168 LEGUMINOUS CROPS 



has reached the blossoming and seeding stage, it tends to cause 

 horses pasturing upon it to slobber severely. For this reason it 

 is considered objectionable in pastures intended for horses. 



The plant readily spreads by seed, and by runners, helping to 

 make a very dense covering of the soil. 



Alsike clover is midway in size of stems, leaves and blossom 

 heads between common red clover and the low white clover. It 

 was once thought to have been produced by a crossing of these 

 two clovers. It is more successful than red clover on poor soils, 

 on very dry soils, or very wet soils. Because of its ability to grow 

 on acid soils it is not so much improved by the use of lime as red 

 clover. Because of the fineness of the stems the hay is of good 



FIG. 114. White clover (Trifolium repens) when not pastured becomes tall enough to mow 

 for hay, but the yield is light. 



quality but the yield is small and in many sections only one 

 cutting a year is made. Its fineness of stem makes it easy to cure 

 and the hay is improved partly for this reason. The plant is 

 sometimes spoken of as an annual because it will produce a cutting 

 of hay the year after it is started, if seeded with other grasses or 

 grain in early spring. But under favorable conditions it will live 

 from three to five years, because the roots are less subject to 

 attacks of clover root-borers. The seed is slightly smaller than 

 that of red clover and is sowed at the rate of four to six pounds 

 per acre when mixed with timothy. A crop of seed is easily ob- 

 tained in the northeastern states. Pollenizing is done by the work 

 of common honey-bees and much honey is secured by them from 

 alsike clover. 



