SUPPOSED EFFECTS OF ALSIKE CLOVER ON HORSES. 605 
effects before^ I have thought it worth notice, and if you or 
any of my brother vets.^’ can give any further information 
respecting it, I shall feel obliged. 
SECOND COMMUNICATION. 
I 
From the Same. 
Since my former communication respecting the poisonous 
quality of the alsike clover, I have had another team of horses 
affected by it, principally on the nose and mouth, but not 
the legs. This team had been fed in the stable, the clover 
being cut and brought home for them. The other horses 
were tied in the field by the leg, and consequently their legs 
were continually coming in contact with the clover, the tops 
of which were bitten off. Their noses and lips were much 
worse, which convinces me that the juices of the plant, 
oozing from the stalks where separated by the teeth, and 
which, of course, must be always moist, was the cause, w'hile 
that which was brought into the stable, not being so, conse¬ 
quently those horses were not so mueh diseased. 
These cases also show the difference in the susceptibility 
of the different coloured skin to be influenced. The white 
is mostly diseased. Two or three of the horses have narrow 
white stripes running up the nose, which are much affected, 
while the other parts are but little. It is the same in refer¬ 
ence to white heels. 
ALSIKE CLOVE Li. 
Trifolium liyhidum^ or Alsike clover, is a species which 
appears, to a certain extent, to combine the properties of the 
red and white clovers. It w^as considered by Linnaeus to be 
a hybrid, and is cultivated to a considerable extent in the 
district of Alsike, in Sweden, from whence it derives its 
name ; and was, we believe, first introduced into this country 
about 1834 or 1835. 
It has for the last few years engaged the attention of agri¬ 
culturists in Scotland and various parts of England to a 
considerable extent; and its reputation is now so firmly 
established, that we think it is likely to become much more 
extensively sown this season tlian it ever has been before. 
Its chief advantage consists in its succeeding on land which, 
from repeated sowings of red and white clover seed, has 
become cloversick. 
