Book VI. CLOVER FAMILY. 803 



by the quality of the soils, and the different purposes of hay, soiling, or one year's pasture, 

 to which the crop is to be applied. When pasture is the object, more seed ought to be 

 allowed than is necessary when the crop is to be cut green for soiling; and for hay, less 

 may suffice than for either of the former. Finely pulverized soils do not require so much 

 seed as clays, on which clover and rye-grass are very frequently sown among autumn or 

 winter-sown wheat, when there is more danger of a part of it perishing from being im- 

 perfectly covered. In general, eight or ten pounds may be taken as the minimum quantity, 

 tliough there have been instances of good crops from less ; and from that to fourteen pounds 

 or more per English statute acre. Rye-grass, commonly at the rate of a bushel per acre, 

 but in many cases only half, or two-thirds of a bushel, is mixed with this weight of 

 clover, and both are sown at the same time. The rye-grass may be either of the peren- 

 nial or annual variety, as it is understood that the herbage is to be continued for only 

 one year ; and the annual is sometimes sown in preference, as producing a bulkier crop 

 than the perennial. 



5000. JFhen it is intended to retain the land in pasture Jor several years, the quantity of 

 red clover is diminished, and several kinds of more permanent herbage are added, the 

 most common of which are white and yellow clover^ and ribwort. No general rule can 

 be laid down as to the proper quantity of each of these kinds ; in some cases red and 

 white clover are sown in equal proportions, and in others the latter is made greatly to 

 predominate. The yellow clover and ribwort are not often sown at the rate of more 

 than two or three pounds per acre. It is scarcely necessary to add, that, in this case, 

 the rye-grass should always be of the perennial sort. 



5001. In the selection of clover and rye-grass seeds particular attention should be paid 

 to their quality and cleanness ; the purple color of the clover seed denotes that it has been 

 ripe and well saved ; and the seeds of weeds may be detected in it by narrow inspection, 

 if there be any ; but various noxious weeds are frequently mixed up with the seeds of the 

 rye-grass, which it is difficult either to discover or to separate from them. Between the 

 seeds of the annual and perennial rye grass, the difference is hardly discernible ; and 

 therefore, unless it is of his own growth, the cultivator must depend in a great measure 

 on the character of the person from whom he purchases it. Red clover from Holland 

 or France, has been found to die out in the season immediately after it has been cut or 

 pastured ; while the English seed produces plants, which stand over the second, many of 

 them the third year {General Report of Scotland, vol. i. p. 537.) ; thus remaining in the 

 latter case four summers in the ground from the time of sowing. 



5002. The after-culture of clover and rye grass consists chiefly of picking off any 

 stones or other hard bodies which may appear on the surface in the spring succeeding 

 that in which it was sown, and cutting out by the roots any thistles, docks, or other large 

 grown weeds. After this the surface should be rolled once to smooth it for the scythe. 

 This operation is best performed in the first dry weather of March. Some give a top- 

 dressing of soot, gypsum, common lime, peat, or wood-ashes at this time or earlier; 

 Gypsum has been particularly recommended as a top dressing for clovers, and the other 

 herbage legumes, because as their ashes afford that substance in considerable quantities, 

 it appears to be a necessary ingredient of their food. Dutch ashes (420.) have been 

 strongly recommended as a top-dressing for red clover, and they also contain gypsum ; 

 but where the soil is in good heart, and contains calcareous matter, any description of top- 

 dressing, though it may be of advantage when it does not interfere with the general 

 economy of the farm, cannot be considered as necessary. {Sup. E. Brit. art. Agr.) 



5003. The taking of the clover, or clover and rye-grass crop, is either by cutting green 

 for soiling, by making into hay, or by pasturing. It is observed in The Code of Agri- 

 culture, that it is a most important point to ascertain, in what cases cutting, or feeding, is 

 most beneficial. If fed, the land has the advantage of the dung and urine of the pastur- 

 ing stock ; but the dung being dropt in irregular quantities, and in the heat of summer, 

 when it is devoured by insects, loses much of its utility. If the dung arising from the 

 herbage, whether consumed in soiling, or as hay, were applied to the land, in one body, 

 and at the proper season, the operation would be more effectual. The smother of a thick 

 crop, continued for any time upon the ground, greatly tends to promote its fertility ; and 

 it has been pretty uniformly found, after repeated trials, upon soils of almost every de- 

 scription, that oats taken after clover that has been cut, either for soiling or hay, is superior 

 to the crop taken after clover pastured by sheep. 



5004. Soiling is a term applied to the practice of cutting herbage crops green for feeding 

 or fattening live stock. On all farms, under correct management, a part of this crop is 

 cut green, for the working horses, often for milk cows, and, in some instances, both for 

 growing and fattening cattle. There can be no doubt of the advantages of this practice, 

 in regard to horses and cows ; but for young, and for fattening beasts, a sufficient number 

 of experiments are not known to have been yet made with any great degree of accuracy. 

 Young animals require exercise in the open air, and, probably, will not be found to thrive 

 so well in houses or fold-yards, during summer, as on pastures ; and though in every 



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