76 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



tivated crops are removed, being usually associated with crab-grass. 

 The seed is not usually on the market. (Dept. Agr., Farmers' Bui. 

 455.) 



CRIMSON CLOVER. 



The peculiar value of crimson clover is due to its being a winter 

 annual, sown from the middle of July until late in the autumn. It 

 is especially adapted for sowing in corn and similar crops at the 

 time of the last cultivation, furnishing a cover crop during the winter 

 and preventing washing on light lands. In common with the other 

 clovers it is valuable as a soil improver. The hay is of good quality, 

 if cut just as it comes into flower. If allowed to stand till nearly 

 ripe before cutting, it is of little value, and especially dangerous to 

 feed to horses. As the seed ripens, the barbed hairs in the seed head 

 become stiff and hard, and numerous cases are known where horses 

 fed on ripe crimson clover hay have died from the hairs forming 

 large balls in their stomachs. Crimson clover is distinguished from 

 the other cultivated clovers by its long head of brilliant scarlet 

 blossoms and its erect habit of growth. It grows throughout the 

 milder weather in winter and quickly makes a dense cover to the 

 ground in spring. This can be pastured, cut for hay, or turned 

 under for green manure, depending upon conditions. 



In connection with the comparatively recent introduction of 

 crimson clover as a forage plant and green manure in the United 

 States, the following records of the injurious effect of crimson clover 

 hay under certain conditions will be of interest, and will, it is hoped, 

 enable farmers to avoid serious losses through carelessness in the use 

 of this crop. "With a letter a correspondent forwarded to the De- 

 partment a ball of peculiar appearance, stating that it had been 

 taken from the stomach of a horse which had been eating crimson 

 clover (Trifolium incarnatum), and the death of which was ascribed 

 to the presence of the ball. The statement was also made that a horse 

 from which two similar balls were taken had been lost a few days 

 before. During the preceding year several horses had died in that 

 vicinity under similar conditions, as many as thirty balls having 

 been taken, it is said, from the stomach of a single horse. The 

 Department wished to learn positively whether the balls could have 

 been due to the feeding of crimson clover and whether any preventive 

 could be recommended. About the same time another letter, from 

 an entirely different locality, was received by the Department, accom- 

 panied by a ball taken from the stomach of a horse immediately 

 after death. The statement was made that the horse had worked 

 as usual without any signs of disease up to the time of its fatal illness. 

 The horse was suddenly taken with intense pain and lived only five 

 hours. Another ball similar to that taken from the stomach was 

 found in the large intestine. Several other horses in the vicinity 

 had died the preceding week, all apparently from the same cause, 

 and the farmers had ascribed it to the feeding of crimson clover. 



Though crimson clover has long been in use in Europe as a 

 forage plant, nothing appears to have been published there regarding 

 its liability to form hair balls, and nothing, therefore, regarding 



