THE CLOVERS 115 



the plants will contain about all the nutrients they ever will have, and the 

 product will cure readily and make a palatable, digestible hay. After this 

 period the lower leaves begin to fall rather rapidly and the clover is apt to 

 lodge so that loss takes place. 



When used for soiling purposes, cutting may begin as soon as the first 

 blossoms appear, and continue until the crop is fairly mature. When used 

 for silage, the plants should be fully as mature as when cut for hay. If 

 cut too green it makes a sloppy, sour silage of poor quality. When used 

 for silage, clover gives best results when mixed with non-leguminous crops. 

 The second cutting of clover can frequently be used to mix with corn in the 

 making of silage. 



The least expensive way of harvesting is to pasture. While red clover 

 is not especially well adapted to pasture purposes, it makes a good quality 

 of pasture, and especially when mixed with grasses. It is especially suited 

 to cattle, sheep and swine. Sheep and cattle are sometimes subject to 

 bloating when allowed to feed on red clover when it is especially succulent 

 or when wet with dew or rain. Such trouble occurs only when the animals 

 are unaccustomed to it and when they feed too heavily. 



Clover Seed Production. Red clover seed may be successfully pro- 

 duced in practically all areas adapted to the production of clover hay. It 

 differs in this respect from alfalfa. 



Seed production is encouraged by retarding somewhat the vegetative 

 growth. Conditions that will produce a medium growth of plant usually 

 induce the best setting of seed. Good seed crops are seldom secured from 

 a rank growth of clover. Under such conditions the heads are few and are 

 not well filled. The probable yield of seed and advisability of saving the 

 crop for that purpose can be determined by a careful examination of a 

 number of seed heads. If the seed heads are fairly abundant and contain 

 an average of twenty-five to thirty seeds etich, it indicates a yield of one to 

 two bushels per acre, and justifies saving for seed purposes. If the average 

 number of seeds is not more than twenty it will generally not pay to cut 

 for seed. This determination must be made fairly early in order to cut the 

 crop for hay before it becomes too mature in case it will not pay to save 

 for seed. 



It is a common belief that seed production calls for a pollination of the 

 flowers by insects. The ordinary honey bee cannot reach the nectar of 

 the average clover blossom, and is, therefore, not instrumental in the fertili- 

 zation of the flowers. Bumble bees, however, are supposed to be the most 

 effective agents in this process. There are probably numerous very small 

 insects that also produce pollination. However this may be, the second 

 crop is the one that gives best results for seed purposes. At that tune 

 insects are more numerous, weather conditions are drier and the plants 

 tend to produce seed more abundantly than earlier in the year. Occasion- 

 ally the first crop will produce plenty of seed. The seed crop should be cut 

 when the largest number of heads can be secured. If cut too early, the 



