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From Blyth's account of the growth of red clover in England 

 in the seventeenth century, it appears that at that period of its 

 history its term of growth was three years; it seems quite pro- 

 bable that it has since then gradually become a shorter-lived plant, 

 as it usually does not now last so long. 



A difficulty with red clover as now grown, in common with all 

 cultivated leguminous crops, is that land soon becomes " sick " of 

 these crops when they are grown in succession or too frequently. 

 An interesting question that arises is: Does land become "sick" 

 of the wild or native forms of clovers and allied plants? 



Gorse, a leguminous plant, continues to grow year after year in 

 its natural habitats without any apparent tendency to gorse-sickness. 

 The leguminous plants, indigenous to districts, evidently continue to 

 grow year after year, with about the same vigour and in the same 

 numbers. Favourite habitats of the leguminous plants, like the 

 Great Orme at Llandudno (on limestone), apparently continue to 

 grow these plants for centuries. Much evidence is accumulating, 

 too, that the continued use of basic slag and other manures which 

 encourage white clover and other natural leguminous herbage, will 

 keep these plants growing healthily for long periods of years. All 

 this indicates that a return to native or wild forms of white and 

 red clovers may have excellent results on clover-sick land. 



Wild white clover has now engaged attention for some time. 

 In 1886 the Royal Manchester, Liverpool, and North Lancashire 

 Agricultural Society commenced grass and clover seeds experiments 

 on the late Mr. W. E. Gladstone's Hawarden estate at Broughton 

 Hall, near and Chester, and on Mr. John Roberts's farm at Saltney. 

 The late Mr. Thomas Rigby, of Cheshire, who was such an indefati- 

 gable worker in the cause of agriculture, showed the writer these 

 experiments in 1891. In 1886 some small plots had been sown 

 down, (a) with grasses only, () with grasses and cultivated white 

 clover, and (c) with grasses and wild white clover. Five years 

 later (a) had as much white clover present as (), but only a few 

 scattered plants in each case, which were undoubtedly natural to 

 the soil. On the other hand (c) had an abundance of clover 

 plants present. It was perfectly evident that wild white clover seed 

 had produced perennial plants, whereas the plants produced from 

 the cultivated or commercial white clover seed had disappeared 

 within a year or two, although they had come up all right after 

 sowing. The wild white clover seed was collected from old and 

 natural pastures in Kent. This produced smaller plants, which 



