



reddish. They are then dried and in the drying 

 process turn dark brown. They yield a very 

 fragrant odor, and have a bitterish, sharp, 

 warm taste. This spice is used chiefly in cook- 

 ing, but yields an oil much prized for flavoring 

 desserts and candy and for scenting soaps. The 

 oil of cloves is also used medicinally; in cases 

 of toothache it will deaden the pain, but it 

 lacks curative properties. The name clove 

 comes from the French word clou, meaning 

 nail, and was suggested by its shape. 



CLOVIS, klo'vis (466-511), a noted warrior 

 and king of the Franks. He was the son of 

 Childeric I, and in 481, at the age of fifteen, 

 succeeded his father on the throne. Clovis was 

 very ambitious, which fact led him into war. 

 When a mere youth he attacked with his army 

 the Roman general Syagrius and completely 

 vanquished him at Soissons, which he afterward 

 made his home. He is said also to have con- 

 quered the whole of Belgica (modern Belgium), 

 of which Rheims was the capital. 



His wife was a Christian princess of Bur- 

 gundy. She greatly desired the conversion of 

 the king, but he remained a pagan until the 

 close of his successful war with the Alemanni, 

 when, in fulfilment of a vow, he was bap- 

 tized at Rheims. This was an important event 

 to the orthodox Christians of Western Europe, 

 who afterward looked to him to support them 

 against the Arians. After the conquest of 



