68 PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY PASTURES 



Agricultural Clovers 

 {Leguminos^) 



TRIFOLIUM REPENS PERENNE 



{Perennial White Clover). 



This plant was first cultivated in the Netherlands ; hence 

 the familiar name, Dutch Clover. Probably it was not sown 

 in England until the beginning of the eighteenth century, 

 although it is now indigenous aU over the country. The seed 

 will lie dormant for a long time and at a great depth, and be 

 ready to spring into life when brought to the surface. The 

 habit of the plant is creeping, and when once established it 

 soon covers the ground. Sometimes its luxuriance is excessive, 

 and the numerous flower-heads, for which cattle manifest no 

 partiality, are a disadvantage, so that in sowing White Clover 

 judgment should be exercised. In warm, rainy seasons it 

 spreads rapidly, but makes little or no progress during cold, 

 dry weather. Besides the mass of fibrous surface roots there 

 is a long tap-root which goes deep into the subsoil, sustaining 

 the plant during drought, when only the parent stem grows, 

 the lateral and creeping shoots remaining dormant. 



The character of this clover differs materially, according to 

 the soil on which it is grown. Sinclair remarks that ' it main- 

 tains itself in soils of opposite natures,' because of its peculiarity 

 in having two distinct forms of root. It prospers on mellow 

 land containing lime, and on aU soils rich in humus, from marl 



