(36) 



Cattle are more easily affected by clover than horses, because being 

 ruminants, they take in the clover rapidly, filling the stomach at 

 once, without chewing. Digestion is for the time checked, and a 

 rapid fermentation sets in. The remedy found most effective for 

 hoven is to stick a sharp pointed knife about six inches in front of 

 the hip, to the left side of the backbone, and far enough from it to 

 miss the spinal protuberances, and in the thinnest part of the flank. 

 A cow should never be run when affected with hoven, as this treat- 

 ment only intensifies the pain without affording relief. 



Stock should never be turned upon clover until it blooms. The 

 practice of many of our farmers, to turn all the stock upon a clover 

 field early in April, is very destructive. The crown of the clover 

 is eaten out, causing it to perish. The tread of heavy cattle has the 

 same effect. 



As a soiling crop red clover is excelled by no crop grown with- 

 in the State. The practice of soiling in thickly settled commu- 

 nities is one much commended by agricultural writers. An half- 

 acre of clover will supply one cow throughout the months of June, 

 July and August, if cut off and fed in a stall, while twice the 

 amount in pasture, according to some English experimenters, will 

 barely subsist a cow during the same period, and this will depend, 

 of course, upon the luxuriance of the growth. Soiling (that is cut- 

 ting the grass and feeding it green) is a very desirable practice, 

 near small towns, where m'any persons own small lots, and desire to 

 keep a milch cow. No other grass, perhaps, will produce a larger 

 flow of milk. 



NUTRITIVE VALUE AND CONSTITUENT ELEMENTS OF CLOVER. 



The nutritive value of clover was long known by feeders before 

 chemical research demonstrated the same fact. It contains, when 

 cut in bloom, nearly four per cent more nitrogenous food than tim- 

 othy, and four and a half per cent more than blue-grass. Accord- 

 ing to Professors Wolff and Knop, in its green state it contains 800 

 parts in 1,000 of water, about 100 parts more than timothy, and 

 37 parts in 1,000 of albuminoids or flesh formers. When made 

 into hay, cut when in bloom, and well cured, red clover contains 

 134 parts in 1,000 of albuminoids, but cut when fully ripe only 94 

 parts. The albuminoids contain about 16 per cent of nitrogen. 

 Timothy hay has 9.7 per cent of flesh-forming matter, and therefore 



