LEGUMINOUS FORAGE CROPS 167 



183. Seed and Seeding. White clover is rarely adulterated, 

 but old seeds have been rubbed with flowers of sulphur to give 

 them a fresh yellow color. The weed seeds are about the same 

 as those occurring in red clover. Commercial seed, about 800,- 

 ooo to the pound, should have the same standard of purity and 

 of germination as alsike clover, 98 and 75 per cent, respectively. 

 The plant seeds freely: European authorities 

 report 4 to 15 bushels an acre. The seed may 

 evidently remain in the soil several years and 

 still grow. Its viability is, therefore, con- 

 sidered better than that of other clovers, al- 

 though this has not been proved. The per- 

 centage of "hard" or dormant seeds is said to 

 be higher than in red clover. Stebler examined white clover. Pod 

 a pound of the dried residue from liquid ma- ^J^ 1 ^ ^ 

 nure which had been left in a barrel and Enlarged four times. 

 found it to contain 5,370 seeds with a 

 germinating power of 62 per cent. The reason for the occur- 

 rence of white clover in fields which have been manured with 

 stable manure is not far to seek. According to Darwin's ex- 

 periments, white clover may produce seed sparingly without 

 the intervention of insects, but most of the seed is produced 

 by cross-fertilization. 



Considerable white clover seed is harvested in eastern Wis- 

 consin. The seed is produced in the first crop. In Wisconsin 

 it is harvested from July 20 to August i. Self-seeded fields 

 furnish the bulk of the crop, from which it is cut year after 

 year. When the growth is large enough the buncher is used. 

 (165) Otherwise there is attached to the cutter bar of the 

 mowing-machine a platform made of galvanized iron. Holes 

 are drilled through the back of the bar and the platform at- 

 tached with bolts. As the clover gathers upon this platform, a 

 man following the machine rakes it off into bunches. After 

 curing a few days it is threshed with the clover huller. (166) 



White clover is not largely sown, but finds its way into 



