CUI/TURE. 81 



of the magnitude of the crop and the high price of labor. It 

 is by no means difficult to secure a crop of clover hay under 

 these conditions, provided it be allowed to stand until the 

 heads are nearly all turned brown and the stalks have parted 

 with a large amount .of their water content; but the hay is by 

 this delay very seriously damaged in quality. Wit(i the or- 

 dinary farmer hay is hay, and, hay made in its best estate, is 

 regarded as but little superior to hay made from clover which 

 has become largely woody fiber and therefore to a great extent 

 indigestible. The farmer has no means of determining the 

 food value of this hay, nor of comparing it with clover hay 

 made in its best estate. He notices that some seasons his 

 cattle eat a very large amount of it, and at other seasons a 

 comparatively small amount, with about the same final ap- 

 parent result in thrift, but he attributes this difference in the 

 spending quality to the temperature, or to the previous con- 

 dition of the cattle and other stock, whereas it may lie almost 

 wholly in the difference in the nutritive value of the hay fed, 

 due to the time of cutting and manner of curing. We know 

 of no experiments covering this ground, and hence are obliged 

 to fall back on certain well-known principles, namely, that 

 all grasses after they have passed their bloom, with the possi- 

 ble exception of timothy, develop woody fiber very rapidly, 

 and that this woody fiber is to a very great extent indigestible 

 and hence useless. Corn fodder cut when the ears are glazed 

 as compared with corn fodder cut when the blades are brown; 

 furnishes an example of the change that goes on in clover. 

 It is, therefore, an easy matter to make clover hay in the West v 

 provided it is allowed to stand until half its nutritive value is 

 lost; it is often a very difficult matter when cut with the 

 maximum of nutriment in the plant. It is as near that point 

 as possible when in full bloom. On account of the difference 

 in the blooming period in any one field, the central heads of 

 the stalk or branch blooming first, and the later and earlier 

 varieties being grouped under the one term, red clover, the 

 farmer is obliged to allow about one- third of the heads to turn 

 in order to get the maximum of bloom. 



In dealing with clover, it must always be bofne in mind 

 that it is a wonderful evaporator of moisture. That is the 

 habit of its entire life. All close observers are familiar with 

 this fact, that no matter how thoroughly saturated the soil of 

 the clover field may be by recent rains which the magnitude 

 of the crop will not allow to run off, it soon becomes dry, and 

 that solely through the enormous evaporation from the leaves. 



