CLOVER CULTURE. 25 



dant aftermath, we advise in every case to select the common 

 red, as there are probably two or three varieties, different in 

 the color of the blossom, in size and in maturity, and it would 

 not be difficult by selection to develop a variety with pure, 

 white blossoms, another with deep red arid still others with 

 minor shades, and with essential differences in growth and 

 in the time of maturity. Possibly in the near future this may 

 be done. These differences would seem to indicate that the 

 mammoth was the original type, and that the different varie- 

 ties of common red are simply variations from this type, the 

 effect of soil and climate, or in other words, of environment. 



As stated in a previous chapter, we regard the mammoth 

 simply as a late-maturing variety of the red, and not a differ- 

 ent species. The differences between them were regarded by 

 Linnaeus as sufficient to justify a different classification, and 

 he styled the common red, trifolium pratense and the mam- 

 moth trifolium medium. According to Prof. W. J. Beal, of the 

 Chair of Botany in the Michigan Agricultural College, in his 

 standard work on the grasses, page 346, the two species 

 freely cross, and show all grades of intermediate forms. 

 This would indicate that the distinctions are not so great as 

 to justify the earlier classification; We have, therefore, in 

 this work, where minute scientific accuracy is not the aim ex- 

 cept in so far as it seems essential to the practical guidance of 

 the farmer, treated them as different forms of one species, 

 without presuming to settle the question as to whether the 

 distinction heretofore made is scientifically correct or not. 

 The original differences may be seen by comparing the illus- 

 trations on pages 28 and 29, as taken from Sudlow. It 

 might, however, be somewhat difficult to find in any field o 

 mixed Mammoth and common red clover two plants that vary 

 quite as widely as the two illustrations. 



On tarms where the main object in growing clover is to> 

 increase fertility, where it is not essential to secure a crop of 

 hay from every seeding of clover, and where it is desired to 

 procure a reasonably certain crop of seed as a money crop, the 

 mammoth should be preferred. The mammoth may also be 

 used with advantage on thin soils, and especially at their first 

 deeding, for the reason that on these soils it does not develop, 

 to the same extent at least, the objection that is urged against 

 it where on ordinary soils a hay crop is to be secured. This 

 objection is that it grows so rank and lodges so early that the 

 lower foot or eighteen inches of the stock becomes black and 

 entirely void of leaves and that the stalk is so coarse that it 



