352 THE BEE KEEPBK'S MANUAL^ 



on the agricultural community at large, in being able to 

 state on the authority of one of New England's ablest prac- 

 tical farmers, and writers on agricultural subjects, Hon. 

 Frederick Holbrook, of Brattleboro', Vermont, that the 

 common white clover may be cultivated on some soils to 

 very great profit, as a hay crop. In an article for the New 

 England Farmer, for May, 1853, he speaks as follows : — 



" The more general sowing of white clover-seed is con- 

 fidently recommended. If land is in good heart at the time 

 of stocking it to grass, white clover sown with the other 

 grass-seeds will thicken up the bottom of mowings, growing 

 some eight or ten inches high and in a thick mat, and the 

 burden of hay will prove much heavier than it seemed like- 

 ly to be before mowing. Soon after the practice of sow- 

 ing white clover on the tillage-fields commences, the plant 

 will begin to show itself in various places on the farm, and 

 ultimately gets pretty well scattered over the pastures, as it 

 seeds very profusely, and the seeds are carried from place 

 to place in the manure and otherwise. The price of the 

 seed per pound in market is high ; but then one pound of it 

 will seed more land, than two pounds of red clover seed ; 

 so that in fact the former is the cheaper seed of the two, 

 for an acre." 



" Red-top, red clover and white clover seeds, sown togeth- 

 er, produce a quality of hay universally relished by stock. 

 My practice is, to seed all dry, sandy and gravelly lands 

 with this mixture. The red and white clover pretty much 

 make the crop the first year; the second year, the red 

 clover begins to disappear, and the red-top to take its place ; 

 and after that, the red-top and white clover have full pos- 

 session and make the very best hay for horses or oxen, 

 milch cows or young stock, that I have been able to pro- 

 duce. The crop per acre, as compared with herds-grass, is 



