803 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



4990. Trifolium incamatum, an annual and native of Italy, has been recommended 

 by an Italian professor to Sir John Sinclair (Farm. Jovr. Avg. 1821); but it is not 

 likely that such a plant, which even as an annual in our garden borders has not a fourth 

 of the vigor of the common clover, should ever be worth culture in this country. 



4991. In the choice of sorts the red or broad clover is the kind most generally culti- 

 vated on land that carries white and green crops alternately, as it yields the largest 

 produce for one crop of all the other sorts. White and yellow clover are seldom sown 

 with it, unless when several years pasturage is intended. 



4992. The soil best adapted for clover is a deep sandy loam, which is favorable to its 

 long tap-roots : but it will grow in any soil, provided it be dry. So congenial is calca- 

 reous matter to clovers, that the mere strewing of lime on some soils will call into action 

 clover-seeds, which it would appear have lain dormant for ages. At least this appears 

 the most obvious way of accounting for the well-known appearance of white clover in 

 such cases. 



4993. The climate most suitable for the clovers, as of most plants, natives of Europe, 

 is one neither very hot nor very dry and cold. Most leguminous plants delight both in 

 a dry soil and climate, and warm temperature, and the clover will be found to produce 

 most seed under such circumstances ; but as the production of seed is only in some 

 situations an object of the farmer's attention, a season rather moist, provided it be warm, 

 is always attended by the most bulky crops of clover herbage. 



4994. The preparation of' the soil and manures, which clover receives in ordinary 

 farm culture, are those destined also for another crop ; clover mixed with a certain pro- 

 portion of rye-grass being generally sown along with or among corn crops, and especially 

 with spring sown wheat, barley, and the early varieties of oats. Unless, however, the 

 soil on which these crops are sown are well pulverized, and have been some years under 

 tillage, clovers will not succeed in them, it being ascertained that newly-broken-up leys 

 or pasture grounds cannot be sown down or restored to clover and grasses, till the soil 

 is thoroughly comminuted, and the roots of the former grasses and herbage plants com- 

 pletely destroyed. 



4995. The time of sowing clover -seeds is generally the spring, during the corn-seed 

 time, or from February to May ; but they may also be sown from August to October, 

 and when they are sown by themselves, that is, unaccompanied by any corn crop, this 

 will be found the best season, as the young plants are less liable to be dried up and im- 

 peded in their progress by the sun, than when sown alone m spring, and remaining 

 tender and unshaded during the hot and dry weather of July. 



4996. Some jtrepare the seed for sowing by steeping in water or in oil, as in Switzer- 

 land, and then mixing it with powdered gypsum, as a preventive to the attacks of 

 insects. 



4997. The manner of sowing is almost always broad,cast. When sown with spring corn, 

 clover and grass-seeds are usually put in immediately after the land has been pulverized by 

 harrowing in the corn-seed, and are themselves covered by one course more of the harrows ; 

 or, if the corn is drilled, the small seeds are sown immediately before or after hand-hoeing ; 

 and the land is then finished by a course of the harrows. A lighter harrow is generally 

 employed in covering such seeds, than that used for corn. When the land is under an 

 autumn sown crop of wheat or other grain, though the clovers and rye-grass are still 

 sown in spring, the proper period must depend both upon the state of the land, and the 

 progress of the crops ; and it may be often advisable to break the crust formed on the 

 surface of tenacious soils, by using the harrow before the clovers are sown, as well as 

 afterwards to cover them. Sometimes the roller only is employed at this time, and there 

 are instances of clover and rye-grass succeeding when sown, without either harrowing or 

 rolling. But it is commonly of advantage to the wheat crop itself, to use the harrows 

 in spring, and the roller alone cannot be depended on, unless the season be very favor- 

 able. In some cases grass-seeds are sown by themselves, either in autumn or spring, but 

 rarely on tillage land. Nature has not determined any precise depth for the seed of red 

 clover more than of other seed. It will grow vigorously from two inches deep, and it 

 will grow when barely covered. Half an inch may be reckoned the most advantageous 

 position in clay soil ; a whole inch in what is light or loose. It is a vulgar error, that 

 small seed ought to be sparingly covered. Misled by that error, farmers commonly cover 

 their clover seed with a bushy branch of thorn ; which not only covers it unequally, but 

 leaves part on the surface to wither in the air. 



4998. In the operation of sowing some consider it best to sow the clover and rye-grass 

 separately, alleging that the weight of the one seed and lightness of the other, are un- 

 favorable to an equal distribution of both. 



4999. The quantity of seed sown on an acre is exceedingly various; not only according 

 as more or less white or yellow clover is sown along with grass-seeds and red clover, or when 

 pasturage is intended, but, even when they are the only kinds sown, the quantity i varied 



