1920.] 



Grass and Clover Seed Growing. 



to harvesting operations. Wild White Clover, however, is always 

 a light crop compared with Red, and farmers in the districts 

 mentioned can and do successfully harvest the latter. Secondly, 

 there is the objection, strongly felt in some districts, against any 

 Wild White Clover other than that harvested directly from 

 genuine old pasture. Such evidence as is available tends to show 

 that Wild White once grown on arable land is quite as valuable 

 as genuine old pasture seed. In spite of this there are many 

 districts where the once grown product is persistently refused, 

 and in view of this objection, counties eminentlv suitable for the 

 production of Wild White from arable land have no encourage- 

 ment to undertake it. 



The title "Wild White from old pasture" is frequently 

 assumed to be a guarantee that the field which produced the 

 seed has been down to pasture over a large number of years. To 

 many readers, the phrase probably conjures up a vision 

 of pasture laid down something over twenty years ago, but one 

 may easily be misled in this matter. Pastures are not 

 infrequently sown down for the definite purpose of producing 

 " Wild White from old pasture," and the product so styled 

 is not. therefore, by any means always taken from plants 

 of great age. It not infrequently happens that a pur- 

 chaser buvs Wild White once grown under the name of Wild 

 White from old pasture, the only difference being that it has 

 been once grown in a pasture mixture instead of on arable 

 land. It is not suggested that the seed is any the less valuable 

 for this — quite the contrary. The intention is simply to point 

 out that the title 1 ' Wild White from old pasture ' ' does not 

 always guarantee that which it popularly suggests. Be it observed, 

 however, that we do not yet know through how many genera- 

 tions a strain of Wild White Clover must be grown before it 

 begins to lose its wild characters, so that although the number 

 is probably much greater than one or two or even a dozen, in 

 the present state of our knowledge care should be taken that 

 Wild White once grown is the daughter of genuinely wild 

 parents, and not the granddaughter or any more distant 

 descendant. 



The Dutch White Clover produced at home is in considerable 

 excess of the amount imported from abroad, so that the need for 

 augmenting the home production of this variety is not so marked 

 as in some other cases. As regards the necessity of vastly 

 increasing the output of British Wild White, however, there can 

 be no question. It seems probable that Wild White can be 



