54 



PASTURE PLANTS AND PASTURES OF N.Z. 



White Clover (Trifolium repens). White Clover has 

 hairless leaves and stems, and the stems are stolons 

 that is they creep along the ground and root at each 



node. The leaflets are 

 heart-shaped. 



White Clover is 

 one of the most valu- 

 able pasture plants we 

 have. Its palatability 

 is of the highest order, 

 though the amount of 

 feed produced is only 

 moderate. White 

 Clover is not strictly 

 perennial, as the orig- 

 inal plant dies out in 

 a year or two, but the 

 new plants formed by 

 the stolons carry on its 

 life, and besides this 

 the numerous seeds 

 produced from new plants wherever there is a vacant space. 

 The seeds have extraordinary vitality, and will pass through 

 cattle uninjured and germinate freely in the dung. Fields 

 that have not borne white clover for many years will produce 

 an abundance of plants if they happen to be under a fallow 

 crop or a late sown cereal crop in a moist spring. In fields, 

 on light or medium lands, where White Clover has once 

 thriven it is quite unnecessary to sow it again, at least for a 

 great number of years, and the custom of sowing a pound or 

 two of White Clover every time a field is laid down to tem- 

 porary pasture doubtless leads to much waste. For per- 

 manent pasture one or two pounds are usually sown. In 

 districts where White Clover thrives very well so that an 



Fig. 25. White Clover, showing stolon 

 and root (r). (after Percival). 



