48 
THE farmer’s manual. 
Clover and Tillage, 
This has become a most valuable and important 
branch of husbandry, both as an article of tillage and 
feeding, particularly for the use of horses ; but I shall 
defer all vemarks upon its value in feeding, until I come 
to the subject of Stock, and treat only in this number 
upon the value of cloveras an article of tillage, and the 
mode best adajHed to its cultivation. The red clo- 
ver strikes a deep tap-root like the carrot, and when 
designed for tillage, should be sown separately, with- 
out hcrds-grass or any other mixture, 4 or 3 quarts to 
the acre; it may be sown broad-cast, after the man- 
ner of wheat, in autumn, with the winter grains, or in 
the month of March, upon the winter grains, or with 
the spring grains, or upon the spring grains after they 
have made their appearance, or even with buck- 
wheat at midsummer : long experience has proved 
all these modes to do well; but the buck-wheat is 
the most uncertain ; when the crop is thick and 
stout, it is very apt to check and smother the young 
clover, and leave its tender fibres exposed to the 
frosts of winter, which often prove fatal to it. If you 
are constrained to sow your clover with buck- wheat, 
sow the buck-wheat thin ; and what you sacrifice upon 
the buck-wheat crop will be gained upon the clover. 
Never cut your clover the first season, nor feed it 
too close, both are an injury to it ; but the second 
season, cut your clover when in full bloom, when not 
more than one-fourth of the heads begin to turn 
brown, which will generally be in the month of June. 
The cutting and curing of clover is very nice and 
critical farming, and demands the first attention. The 
heads and leaves of clover are its principal value, 
the stalk, when course, is of little use ; therefore, in 
order to |jresei ve the most valuable parts, cut your 
clover in dry weather; and when the dew is dried off 
from the fir>t swaths, torn them over gently, without 
spreading, until you come to the swaths which arc 
