SOME GENERAL PRINCIPLES 29 



mately so, the amounts of seed required. For in- 

 stance, while it might be proper to sow 12 pounds 

 of medium or mammoth clover to accomplish a cer- 

 tain result, less than one-third of the quantity of 

 the small white variety would suffice for the same 

 end. 



The influences of climate and soil on the quantities 

 of seed required are various, so various that to con- 

 sider them fully here would unduly prolong the dis- 

 cussion. But it may be said that the harder the con- 

 ditions in both respects, the more the quantity of 

 seed required and vice versa. 



Pasturing. — When clover seed is sown in nurse 

 crops that are matured before being harvested, the 

 pasturing of the stand secured the autumn follow- 

 ing is usually to be avoided. Removing the cover- 

 ing which the plants have provided for themselves is 

 against their passing through the winter in the best 

 form. In some instances the injury proves so seri- 

 ous as to result in a loss of all, or nearly all, the 

 plants. The colder the winters, the less the normal 

 snowfall and the more the deficiency of moisture, the 

 greater is the hazard. But in some instances so 

 great is the growth of the clover plants that not to 

 graze them do\^-n in part at least would incur the 

 danger of smothering many of the plants, especially 

 in regions where the snowfall is at all considerable. 



But when the seed is sown alone or in mix- 

 tures of grain and even of other grasses in the 

 spring, grazing the same season will have the effect 

 of strengthening the plants. This result is due 

 chiefly to the removal of the shade that weeds and 



