CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 219 



the first loads brought in, not so much with the view of 

 preserving the hay, as of seasoning it, and rendering it 

 more palatable to the cattle. 



The secret of making good hay, says Low, is to pre- 

 pare it as quickly as possible, and with as little exposure 

 to the weather, and as little waste of the natural juices, as 

 circumstances will allow. When we are enabled to do this 

 the hay will be sweet, fragrant, and of a greenish color. 



The produce of clover, on the best soils, is from two 

 to three tons per acre. The difference in quality, resulting 

 from the mode of curing, is apparent from this fact, that 

 well-cured clover, according to Loudon, is generally 

 twenty per cent, higher in the London market than mead- 

 ow hay, or clover and rye-grass mixed. 



As we have before remarked, clover will not perfect 

 its seed in the early part of the season ; therefore it is 

 necessary to take off the first growth, either as a hay 

 crop, or by feeding it off, till June, and to depend for 

 the seed upon those heads that are produced in autumn. 

 The product in seed varies from two to five bushels an 

 acre. When ripe, the heads are gathered, with or with- 

 out the stems, threshed, and the seed separated from the 

 chaff in a clover-seed mill. The seed forms an article 

 of substantial profit with many farmers, and amounts often 

 to more than the rest of the crop. Assuming as an aver- 

 age four bushels to the acre, and estimating it to be worth 

 ten dollars a bushel, the acreable value would be forty 

 dollars. The expense of threshing and cleaning is com- 

 paratively trifling. The stems of the seed crop, if 

 cured in the manner directed for clover hay, are of more 

 value as fodder than straw, and constitute excellent litter 

 for the stables and yards. 



When we take into consideration the value of the first 

 crop for forage, and of the second crop for seed and lit- 

 ter ; and consider, that while clover is one of the least 

 exhausting crops to the soil, it returns more to it than 

 almost any other crop, and benefits it mechanically by 

 pulverizing and dividing it, by its tap-roots ; — if we take 

 these several matters into consideration, together with the 

 facts, that clover is admirably adapted to light, sandy 



