23^ 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 



-'iJ-; 



Pig. 86. White clover. (This 



and other 

 drawings bearing the same monogram pre- 

 pared by Miss Olive N. Tuttle for this book. 



lion for subsequent crops. 

 Most other crops deplete 

 the soil, but the clovers 

 enrich it, and restore its 

 ftTtility. 



The clovers also furnish 

 the finest of the honey- 

 crop — especially white 

 clover, which fills the land 

 with the fragrance of its 

 nectar in June. Among 

 them are excellent soil- 

 binders for holding togeth- 

 er the surface layers of 

 eroding hill slopes; excel- 

 lent cover-crops for the orchard in the 



dr>^ season; and excellent plants for the 



la\sTi and the fence-row. 



And besides all these very practical 



matters, there is their beauty ! Crimson 



clover, red clover, white clover— what 



neatness and elegance of design in the 



single sprays; what beauty of leaf form; 



what freshness of flowers ! And in mass, 



also, they give fine landscape effects — 



the red outspread over the plain like a 



carpet of roses; the white sprinkled 



over the green hills like flakes of 



fugitive snow. 



All the clovers are deep-rooting herbs 



that grow in spreading tufts and bear 



trifoliate leaves, having stipules at the 



base of the leaf -stalk. They have small 



flowers in clusters, and short, few-seeded fk.. 87. Red clover. 



