684 
ON PLANTS IN RELATION TO ANIMALS. 
is reason to believe that its cultivation is extending with us, 
as it is found to be a most useful soiling plant, coming at a 
time when it is especially useful for sheep feed, and as an 
early alterative green food for horses. 
We find the following account of its economy by Mrs. 
Lankester : 
“ 1 , Crimson Clover. 
“ French, Trejie incarnat; German, Inkarnat Klee. 
“ Of late years this species of clover has been much grown 
in England, and has long been cultivated in Southern Europe 
as a fodder plant. It can be sown in the early autumn as 
soon as the corn is off the land, the latter being simply 
harrowed, so as to loosen the surface. 
It grows with great rapidity, and yields a good crop 
early in the spring when other green fodder is scarce, and it 
may be removed in time to sow corn. Sometimes it is sown 
in February and March, and can then be fed off, and 
ploughed in time for sowing the turnip seed. This rapid 
growth renders it very valuable to the farmer under certain 
circumstances, when he requires to raise a good supply of 
fodder between the regular rotation crops. All cattle are 
fond of it when young and green; but when in flower its 
stems become hard, and it is not well adapted for hay. Like 
other similar plants, it is often sown with Italian rye-grass. 
It ripens seed readily, but, when left for this purpose, 
exhausts the ground considerably.” 
It would, however, appear to be best adapted for drier seasons 
than have prevailed in this country for thelastthree years, during 
which period we have been most unfortunate in the growth 
of the carnation clover, for, though we have put in the seed 
as early as possible, and watched it come up excellently well, 
yet in a few nights, before the plants had developed their 
secondary leaflets, they gradually disappeared. 
On searching for the cause of this mischief, we soon dis¬ 
covered that it was partly, if not wholly, due to slugs, the 
recent wet seasons having caused these creatures to abound 
to an extraordinary extent, so much so that even at the 
present moment, after a month of very dry weather, if we 
take up a bit of stone-brash, we shall surely find several 
examples of these slimy molluscs adhering to the under 
surface of the stones, where they lie in ambush ready to 
come forth in the evening to eat any tender springing plant 
within reach. 
We have found that turning pigs, geese, and ducks into 
the fields prior to its being sown soon gets rid of very many 
