SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
235 
All must admit that a deficient supply of pasturage and 
of hay is the opprobium of our agricultural management, 
nor is it less palpable that the remedy must be sought 
in the clovers and the grasses. These are not only 
required for a liberal supply of stock food, but also for any 
judicious rotation of crops, by which we can hope for the 
renovation of our deplet'^d lands. The opinion which has 
long and extensively prevailed, that clovers and the arli- 
ficiS grasses are incompatible with a Southern climate, 
e.xerts a blighting influence on the industrial hopes of the 
South, and no labor can be more usefully bestowed than 
in showing its fallacy, none more grateful to the aspira- 
tions of the Southern planter. 
The important question to be decided, then, is, whether 
the cultivation of clovers and the artificial grasses is prac- 
ticable in a Southern climate'? If this question shall be 
affirmatively established, observation and experience will 
indicate the most suitable varieties;- and besides, it will 
assure to us a basis for furture improvement and prosper- 
ity without limit or end. 
And first we will speak of Clovers. 
There are four species of tnese familiar to the country : 
The Buffalo or Native Clover; the White, the Yellow and 
the Red Clover. Reference will be made to a fifth variety, 
the trifoliumincarnatum, or flesh colored Clover. 
Of the two first species, viz:— The Buffalo and the 
White Clover, from some observation, it is believed, that 
the want of a vigorous reproductive power in their roots 
connected v/ith the fact, that they disappear with the first 
hot weather of spring or early summer, not to appear 
again for six months, greatly disparage the value of these 
plants, as a reliable resource for grazing or hay. 
The Yellow Clover, if it be a Clover, being classed by 
some as a Lucerne, {iiiedicago macvlata^) has recently 
attracted a good deal of attention from its reported success- 
ful cultivation in Greene county, Alabama. 
This plant has the important recommendation of afford- 
ing a large amount of green food during the winter 
months, the period of greatest scarcity. It is doubtful, 
however, whether its coarse and watery herbage is very 
nutritious or inviting. One who has successfully grown 
and fully tested it, has told us that his cows would neglect 
it to feed on the first young leaves of the common brier. 
It also requires a fertility and an expense of preparation 
in the soil, which it is highly probable, with the addition 
of lime and gypsum, would insure the growth of more nu- 
tritious and valuable grasses. During tlie rigorous spells 
of winter, early sown rye and barley, red clover and the 
artificial grasses have their feeblest growth, and if, during 
these periods. Yellow Clover will furnish a liberal supply 
of succulent food, it has much to commend it to public 
favor. 
The trifolium iticarnatum or flesh colored Clover, is 
highly spoken of by European writers. It is cultivated 
extensively in France and Germany. This plant is said 
to grow equally well on light or stiff soil, and to be ear- 
lier and as prolific as the Red Clover and Lucerne. It is 
not known whether its culture has been introduced into 
the United States. Some years ago, Mr. Skinner, whose 
memory is dear to American Agidcuiture, promised the 
patrons of the American Farmer that he would take im- 
mediate steps to procure some seed from France, but we 
are not advised whether he did so, nor if he Sid, of the re- 
sult of the experiment. 
Of the Red Clover, there are two varieties: — 'Y\\^trifo- 
liumpiLrpureibmmapis,?iX\d\.\\t T.praf^nse. These havealso j 
been distinguished as Western and Southern Red Clover. 
iMiller, a writer of authority, says: — The stalks of the 
meadow trifoil, the little, early. Red Clover, are weaker, 
hairy, the stepulare narrow and hairy, the heads of the 
flowers are rounder and not so hairy, as those of the large 
Red Clover, whose stalks are strong, almost smooth, fur- 
rowed, and rise to twice the height of the other. The 
heads of the flowers of trifolium purpureum mapis, are 
larger, more oval and more hairy than those of trifolium 
I pratensc, their petals open much wider, and their tubes are 
shorter. 
The trifolium p. mapis, or larger, or Western Red Clo- 
ver, is believed to be far the most valuable of the two 
species, and the characteristics are given to enable those 
who may enter upon the Clover culture, to distinguish be- 
tween them. This is more important, as the smaller or 
Southern species has been generally cultivated at the 
South, which is indicated by the name. 
The immeasurable value of Red Clover for a successful 
husbandry, has been so long and well established, botli 
in Europe and America, as to command universal acqui- 
escence. 
Red Clover and Gypsum were both introduced into 
Pennsylvania about the year 1770. To the late venerable 
Judge Peters, of Philadelphia, eminent as a jurist and a 
patriot, and distinguished above all others of his day for 
his enterprise as an agriculturist, belongs the honor of hav- 
ing first cultivated Red Clover, and of having first used 
gypsum as a manure^for it. The value of gypsum as 
a stimulating food for the grasses, had been accident- 
ally discovered the year before in Germany, by a la- 
borer who had been engaged in mixing stucco mortar. 
In passing to and fro, from his cottage to his work, 
through a sterile field, it was remarked, that the grass 
sprung up with a remarkable luxuriance along his path. 
This was supposed to be the effect of the gypsum which 
dropped from his clothes. An experiment was made with 
plaster of Paris, on a small plat of grass near his house, 
which confirmed the supposition. 
Judge Peters having learned these interesting facts, pro- 
cured a small quantity of the Clover seeds which had 
just been imported, and having purchased a bushel of 
plaster of Paris from a maker of stucco ornaments in 
Philadelphia, commenced his experiments. This was the 
beginning and the basis of Clover husbandry in the 
United States, which has since been productive of count- 
less millions of wealth and comfort to the country, and 
the blessings of which must continue to expand and in- 
crease until we cease to be a civilized people. 
Owing to our revolutionary war and the confusion 
which for some years followed its termination, the Clover 
culture did not get fairly under way before 1785 to 1790, 
some 15 to 20 years after the first experiments were made. 
This is proved by a communication made in the year 1787, 
to the Philadelphia Society for promoting Agriculture, by 
James Vaux, a cotemporary and worthy associate of Judge 
Peters. Mr. Vaux says : — “Breaking up land is perfectly 
understood by all our farmers, I may say to an extreme 
: degree, which ought to he counteracted by the art of lay- 
ing down land with artificial grass seed, otherwise the 
arable land in the old counties of Pennsylvania will, in a 
few years, become of little value.” 
It is encouraging to the Southern Planter to reflect that 
but little more than half a century has elapsed, a short 
period in the life of a nation, since the older and now the 
most properous counties of Pennsylvania and the other 
middle States, were in the same exhausted condition of 
their arable lands, which we have now so much cause to 
deplore in the South. 
Red Clover, lime and gypsum have been the chief 
agents by w'hich the middle States have restored and in- 
I creased the fertility of their lands and attained their pre- 
sent enviable and profitable husbandry. Other grasses 
and other manures are most advantageously combined 
with these, but their connection with every successful 
system is so universal as to render it doubtful, whether 
these agents or their equivalents, are not indispensable 
elements. 
