100 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



hue. By close cutting more forage is secured and the clo- 

 ver afterwards springs up more rapidly and evenly. The 

 swath, unless very heavy, ought never to be stirred open 

 but allowed to wilt on the top. It may then be carefully 

 turned over and when thus partially cured, placed in high 

 slender cocks and remain till sufficiently dry to remove into 

 the barn. The clover may be housed in a much greener 

 state by spreading evenly over it in the mow from 10 to 20 

 quarts of salt per ton. Some add a bushel but this is more 

 than is either necessary or judicious for the stock consum- 

 ing it, as the purgative effects of too much salt induce a 

 wasteful consumption of the forage. A mixture of alternate 

 layers of dry straw with the clover, by absorbing its juices 

 answers the same purpose, while it materially improves the 

 flavor of the straw for fodder. 



After -management of clover fields. The second crop of 

 clover may be either saved for seed, mown, pastured, or 

 turned under for manure. As this is usually a biennial 

 when allowed to ripen, the stocks die off after the second 

 year, unless its seeding has been prevented, and the crop is 

 only partially sustained by the. seed which may have ger- 

 minated the second year from the first sowing, or from 

 such as has been shed upon the surface from the seed ma- 

 tured on the ground. The maximum benefit derivable to 

 the soil in the manure of the stubble and roots is attained the 

 second year, as we have seen that the dried roots of the clo- 

 ver at that time are in the proportion of 56 for every 100 

 Ibs, of clover hay produced from them in two years. But 

 the ground is then so full of the roots as to check further 

 accumulation. This then is the proper time for plowing up 

 the field and renewing again its accustomed round of crops. 

 If desirable, the clover may be imperfectly sustained on 

 some soils for a few years by the addition of gypsum, bone- 

 dust, ashes and other manures, which will develop and 

 mature the ripened seeds, but the greater tenacity of other 

 plants and grasses, will soon reduce il to a minor product in 

 the field. 



Importance of the Clovers. The great value of the diffe- 

 rent clovers as forage was well known to the ancients. 

 They were largely cultivated by the early Romans, and 

 since that period, they have been extended throughout a 

 large part of Europe. They were not introduced into Great 

 Britain till the 16th century, but have since constituted a 



