ON THE SCARLET TREFOIL, S87 



Art. LXIII.— on THE SCARLET TREFOIL. 



( Trifolimn Incarnatum.) 



By Mr. Foaker, Kirby, Colchester. 



Immediately after liarvest, sow oi- drill a peck and a half 

 of tlie seed per acre on a wheat stubble, without ploughing-, 

 and harrow it in ; this is all the cultivation necessar}-. 



It has been said that it will not bear out winters ; this 

 may be true when it is brought direct from the south of 

 France, or from Italy. I brought mine from Switzerland, 

 and have had it eighteen years on my land, and I have no 

 doubt it would stand the winter in every county south of the 

 Grampian Hills ; the more sheltered the situation, of course 

 the earlier in sj)ring it will lift its crimson head. On burn- 

 ing soils, where in dry summers the clovers are grilled into 

 tinder, and when the husbandman can take the produce of 

 an acre home in his apron, and the work is hnished; on such 

 lands, half a peck of the trifolium seed (which I will prove 

 presently will cost but one shilling, if the farmer grovvs the 

 seed himself), sown on the young clover directly after 

 liarvest, and harrowed in, would double or treble the crop. 

 I always do it in every field where I am doubtful of the 

 young clover. 



I am not advocating growing the scarlet trefoil as a crop 

 in place of the clover ; this mistake has been made, and it is 

 a great one ; it leaves the land, more particularly light land, 

 in too frothy a state for the wheat crop • it should be sown 

 as a crop after the wheat, not before it. Sheep and lambs 

 prefer it to clover when young, but in blossom are not so par- 

 tial to it; yet, when made into stover, they will eat the whole 

 greedily. Dry land suits it best; in low places on heavy 

 land, where the water stagnates, it is likely to lose })lant. 

 If the farmer gTOws the trifolium seed himself, one acre of 

 tares costs him four times the amoimt of an acre of trifolium ; 

 and I will point out how he may prove himself that one acre 

 of trifolium is worth two of tares. 



The land on which tares are grown is the fallow, and 

 whether the tares are there or not, the rent, the tithes, and 

 parochial expenses must be paid; the land also must be 

 ploughed up in the axitumn, therefore the only fair charge 



