70 PEEMANENT AND TEMPOEAEY PASTUEES. 



The true Perennial Eed Clover is an invaluable plant for 

 permanent pastures, and should be included in every mixture for 

 that purpose. Its presence in a pasture at midsummer, when 

 Alsike is giving up, is of great service, and although it does 

 not produce a second crop for the scythe, it yields a quan- 

 tity of excellent feed. In pastures. Perennial Eed Clover does 

 not perpetuate itself by seed as is commonly supposed, but 

 from short stout branches extended from the parent plant, 

 which root and take the place of the parent when it dies from 

 exhaustion. 



Stebler classes this Clover, among others, under the heading 

 of Trifolium iiratense. He says it also bears the later and better 

 name of pratense perenne, or Perennial Meadow Clover, the very 

 designation which my, father has always given it. Stebler also 

 notes its peculiarity of having a less fibrous root than ordinary 

 Eed Clover, that the stalks are generally sohd instead of hollow, 

 that it produces less flower and therefore less seed, and that the 

 seed is always dear and difficult to obtain true. He also clearly 

 upholds my view that it is much more perennial than any other 

 Clover, and distinctly says that it is a mistake to confound it 

 with Trifolium medium. 



At Eothamstead, ammonia salts had the effect of eliminating 

 this plant from the various plots to which they were applied, 

 whether in conjunction with mineral manures or alone. Nitrate 

 of soda also diminished the growth. Even potash and mineral 

 manures alone did not maintain the permanence of this Clover. 

 It is a remarkable fact that the unmanured plots, where there 

 was little other herbage to interfere with it, were the only plots 

 on which Cow Grass retained its original position. The Eotham- 

 stead experiments, however, decisively proved this plant to be 

 more perennial than TrifoUuTu repens; hence there can be no 

 doubt whatever as to its great value in laying down land to 

 pasture. 



The botanical description and chemical analysis are given on 

 page 168, facing an illustration. 



