RED CLOVER. 119 



rowed and afterwards rolled, so as to cover the seeds and 

 smooth the surface of the field. Farmers are often too 

 sparing of the seed. While upon well prepared soils a 

 bushel to eight acres is sufficient, yet a bushel to six acres 

 will, in a majority of cases, give better and more satisfac- 

 tory results. In England 24 pounds are usually sown to 

 the acre when the crop is intended for hay. The smaller 

 the stem the more acceptable it is to cattle. When thin, 

 the woody fibre is greatly increased. There is no greater 

 blunder committed by the farmer, than to be sparing of 

 grass seed. It is difficult for grass to be too thick. The 

 plants shelter one another; they retain all the dew and 

 moisture when thickly set, and they must push upward, as 

 there is no lateral space to occupy. 



GROWTH AND MANURE. 



Red Clover rarely makes much growth the first season if 

 sown with grain. Should the weather be very seasonable 

 after harvest, and the land fertile, it will sometimes attain the 

 height of thirty inches and put out blooms, making an 

 excellent fall pasture. When sown alone, it will always 

 blossom in August. 



Sheep are very injurious to young clover, and should never 

 be allowed to run on it until the second year. Grasshop- 

 pers, too, often eat out the crown and destroy it. Dry 

 weather in a stubble-field where the rays of the sun are re- 

 flected and repealed a thousand times from the surface of the 

 yellow stubble, is very trying to its vitality. Yet if the 

 land has been well and deeply broken and is moderately 

 fertile, a sufficient stand may be depended upon. 



As soon as it begins to grow, in early spring, an applica- 

 tion of two bushels of gypsum or land plaster, upon granitic 

 or sandy soils, is absolutely necessary to get a good growth. 



Some interesting experiments were made in Germany by 

 Dr. Pincus, respecting the action of gypsum (sulphate of 

 lime) upon clover. Three plats of land of about f of an 



