540 



Grass and Clover Seed Growing. 



[Sept., 



Alsike. — The amount of Alsike seed grown in Britain is 

 very small, totalling only a small fraction of the amount pur- 

 chased from abroad. Such as is grown appears to be produce 1 

 mainly in East Anglia. A number of growers seem to have 

 attempted an Alsike seed crop once, and never to have repeated 

 the experiment. It may be that such cases gave poor results 

 owing to the accident of bad season, or there are possibly factors 

 ^connected with our climate and soil conditions which render an 

 Alsike seed crop especially hazardous. Such factors, if they 

 exist, are at any rate not obvious from a comparison of our con- 

 ditions with those of, say, the North European countries where 

 Alsike seed is produced. There would seem to be room for further 

 trials of Alsike as a seed crop in our clover growing counties, and 

 possibly also in other counties rather more northerly than those 

 at present producing clover seed, before any definite decision as 

 to the advisability of extending the industry is arrived at. 



Good average crops in East Anglia have produced about 4 

 bushels of seed per acre. 



White Glovers. — Most of our White Dutch Clover is pro- 

 duced in the eastern, southern, and south-central counties. In 

 those districts the White Clover areas follow in a general way 

 the outlines of those indicated for Bed Clovers, except perhaps 

 that the counties concerned produce White more regularly than 

 Eed on their lighter soils. White clovers possess the advantage 

 over Broad Eed of being much less susceptible to fungoid sick- 

 ness, and herein lies a further possibility of increasing the clover 

 output from suitable counties without running the risk of 

 augmenting the already rife malady — rather, indeed with the 

 prospect of eliminating it. 



The chief point of interest with regard to White Clover grow- 

 ing is the extraordinary situation respecting Wild White Clover. 

 It is inexplicable that, while the demand for Wild White Clover 

 is so great, and while the price of the seed is so high, compara- 

 tively few farmers and very few districts have undertaken its 

 production. Two factors seem largely concerned with the 

 anomaly. In the first place, there are large areas — notably in 

 South-west England and North Wales — where Wild White 

 Clover grows abundantly in the natural herbage, and there is no 

 necessity to sow it. It seems probable that because of this its 

 immense value to husbandmen in less fortunate districts is not 

 appreciated, and so no attempt is made to harvest it. The objec- 

 tion to districts thus geographically placed immediately presents 

 ifaoif, that the rainfall will be so high as to offer great difficulty 



