Book VI. 



CLOVER FAMILY. 



871 



April, equal in quantity to any water meadow, the extreme facility with which it may be propagated and 

 grown in almost any soil and situation, and also its apparently nutritious nature, he was induced to give 

 it a trial in a plot of ground of about twenty rods, attached to the cottage in which he lived. He did so, 

 and after two years' trial found the day lily produce a supply of green food in April and towards the 

 middle of May, when there is little or no pasture grass, and never could detect any unpleasant flavour 

 in the milk of butter, though given in considerable quantities. The day lily, of which there are two 

 species, differing very little in appearance, H. fl^va and fulva, is a perennial of great duration, rapid 

 increase, and of easy propagation by division. It certainly well deserves trial as a permanent herbage 

 plant, especially for the cottager and small farmer. {^Gard. Mag. vol. v. p. 441.) 



Chap. V. 



Culture of Herbage Plants. 



5518. The cultivation of clovers and other herbage plants, used exclusively as food for 

 live stock, is comparatively a modern improvement. They were known, as we have seen, 

 to the Greeks and Romans, and cultivated from a very early period in the low countries ; 

 but do not appear to have attracted much notice in Britain till the sixteenth century, 

 when our frequent intercourse with Holland led to the introduction of some of our best 

 field plants and agricultural practices. At present clovers enter largely into the succes- 

 sion of crops, on all soils, and in every productive course of management. Before they 

 were introduced into cultivation, it was necessary, when land was exhausted by grain 

 crops, to leave it in a state of comparative sterility for several years, before it became 

 either valuable as pasture or again fit for carrying corn : but at present clovers are not 

 only indispensable in the cultivation of white and green crops alternately, upon very rich 

 soils, but are the foundation of convertible husbandry on land that is not so rich as to 

 permit of a constant aration, and which therefore requires two or more years' pasturage 

 at certain intervals. Lucern and saintfoin, though of much less value as general crops, 

 are valuable plants in particular situations; more especially the latter, which will produce 

 good crops on dry chalky and limestone soils, where most other agricultural plants, and 

 even grasses, would barely maintain their existence. 



551 9. The characteristic points of culture of this class of plants are broad-cast sowing, 

 mowing, soiling, and hay-making ; and that when cut for the two last purposes, two or 

 more crops may be had in a season from the same roots. 



5520. The nutritive products of the principal herbage plants are thus given by Sir 

 H. Davy : _ 



Sect. I. The Clover Family. Trifblium L. ; Diadelphia Decandria L., and Legumi- 

 noscB J. Trefle, Fr. ; Klee, Ger. ; Trifoglio, Ital. ; and Trebol, Span. 

 5521. The clovers (fg. 772.) are a numerous famUy, chiefly natives of Europe : those 

 selected by the agriculturist are natives of Britain ; and one species, the white or 

 creeping clover, is often found in great luxuriance in native pastures. As rye-grass is 

 very generally sown with clovers, it will be necessary to treat of its culture in connec- 

 tion with these plants, reserving, however, tlie more particular consideration of rye-grass 

 till v,e treat of the hay grasses. (Chap. VI.) Many intelligent cultivators consider rye- 

 grass as a very severe crop for the soil ; and it is alleged that wheat does not succeed 

 well after the herbage with which rye- grass is intermixed in any considerable quantity. 

 Other plants hive accordingly been recommended as a su])stitute for rye-grass, and 

 cock's-foot (Z)actylis glomerata) has been tried, apparently with great success, by Coke 

 of Holkham in Norfolk, and others ; but this is a very coarse grass when allowed to 

 rise to any height, and the use of it for hay has not yet been ascertained. Donaldson 

 considers the general introduction of clovers, and the cultivated grasses, as one of the 

 greatest improvements in modern husbandry. The commencement of improvements m 

 the different species of live-stock, in the modes of cultivation, and in the superior quality, 

 as well as quantity, of the crops of grain, may all, he thinks, be dated from the period 

 when the sowing of clovers and grass-seeds was first introduced into the different districts 

 of the kingdom. 



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