CHAP. ii. WHITE CLOVER. 931 



species of Trifolium usually cultivated are named in the following 

 table : 



Botanical Name. Common Name. Colour of Flower-head 



Trifolium repens . . . Dutch clover . . White. 



Trifolium pratense 

 Trifolium pratense perenne 

 Trifolium hybridum 

 Trifolium incarnatum . 

 Trifolium minus 



Broad clover . 



Cow-grass 



Alsike . . . 



"Trifolium" 



Yellow suckling clover 



Red or purple. 



Do. 



Pink and white. 

 Crimson. 



Yellow. 



The WHITE or DUTCH CLOVER (Trifolium repens, L.), or Honey- 

 suckle clover, is a valuable double-cut clover. Clovers are spoken of 

 as single-cut when they do not make sufficient growth, after being fed 

 off or cut once, to be allowed to stand again. The white clover throws 

 up a fair aftermath, but is not always allowed to remain because it 

 becomes too rank in flavour, and can only be eaten with safety by old 

 sheep. The plant is short in growth and close-lying, hence the crop 

 is never mown for hay. But it grows very thickly upon the ground, 

 and affords a large amount of feed. It is, in fact, the most nutritious 

 green food grown on the farm, and is specially valuable for lambs, or 

 for " topping-up " sheep for the butcher. As illustrating its high 

 feeding value when fed off the first time, we may mention our ex- 

 periments, extending over five years, on the feeding of the crop by 

 sheep : some of the sheep received no cake, but two pens of ten each 

 received every year from | Ib. to f Ib. of the best decorticated cotton 

 cake and maize respectively, per day, and in each year those receiving 

 no cake or corn made as great increase as those which did. After the 

 first feeding, however, when the food had become stale, those with 

 cake and corn always did best. 



The greatest amount of feeding matter is present when the plant 

 comes into flower. There is one great risk in feeding off the crop, and 

 that is, that the sheep consuming it are extremely liable to become 

 hoven or blown, which is a form of tympanitis (see Book the Sixth) 

 caused by the too rapid generation of gas in the stomach, the clover 

 fermenting almost directly after it is eaten. There is the greatest 

 risk of this on windy days, but it is also dangerous to feed the clover 

 while there is frost on it. The best course to adopt is to turn the 

 sheep on to the clover while their stomachs contain plenty of other 

 food, when they will not eat ravenously, whilst the small quantity of 

 clover they consume will digest safely. 



In districts where the crop is sown without an admixture of other 

 seeds it is usual to allow a portion to go to seed. If the crop is fed off 

 at all, the animals should be off it by the end of the second week in 

 May. It is very risky as a seed crop, and now that prices are low owing 

 to foreign importations it is rarely a profitable crop. The best crops 

 for seed are grown on light loams, but the heaviest feed is obtained on 

 the medium loams. The clover is sown in a cereal crop ; in the 

 4-course rotation it is sown in oats or barley. If the land is free from 

 weeds, especially annuals such as knotgrass or hog-weed (Polygonum 

 aviculare), it is advisable to sow the seed early, even at the time of 



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