Growth. 
Development. 
Yield. 
Nutritive 
value. 
Harvesting 
the seed, 
158 
Marling and liming are advantageous when the soil is poor in lime. Gypsum also 
furthers the development of trefoil, and, on land to which ashes or artificial manures have 
been applied, a great deal of trefoil crops up where previously none was noticed, a certain 
sign that such manures are favourable to its growth. On poorly manured land, the plant 
is dwarfed, growing only one or two inches high, but as soon as artificial manures are 
added, more especially those containing potash and phosphoric acid, it becomes quite large 
and many times its former size. Irrigation is not suitable for this plant. 
Growth, yield, nutritive value. Trefoil spreads its stems along the ground almost to 
a distance of two feet. However, if the plants are thickly sown, or more especially mixed 
with others of erect growth, the diffuse character becomes less marked. In any case, the 
stems are always more or less spreading; accordingly, as development goes on, they inter- 
lace, and the ground is thus completely covered. ‘The stems are soft and succulent; the 
leaves, numerous and small. 
Development is so rapid that trefoil, sown in spring, yields its principal produce 
during the same year. In the second year, the plant usually dies after the first cutting. 
It shoots as early in spring as lucerne, and, in a warm situation, comes into flower at 
the end of May — ten to fourteen days earlier than red clover. Although the plant deve- 
lopes new stems and flowers, after the first cutting, the second is rarely as productive as 
the first. Trefoil is difficult to mow, and a great deal of the produce escapes the scythe. 
because of the spreading habit of the stems. For these reasons, it is more suitable for 
pasture than for hay. It stands depasturing better than either red clover or lucerne, and 
its use for this purpose can commence early in spring. 
According Lo Werner, the average produce of hay per acre, from a light sandy soil. varies between 
1760 and 2640 lbs, = 16 and 24 ewl.; from soils of a better class, 3500 Ibs. = 32 owl. are obtained. 
100 lbs. of the fodder contain : Haw: Great 
Water ; . ; 14.0 80.0 
Organic matter . , 79.8 18.5 
Albumin ; , [5.1 portion digested 9.4% 3.5 portion digested 2.2 °/o 
Fal. Le . 3.4 .. “ 21° 0.8 2. ‘ 0.5 %/o 
Fibre , ; 27.4 | 6.0. 
Non-nitrogenous extractives SA 87.6 No 32 a ‘9 8.7 °/0 
Ratio of nitrogenous to non-nitrogenous 
nutriment =. . y 4 oA 1: 4.6 
It is clear from this analysis, that trefoil hay contains more nutritive matter than red clover hay of 
medium quality. The stems do not become hard, and, therefore, the hay is readily eaten, although it is 
somewhat bitter. Giersbery states that butter made from the milk of animals fed on trefoil has a nul- 
like taste, and a beautiful yellow colour. 
Harvesting, impurities and adulteration of seed. Trefoil produces abundance of seed. If 
it has been sown in spring with a summer cereal, the seed-crop can be taken in autumn. 
The first seeds are already ripe when the apical spikes are only coming into flower. It 
is thus impossible to obtain seed from all the flowers; in addition, a good deal is lost 
because the pods easily fall olf. The plants are cut when the greater number of seeds are 
ripe, as indicated by the black colour of the pods. Tf the first cutting is used for seed. 
the crop is mown about the end of June or the beginning of July. Many precautions are 
necessary to minimise loss of seed, 
