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able forms is abundant in the soil. The decay of the roots and stubble 

 of clovers brings this element within the reach of the grasses, and thus 

 the clovers, which first help themselves by drawing nitrogen from the 

 air, in their death and decay help the grasses as well. Any permanent 

 mowing which at the outset is brought into good condition to produce 

 clovers in a few years will also be in a condition to produce a strong 

 growth of grasses as well as clovers. 



For four important reasons, then, the clovers are among the most 

 valuable of forage plants: First the manurial cost of their production 

 is exceptionally low. Second, they are richer in protein than most of 

 the forage crops; far richer than the grasses. Third, they enrich the 

 soil in nitrogen as well as sub-soil it, so that the following crops are 

 almost invariably good. Fourth, in permanent mowings they ulti- 

 mately so enrich the soil in nitrogen that the grasses as well as the 

 clovers make vigorous growth. 



The Kinds of Clover. 

 Crimson Clover {Tr i folium I ncarnatum). 



Crimson clover is an annual or a winter annual.* Whenever crimson 

 clover can be grown as a winter annual it is of much value, but the 

 peculiarities of our winters and especially of our springs are such that 

 crimson clover is not generally successful as a winter annual. In lo- 

 calities where it is hardy, its special value is due principally to the 

 fact that it starts into growth the following season much earlier than the 

 other clovers. Crimson clover may be grown in Massachusetts as a 

 spring-sown crop, but if it must be sown in the spring, it will not be 

 earlier than the other clovers, and is not likely to yield so heavily as 

 they. It does not appear likely, therefore, that crimson clover will 

 prove of much value in our agriculture. 



Medium or Common Red Clover, and Mammoth Red Clover. 



These two kinds of clover are best described together as the peculiar- 

 ities of each are best brought out when studied in contrast with those 

 of the other. These two kinds of clover resemble each other very 

 closely. Typical specimens of the two show well-defined differences, 

 but these two types of clover seem to run together, and there are many 

 forms intermediate between the types. The product of commercial 

 samples of seed sold under the two names is often indistinguisliable, 

 even by exjjerts. Typical specimens show the following differences. 

 The leaflet of the red clover is nearly round, comparatively smooth, 

 with a whitish approximately crescent-shaped mark on the upper 

 surface. The mammoth clover has a leaflet relatively narrow, ellip- 

 tical, more hairy than that of the conmion red clover and without the 

 whitish mark. The more important practical differences are that the 

 mammoth clover is somewhat coarser aiul taller than the connnon and 

 a little later. It is, therefore, somewhat better suited for sowing in 

 mixture with timothy and redto]) than the common red clover, for the 

 latter is usually overripe before the timothy and redtoj) are sufficiently 

 mature to cut. Both of these clovers are rather short-lived perennials, 

 but it is nevertheless possible, as has been indicated, to produce hay for 

 a long series of years in permanent mowings in which these clovers will 



* Those plants are designateil winter annuals which, when sown in late sum- 

 mer or fall, make a moderate growth hut do not hloasoni that season ; but which 

 will pass througli the winter successfully, blossom and form seed the following 

 spring and then die. Winter rye is an example. 



