118 DESCRIPTION OF FEEDING STUFFS 
two or three crops a year. The yields obtained vary from two to five 
tons per acre, according to the season and the fertility of the soil. 
The yield of the last crop is especially variable and is frequently 
too small to be worth while cutting. If it is not cut, the clover 
is generally pastured by cattle or sheep. At early stages of growth, 
clover is very low in dry matter,- viz., less than 10 per cent, and 
relatively small yields of hay are secured from early cuttings. On 
good land very heavy yields are obtained, however, aggregating 16 
to 20 tons of green clover for the season. The tendency of green 
clover to cause bloat in cattle and sheep may be overcome by feed- 
ing some dry forage prior to turning on to pasture, or by placing 
hay or straw in feed racks in the field. According to Henry, cattle 
and sheep will resort instinctively to the dry feed when bloat 
threatens. 
Experience and chemical analyses have shown that the best time 
to cut red clover for hay is when about one-third of the heads have 
turned brown. The crop then yields the maximum amounts of 
total dry matter and digestible nutrients. Red clover hay is an 
excellent feed for dairy cows, sheep, pigs, and all kinds of young 
stock. It ranks second to alfalfa in feeding value for these animals. 
Clover hay is less adapted to working horses on account of its 
liability to be dusty. This is a disadvantage that hay from all 
legumes has, compared with that from grasses, and comes from 
the larger proportion of leaves in the former; these are brittle and 
readily crumble into dust unless the clover is carefully cured and 
handled. 
Clover makes an excellent supplementary feed to the corn 1 plant, 
timothy, and other crops grown on the farm, as these are, in general, 
of a starchy character and low in protein and mineral substances. 
In the feeding of growing animals or dairy cows clover may, there- 
fore, make up a part of the ration to great advantage, and is much 
relished by them. 
Besides being a valuable hay and soiling crop, clover makes a 
good silage crop, if properly put up in air-tight, tall silos. The 
main conditions for making good clover silage, or silage from other 
legumes, will be further discussed in the chapter on silos. We 
shall see that the crop must be siloed directly after being cut, before 
it has lost much moisture, and that it is preferably run through a 
cutter, and must be carefully distributed and packed in the silo so 
as to exclude as much of the air as possible. Even well-preserved 
clover silage, as that of other legumes, has often a strong and not 
particularly pleasant odor, and is not quite as palatable to dairy 
