CLO 



CLO 



91 



should have rings in their noses. 

 Otherwise they will root out the 

 clover. 



Red and white clover are the only 

 sorts known and esteemed in this 

 country ; as to the wild sort,or vari- 

 ety, with a rough leaf,it is of no con- 

 sequence. It is the red clover that 

 is of most importance for mowing. 

 It is a biennial grass, and if it did 

 not sow its own seeds, would en- 

 tirely run out the third year. The 

 white is generally too small and 

 short, unless when it is drawn to a 

 greater height by being mixed with 

 other grasses. 



Many farmers, instead of sowing 

 clean seed of clover, content them- 

 selves with sowing chaff and dust 

 from the floors of their barns- — 

 This is a slovenly and uncertain 

 method, oftentimes attended with 

 great loss. Fowls are usually ad- 

 mitted into barns ; and when this 

 is the case, none can tell how 

 much, or how little of the hay seed 

 remains among the dust : So that 

 the farmer who sows it, may either 

 over-seed his land ; or, which is a 

 more common case, not seed it 

 half enough. A consequence of 

 which last will be, that he will 

 have no good crop of hay from his 

 sowing. He must either plough up 

 his land again, for the mere pur- 

 pose of seeding it with grass, or let 

 it lie useless till the grass gradually 

 gets in ; either of which expedi- 

 ents will be attended with incon- 

 venience and loss. I am aware 

 that farmers, especiall}' those in 

 the northern parts of New-Eng- 

 land, will object, that if grass do 

 not get in the first year, it will the 

 second. But they should consid- 



er that the loss of the first year's 

 crop is considerable. Not only so, 

 but it is losing the best crop that is 

 to be expected from a clover lay ; 

 and the land will beconie bound 

 and weedy, before it is filled with 

 grass roots ; so that no large crop 

 will be had from it afterwards, nor 

 any clean or unmixed crop, from 

 which it will answer to take clean 

 seed. 



The quantity of seed to be sown 

 on an acre, according to the opi- 

 nions of the best European cultiva- 

 tors, is not six or ten as with us, 

 but from fifteen to twenty pounds. 

 By this mode of sowing it grows 

 less rank, lodges less, and is more 

 profitable for soiling and for hay. 



It is no small recommendation 

 of this grass, that it is adapted to a 

 soil, that is suitable for scarcely 

 any other grasses, which are culti- 

 vated in this country ; to a soil that 

 IS dry, light and sandy. It does 

 well also on gravel and loam, 



European farmers recommend 

 sownig it in the spring, after the 

 grain is up, and harrowing it in ; 

 and they tell us the harrowing will 

 not damage the corn, but rather be 

 a service to it, when it is either 

 spring or winter grain. That it 

 should be sowed in the spring is 

 granted, unless it be in countries 

 where there are no severe winter 

 frosts. The young plants, which 

 come up in the fall, cannot bear 

 the frost so well as those which 

 have had a whole summer to bring 

 them on towards maturity. Their 

 reason for not sowing it at the same 

 time as the grain it grows with, is 

 an apprehended danger of its grow- 

 ing so fast as to obstruct the growth 



