48 CLOVER CULTURE. 



in preference, probably on account of some particular flavoi 

 -which they prefer. 'This objection, however, is speedily 

 overcom-e as the seaspn progresses, and it is never found that 

 a crop of white clover is necessarily wasted. Another and 

 more serious objection is that in certain seasons, and par- 

 ticularly during the months when the seed is ripening, it is 

 believed to slobber stock, particularly horses and occasionally 

 hogs, the so-called salivation being believed to be produced 

 by the supposed pungent character of the seeds. It is, how- 

 ever, extremely doubtful whether the white clover is justly 

 blamed for this result. If the salivation is produced by the 

 seeds there is reason to believe that the seeds of the other 

 clovers are equally to blame. It is at least possible that the 

 clobbering is due to wild plants in the pasture. The whole 

 subject should be thoroughly investigated by the various 

 Experiment Stations. It is worthy of notice, however, that 

 whatever may be the objections of farmers on this question, 

 they always disappear \vith the first season of real drouth. 

 The same objections made to this plant ten or fifteen years 

 ago from the State of Iowa now come to us from Kansas and 

 Nebraska where it is being introduced as a grass essential to 

 the permanent pastures. It might be well to remark that in 

 Scotland where it has been grown for nearly three hundred 

 years, many of the best authorities claim that the proportion 

 of white clover in a good permanent pasture should be kept 

 up to twenty or thirty per cent, of the total grasses. This 

 fact shows the high favor in which white clover stands where 

 it has been cultivated the longest. Farmers, therefore, in 

 the newer parts of the West should not hesitate to sow it, and 

 more especially as but little seed, a pound or two r5er acre, 

 is all that is necessary. This will not only seed the ground 

 in a year or two, but the seeds will be carried by birds and 

 ;live stock into all parts of the farm and adjoining farms, and 

 Avill spread over the adjoining country until it ceases to 

 be necessary to seed at all, even where a stand in connec- 

 tion with blue grass is desired. The seeds are about one- 

 third the size of those of the red and mammoth clover and 

 hence the small amount per acre above suggested. 



When it is desired to sow white clover as a part of the 

 permanent pasture, it is always best to sow it witii as great a 

 variety of grass seed as possible, and the mixture should 

 include varieties that will for the first year or two give an 

 abundance of forage. If we were making a permanent pas- 

 ture in which white clover was expected to bear a prominent 



