PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 309 



Are THERE Two Kinds of Red Clover ? 



This question was called up last week, and this week some one brought 

 in two boxes of clover seed, said to represent two varieties. Mr. Pardee 

 said that he had always understood that there were two sorts, and had, 

 when a merchant in Central New York, bought large quantities of both 

 sorts, and the seed of the two looked so exactly alike that no man could 

 tell one from the other. There was a difference in growth, and the small 

 sort will produce a hay crop and seed crop the same year; but the large 

 sort will produce only one crop. Its greatest value is to turn under as a 

 manure crop. 



Mr. W. S. Carpenter said that what was called large clover he thought 

 was lucerne, which is only valuable for soiling or for a manure crop. 



Mr. R. H. Williams. — To the enquiry made at the last meeting, which of 

 the varieties of red clover, the early or June variety, or the late and larger 

 variety, is the most reliable to the farmer. 



The first query suggested by many is whether there is more than one 

 decidedly characterized variety of the red clover. Trifolium, three leaves, 

 being the class name given to it bj' botanists. 



The answer to this mistaken notion — for it cannot be an opinion intelli- 

 gently acquired — will be found by consulting almost any work on botany, 

 when there will be found several varieties and two decidedly distinct 

 species whose characteristics are marked and decided, viz : 



1. Trifolium Refiexum starts early, matures in June or the forepart of 

 July. If allowed to stand the stalk ripens to the ground and only throws 

 out new stalks and leaf from the root. Valuable for early pasture and 

 hay, producing a crop of seed after being mown in June. 



2. Trifolium Prate7ise — {Wood's Botany.) — This species starts later and 

 grows less rapidly in the early part of the season. When grown and used 

 for hay, blojsoras and matures about the same time with timothy, and is 

 mixed with that grass for that purpose with advantage, maturing late in 

 July or first of August. When used for pasture, and fed oflF about the time of 

 blossoming, will continue to throw out new leaves and heads from the orig- 

 inal stem throwghont the season of pasturage. For seeding it requires to be 

 kept back by pasturing until about the 10th of June, and then allowed to 

 go forward to maturity, ripening its seed about the last of September. It 

 is also characterized by a much larger and more spreading stalk, and also 

 a larger and longer root. 



I prefer this species for general use, as it affords more pasturage and 

 more hay, more root and more coarse stalk, to be left on the ground for its 

 covering and sustenance. Costs no more, and pays, everything considered, 

 nearly double to the producer that the early maturing species, except, 

 perhaps, when raised expressly in view of a crop of seed. 



To the farmer who values clover as a recuperating source to his hard run 

 laud, it has the promise of realization. 



No land in this latitude that will grow clover need ever become poor if 

 plentifully plied with that crop and plaster, sown early and freely upon it, 

 as it draws its main sustenance from the atmosphere and deposits it where 

 your wheat and corn can reach and use it in a form applicable to their 

 enecssities. 



