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As clover derives a large percentage of the constituents necessary to 

 its growth from the atmosphere, it is all important that there should be 

 a good top growth. Its value as a renovator of the soil depends largely 

 upon the quantity of the roots, and the roots will always be proportioned 

 to the quantity of foliage. For this reason it is better to cut clover off 

 than to feed it off. A writer in the American Cultivator, speaking of this 

 subject, says: 



''Where a clover sod is desired for future grain or other crop, it will 

 be found that the cutting of clover is generally better than feeding it off, 

 because every leaflet upward has rooted downwards, and if a leaflet be 

 taken off the rootlet will not grow, so that if sheep or pigs be fed upon 

 the surface, the constant cropping of the leaves diminishes the under 

 production. Always feeding the top will leave but few roots below. 

 This was illustrated by a practical experiment on a field of clover, divided 

 into two parts. The whole was cut in July; half was left to grow again, 

 and the other half fed off. In October the roots of each division were 

 dug up, carefully cleaned and weighed, with a result that showed a pro- 

 portionate weight of 3.920 pounds to the acre where the clover was cut 

 once and fed afterwards, while the part on which the clover was cut 

 twice yielded at a rate per acre of nearly 8,000 pounds of roots. The sys- 

 tem of cutting instead of feeding resulted in leaving two tons extra of 

 vegetable matter, valuable in nitrogen, and which had a perceptible effect 

 on the corn crop that followed." 



WHEN TO CUT AND HOW TO CURE CLOVER HAY 

 Clover for hay 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 blooms 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 stage. 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 nearly as practicable in the same condition 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 after it has begun to cure. The dew of one single night, under 

 such conditions, will blacken the leaves and destroy the aroma for which 

 good clover hay is so much prized. 



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

 the sun to wilt, and then carry 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 color, is fragrant, and 



