| foliage. 
CLOVER. 
to Britain in 1820. It pretty closely resembles 
the crimson species in at once height, appear- 
ance, and general habit, and has even been some- 
times regarded as merely a permanent variety of 
that species ; but it rushes more rapidly to ma- 
turity, has rather a hardier constitution, and 
carries a much lighter-coloured flower. It is 
cultivated in some districts of France and Swit- 
zerland, and probably might be more suitable 
than the crimson species for Scotland. Its ap- 
pearance is decidedly handsome, yet not so im- 
posing as that of the crimson. 
The Alexandrian species, 7rzfoliwm Alexandri- 
num, is a native of Egypt, and was introduced 
thence to Britain in 1798. It rivals the crimson 
species in beauty, and even competes with it in 
intrinsic value; yet it has a more straggling 
habit of growth, and is less densely covered with 
Its stem is branching and nearly erect, 
and attains a height of from 12 to 24 inches; its 
| leaflets are long, narrow, smooth, and slightly 
| toothed; its calyxes are hairy, and have narrow, 
sharply-pointed, and unequal teeth; its flowers 
| have a pale yellow colour, and appear in June 
and July; and its flower-heads are stalked and 
slightly oblong or oval. 
The thread -like or yellow-suckling species, 
Trifolium filiforme, grows wild on the gravelly 
pastures and other dry, gravelly, or rocky places 
of Britain. It yields but a small bulk of forage, 
and is but little relished by any kind of live 
stock; yet it has been recommended for cultiva- 
tion on such gravelly, rocky, or otherwise half- 
barren ground as cannot maintain more valuable 
herbage; and though usually an annual, it be- 
comes, under good treatment or when eaten 
down by sheep, practically a biennial. Its stems 
are procumbent; its leaflets are nearly sessile ; 
its flower-stalks are slender and bending; and 
its flower-heads are small, loose, five-flowered, 
and bright yellow. 
The procumbent hop species, Trifolium procum- 
bens, grows wild in the same kind of places as the 
thread-like species, and has a very similar char- 
acter and value. Yet it is more compact, erect, 
and branching; it has usually a height of only 
from 4 to 6 inches; it has close, globular, shining 
yellow flower-heads; it is exceedingly liable to 
mildew ; and it appears to be very generally dis- 
liked by cattle-—The lesser yellow species, 7ri- 
folium minus, also grows wild in dry gravelly 
places; and it has a similar habit and worthless- 
ness to the procumbent species, but is seldom 
more than two or three inches high. _T. filiforme, 
procumbens, and minus, are frequently cultivated 
under the common name of yellow clover, and 
are, in practice, often confounded with black 
medick, Medicago lupulina—the starry species, 
Trifolium stellatum, grows wild upon the southern 
coasts of England, but is nowhere abundant. 
It has a height of 6 or 8 inches, and carries a 
curious head of purple-coloured flowers, but is 
not worthy of cultivation. 
823 
The principal species of clover at present ap- 
proved and extensively cultivated in Britain are 
thus, the crimson, in preparation for summer 
fallow or for a crop of potatoes,—the white, and 
occasionally some other low-growing species, for 
laying down land to permanent pasture,—and 
the red for the purposes of the alternate hus- 
bandry, and for green fodder and hay. But what- 
ever other species may, at any future time, come 
into cultivation, are likely to be treated in the 
same manner as one or other of these; so that 
all clovers, viewed in either their actual or their 
possible connexion with the farm, take as their 
type either the annual crimson, the perennial 
white, or the biennial red. 
Urimson clover requires to be the subject of 
considerably more extensive observation and pro- 
longed experience than have yet been directed 
to it, before it possess an established and routine 
system of cultivation for every part of Britain. 
“Tt has,” says Mr. Lawson, “been grown with 
much success in England, particularly in the 
southern counties; but hitherto its culture has 
not been attended with the expected success in 
most parts of Scotland. Whether this want of 
success should be attributed to the effects of cli- 
mate, or to the mode of culture, has not yet been 
satisfactorily ascertained. In England, it has 
been found to succeed best, either drilled (in 
rows at the distance of eighteen inches to one 
foot), or sown broadcast on stubble after the corn 
crops have been removed, and with no previous 
preparation save a course or two of harrowing, 
just sufficient to stir the soil to the depth of an 
inch or two, so that the seed may be more easily 
covered. 
ploughing is given; but in general, it is found 
better to dispense with the plough altogether, | 
for the many failures which occurred previous to 
its culture being properly understood, are now 
attributed entirely to the ground having been 
too much loosened and pulverized by repeated 
ploughings. The advantages to be derived from the 
cultivation of 7. cncarnatum are, that when sown | 
in autumn, it, may be cut and cleared from the 
ground in the beginning of June following, and 
the land fallowed for wheat or spring corn; it 
forms a valuable green food for cattle at an early 
period of the season, and, if cut when in full 
flower, it yields a more abundant crop, and makes 
a superior hay to that of common clovers, at least 
it is more readily eaten by horses. There can 
be no doubt but the south of England is better 
suited for the growth of crimson clover than any 
part of Scotland, from the circumstance that the 
corn crops are much earlier removed, conse- 
quently the young plants have more time to at- 
tain strength before the winter season sets in; 
however, it does not follow but that it may be 
grown with advantage in the more favourable 
districts of Scotland, were its culture fairly un- 
derstood. In Hngland, about 18 lb. or 20 lb. of 
seed is allowed to the acre; but in Scotland it 
In very tenacious soils, a very shallow | 
