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the atmosphere, changing it into solid matter, causing elements in 

 the soil to assume organic forms, rendering them more available as 

 food for other crops." If the soil be robbed of its fertility, the 

 deficient elements must be added before clover will " take." 



The best method of pasturing is to wait until about the last of 

 May, when the clover is in bloom, then turn on stock and pasture 

 during the months of June and July, alternating every two weeks 

 with other clover fields, if possible, and turning off the stock the 

 first of August, and allowing the second crop to come forward for 

 seed. 



SAVING CLOVER HAY. 



The precise period of mowing clover for hay is a question about 

 which there has been much discussion. All will agree that it should 

 be mowed at the time when the nutritive elements those elements 

 which give strength and produce flesh are at their maximum. 

 Those who are in the habit of feeding stock find that clover cut 

 about the time of full bloom, when a few of the seeds begin to dry 

 up, and just as the reproductive functions are being brought into 

 play for the maturing of seed, will, pound for pound, produce more 

 fat and muscle than that cut at any other time. The only art in 

 curing hay is to retain as many of the life-giving constituents in it 

 as possible, or to preserve it as near as practicable in the same con- 

 dition in which it is cut, with the water only abstracted. 



The plan generally adopted is to mow the clover in the morning 

 and let it lie in the sun several hours until a wisp, taken up and 

 twisted, will show no exudation of moisture. It is then thrown up 

 into small cocks, say four feet in diameter and four feet high. In 

 these, unless there is appearance of rain, it is allowed to remain for 

 a day or two, when it may be hauled to the barn and stored away 

 without danger of damage. Care should be taken not to let the 

 dew fall upon it as it lies scattered by the mower. The dew of one 

 single night will blacken the leaves and destroy the aroma for which 

 good clover hay is so much prized. 



Another plan practiced is to mow it and let it lie just long enough 

 in the sun to wilt, and then wagon it to an open house and lay it 

 upon beams or tier- poles, where it can receive the free action of the 

 air. After a few days it may be packed down without any danger 

 of fermenting. Cured in this way, in the shade, it retains its green 



