188 



FEEDS AND FEEDING, ABRIDGED 



with a vanilla-like odor. In spring the herbage is less bitter and ani- 

 mals of all classes can generally then be taught to eat it. When the 

 clover is cured a large part of the cumarin is volatilized, the hay thus 

 being less bitter than the green plants. 



Sweet clover seed should be thickly sown so that the stems will not 

 grow coarse, and especially in the second year the crop should be cut 

 when the first blossoms appear, or even before, since after this stage 

 the plants rapidly grow woody. The first season 1 cutting and the 

 second 2 can be secured in the North, and often 3 in the South. The 

 crop should be cut about 6 inches from the ground, for the new shoots 



Fig. 52. — A Field of Crimson Clover in Bloom 



Crimson clover, grown chiefly as a green manure and a winter cover crop, is 

 also used for pasture and hay. (From Country Gentleman.) 



grow out not from the crown, as in alfalfa, but from the stems. Sweet 

 clover makes good hay for horses, cattle, and sheep, and furnishes good 

 pasture for pigs. It should be closely grazed to keep the plants from 

 becoming woody. The yellow-flowered sweet clover is two weeks ear- 

 lier and smaller in growth than the white variety. 



Crimson clover. — This annual, adapted to mild climates, is grown 

 chiefly in the Atlantic seaboard states from New Jersey southward. 

 Sown in the late summer or early fall, it blossoms the following spring 

 and dies by early summer. It is grown chiefly as green manure and a 

 winter cover crop, but is also used for pasture and hay, and to some 



