CHAPTER XVI 



RED CLOVER 



RED clover is the most important of all leguminous 

 forage crops both on account of its high value as feed and 

 from the fact that it can be so well employed in rotations. 

 The last decade has witnessed a serious decline in the 

 acreage grown in most of the eastern states, apparently due 

 to an increasing difficulty in securing satisfactory stands. 



422. Botany of red clover. The plant occurs naturally 

 in the greater part of Europe ; in Algiers, northern Africa ; 

 and is found in Asia Minor, Armenia, Turkestan, southern 

 Siberia and the Himalayas. 



A large number of forms have been named by botanists, 

 Ascherson and Graebner describing 30 varieties from 

 middle Europe alone. 



423. Agricultural history. Red clover was not known 

 as a crop by the ancient Greeks and Romans. It was 

 apparently first cultivated in Media and south of the 

 Caspian Sea, in the same general region where alfalfa 

 was first domesticated. In Europe its use as an agri- 

 cultural plant is comparatively modern, the first mention 

 of its use as feed for cows being by Albertus Magnus in 

 the thirteenth century. There are definite . records of 

 its cultivation in Italy in 1550, in Flanders in 1566, in 

 France in 1583. From Flanders it was introduced into 

 England in 1645, and shortly afterwards its culture was 

 described in several books. Its use in Europe became 

 extensive about the end of the eighteenth century. 



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