Ploughing 17 



lipped and throated that self-fertilization is 

 impossible. Humble bees and their cousins 

 gather honey by means of a long retractile 

 proboscis. In plundering the clover-heads 

 they gather more than honey. Pollen sticks 

 in little lumps to forehead and eyes. It is 

 cleared off, with strokes of the fore-legs, and 

 in the clearing spread along the proboscis, 

 which deposits it where it will do most good, 

 — in the heart of the next clover-floret 

 rifled. 



Hence clover seed. It is small — very 

 small to mean so much, no bigger than a tiny 

 grain of sand. Its vitality is wonderful — it 

 will lie twenty years deep down in the ground, 

 and germinate when brought to the cjuicken- 

 ing of sun and air and springtime. One 

 might show statistically its value in hay and 

 pastures, and their derivatives, beef and butter. 

 But that would not by any means close the 

 account. What clover is worth to the land 

 itself, is a matter beyond all reckoning. Like 

 all the pea family, scientifically the Legum- 

 inosa, clover has for ages been accepted as a 

 plant of paradox. Other crops grew, and 

 took away with them the strength of the soil. 

 The more lavishly clover grew, the richer 

 it left the place where it had grown — not 

 merely lighter and looser, but in better heart. 

 The wise men explained that clover was a 



