28 MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF SHEEP 



seeds are sown on newly cleared forest lands, the same 

 result will follow. The sunlight admitted by the grazing 

 tends to make the young plants strong. A stand of grass 

 may thus be obtained in many instances when the seed is 

 sown along with some crop grown especially to provide 

 grazing for sheep. For instance, grasses may be thus 

 sown with rape, cowpeas, soy beans, and even sorghum 

 when the latter is grown for grazing. 



Such grazing, however, is not admissible on lands 

 that usually impact too readily. Such are heavy clay 

 soils. The growth of the young plants on these is rela- 

 tively slow at the best, and would be slower if the soil, 

 already too dense, were made more so by the treading of 

 sheep. To graze such soils when unduly moist would not 

 only greatly injure present but also future production. 



Sheep and clover seed yields — The yields of clover 

 seed may frequently be much increased by grazing the 

 crop judiciously with sheep. This holds true, not only of 

 the common red, but also of the alsike and the mammoth 

 varieties. The increase in the yields of seed with the 

 varieties last named arises, first, from the check given to 

 over-exuberant growth in clovers ; and, second, from the 

 influence which early grazing has on increased stooling 

 in plants. The first tends to center development more 

 on seed production than on the production of stem and 

 leaves; and the second, by increasing the number of the 

 stems and the heads, increases the number of the seeds. 

 The increase with the medium red arises from the same 

 causes, and also from the more favorable season for abun- 

 dant seed production at which the crop may be made to ma- 

 ture. Ordinarily, seed is obtained from the second growth 

 of the common red variety, the first having been taken 

 for hay. Owing to the lateness of the growth in some in- 

 stances, and probably to the partial exhaustion of the 

 powers of the plant in others, the yields of the seed are 

 reduced. Reduction in yields is also caused in some in- 

 stances by the clover midge (Cecidomyia legitmimcola), 



