A PASTURE HA]ST)B00K: 15 



pastures are kept fairly well grazed it is quite permanent, although it 

 is much more prevalent some years than others. All are very respon- 

 sive to phosphatic fertihzers, and red clover in particular requires 

 neutral or only shghtly acid soils. On strongly acid soils red clover 

 should be omitted from seed mixtures for pastures, and from central 

 Indiana south lespedeza should be substituted for the clovers on such 

 soils. Ladino is a large, highly productive variety of white clover 

 which has proved its value under irrigation in the West and on the 

 more fertile soils in the northeastern part of region 1 . 



Bur-clover is used mostly for winter pasture in the South and the 

 far West. In Arizona and Cahfornia the burs and dry herbage are 

 eaten in summer. In the South it succeeds very well with Bermuda 

 grass or Dallis grass, as it furnishes grazing in the fall, winter, and 

 spring, while Bermuda grass furnishes summer grazing. It is advis- 

 able to graze bur-clover lightly in May in order to allow it to reseed. 

 New seedings of bur-clover should be inoculated if hulled seed is 

 used, but generally sufficient soil adheres to the burs to carry inocula- 

 tion if seeded in the bur. 



The low and least hop clovers are important in some parts of the 

 South and the northern Pacific slope. They furnish early grazing 

 but disappear in June. They combine well with carpet, Dallis, and 

 Bermuda grasses, and with lespedeza in the South; also with bluegrass 

 and redtop in section 1-b. Seed of Trijolium dubium is available in 

 quantity and that of T. procumbens in hmited amounts in Tennessee. 



Cluster clover {Trijolium glomeratum) is a winter annual which 

 has done weU at McNeiU, Miss., where it is called McNeill clover. 

 The seeds germinate in the fall, and the plants grow rapidly in early 

 spring so that grazing can begin in late February and lasts till June. 

 Cluster clover fits in well, therefore, with Bermuda and carpet grasses 

 and materially lengthens the grazing season. 



While experimental data are incomplete, there is reason to believe 

 that cluster clover is not rehably hardy much farther north than the 

 cut-over pine area in the Coastal Plains and that its chief place will be 

 on such lands in the southern half of region 2. 



Persian clover {Trifolium resupinatum) is a winter annual suited to 

 moist rich land wherever winters are mild. Its value is still much in 

 doubt, since where it thrives best white clover also does well as a 

 winter and early-spring grazing crop, and Persian clover has not 

 shown any superiority over white clover. Persian clover makes its 

 greatest growth about May, at which time it is high enough to cut for 

 hay; soon after that it matures seed and dies. 



Ladino clover is a giant strain of wliite clover that is best adapted to 

 irrigated sections in the West and to the humid Northeast. \Miere 

 soil moisture is abundant Ladino clover is one of the most productive 

 pastures known, but it should not be grazed continuously, and there 

 is some danger of causing livestock to bloat. It prefers a rich soil and 

 on the poorer soils responds markedly to phosphate fertihzer. 



