538 
ON PLANTS IN RELATION TO ANIMALS. 
“ Marl Grass, Honeysuckle Trefoil, Red Clover, 
Honeystalks. 
“ French, Trefle des Pres ; German, Roth Klee. 
“ The red clover is, perhaps, the best known and com¬ 
monest of our field crops, and is most important to the 
farmer as a fodder plant in this country. In its wild state 
it is perennial, but when grown artificially it seldom lasts 
many years. It is usually sown with corn in the spring, and 
allowed to grow up after the crop is reaped, pastured by 
sheep and cattle, and either cut for hay the following year, 
or mowed several times like lucerne, and employed for soiling 
or feeding in the farm-yard. 
(t Rye-grass is commonly sown with clover, being con¬ 
sidered to correct the heating properties of hay made from 
clover alone. Clover succeeds best on a deep sandy but rich 
soil, which is favorable to its long roots; but it will grow on 
any soil, provided it be dry. Marl, lime, or chalk, is very 
congenial to clover, containing much alkaline matter and 
lime; it will not flourish on land that has been exhausted 
of these substances, and which consequently becomes, in 
agricultural phrase, f clover-sick.’ Hence, it ought not to 
he grown without allowing some years to elapse between 
each crop. 
“ On good soils fitted for its production red clover will 
yield upwards of three tons of hay per acre. Like most 
plants of the kind, it is very succulent, and requires careful 
drying before it is stacked. In some parts of Russia it is 
allowed to ferment in heaps before drying, and cattle are 
said to relish it in this condition. To obtain clover hay in 
its most nutritive state it is desirable to cut it before it is in 
full flower—a rule which applies to all similar crops. The 
nutritive qualities of red clover, according to Sir Humphry 
Davy, are as follows :—In 1000 parts he found thirty-nine of 
soluble or nutritive matter, thirty-one of starch or mucilage, 
three of sugar, two of gluten, and three of insoluble matter 
or refuse. As a fodder plant the clover is very much esteemed 
by all farmers, and, according to Loudon, one acre is equal 
to three of ordinary pasture for feeding horses or black cattle, 
and the hay is reckoned more valuable by from 15 to 20 per 
cent, than the same weight yielded by the best meadow 
land. 
“In feeding cattle with green clover great care must be 
observed to prevent the swelling or hoving, which is very 
apt to take place when they are first put upon this food, 
especially if it be wet with rain or dew, and the more luxu- 
