PRACTICAL PAPERS. 
EXTRACTS FROM 
TWENTY YEARS’ EXPERIENCE IN GROWING RED 
CLOVER AS A FORAGE AND RENOVATING CROP. 
BY HON. A. A. BOYCE, LODI. 
[Written for State Agricultural Convention, February, 1874. | 
The different opinions I have heard expressed in regard to red 
clover, has induced me to give my experience in growing it as a 
forage and renovating crop. My experience confirms me in the 
belief that it is the cheapest and best manure that we can apply 
to our lands—“ the one thing needful ” to restore the exhausted 
fertility of the grain fields of Wisconsin, and to those who intelli¬ 
gently cultivate and manage it, it will prove a mine of wealth. 
Our yield of grain, the supplies of meat, wool and dairy pro¬ 
ducts, will depend largely on the clover plant and the place we 
give it among our crops. 
In my experience, I have known but two varieties that are cul¬ 
tivated in Wisconsin for hay, pasture or manure. * The large and 
the small. The large clover is of slower growth. It does not 
start as soon in the spring. It has coarser stalks and fewer leaves 
than the small variety. It seldom produces two full crops in a 
season; that is, a hay crop followed by a seed crop. This variety 
is preferred by many for pastures and manure. For a mixture of 
clover and timothy for meadows it is preferable to the small va¬ 
riety, as it matures with the timothy. 
The small variety of red clover commences its growth early in 
the spring; starts into growth sooner after being fed off or cut for 
hay. It has finer stalks, with more branches and more leaves than 
the larger kind. It blossoms nearly two weeks earlier, and when 
