BED CLOVER. 131 



rootlet downwards, and if a leaflet be taken off the rootlet 

 will not grow, so that if sheep or pigs be fed upon the sur- 

 face, 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 expe- 

 riment 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 proportionate 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 system 

 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." 



The best method of pasturing is to wait until about the 

 last of May, when the clover is in bloom, then turn on 

 stock and pasture during the months of June and July, al- 

 ternating every two weeks with other clover fields, if pos- 

 sible, and turning off the stock the first of August and al- 

 lowing the second crop to come forward for seed. 



SAVING CLOVER HAY. 



The saving of clover hay is a very easy task when under 

 stood, but to a novice it appears fraught with insuperable dif- 

 ficulties. The precise period for mowing clover for hay is a 

 question about which there has been much discussion. All 

 will agree that it 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 seeds begin to djey up, 

 and just as the reproductive functions are being brought into 

 play for the maturing of seed, will, pound for pound, pro- 

 duce more fat and muscle than that cut at any other time. 

 The only art in curing hay is to retain as many of the life- 



