Seed-harvest. 
130 
Glover cropped from a good soil contains more nutritive matter than that taken from poorer land, 
Werner, in Poppelsdorf, obtained more milk by feeding cows on greet clover than by using a corre- 
This agrees with the experience of other agriculturists. For milk- 
sponding quantity of clover hay. 
If hay is desired, a mixture with 
production, red clover should, as far as possible, be used green. 
other fodder plants is preferable to a pure sowing. 
Harvesting, impurities and adulierations of seed. For a seed crop dry light soils are 
better than those that are heavy and moist. On the latter, the plants are readily laid and 
the flowers are then liable to be barren. Clearly, dry warm climates are more suitable 
than mountainous or maritime districts with moist atmosphere and frequent rain. Count- 
ries of the latter type require to import most of the seed used. A thin crop which has 
not been laid gives the largest yield of seed. Accordingly the second crop is generally 
used. It is neither so luxuriant nor so liable to be laid as the first, and the seed from it 
is purer, as it contains less weeds than the first crop. In mountainous, maritime and northern 
countries where the second crop ripens late, the first cutting should be taken somewhat 
sarlier than usual to allow the second crop sufficient time to mature its seed. In some 
countries, notwithstanding this precaution, the seed of the second crop does not reach 
maturity at all. The first crop must then be used. . 
In any case, those parts of the field are selected where the clover is least luxuriant 
and has not been laid. If flowering takes place while the clover is laid, little seed is 
produced. 
The seed is ripe when the flower-heads are passing from brown to black and the seed itself is 
hard. Heads late in flowering contain soft or merely leathery seeds while those of the early heads are 
quite hard. It often happens, especially in a moist season, that adventitious branches spring out from 
the base of the stem and bear flower-heads. Such late heads are not to be taken into account in judging 
ihe ripeness of the seed, although the branches themselves must be considered as they interfere with, 
and retard the drying of the plants. The number of such adventitious branches and flower heads 
is constantly increasing as maturation advances. When ripe, the plants are cut with a cradle - seythe 
in very small swathes, which, in good weather, are left untouched for two days, then turned ; 
if the weather continues good, the crop may be housed two days later. In Germany, the ripe plants 
are dried for two days and then arranged in two long rows (fig. 9, page 13), At times, small bunches 
bound round with a few culms are formed as in fig. 7, page 13. If rain is likely to set in, the latter 
plan is preferable, as the seed soon becomes discoloured, often red and shrivelled when the flower 
heads are allowed to lie on wet ground. The seed of Swiss clover is often discoloured in this way. 
To obtain good seed, it is sometimes advisable to dry the plants on the clover perch (fig. 10, page 13). 
When seed is obtained from wild clover plants growing in meadows, the preliminary drying is difficult 
as more grass than cloyer is present. In this case the clover-comb should be used. In its simplest 
form, the instrument is merely a rake with close teeth which pulls out the clover-heads and drops them 
into a bag fixed on the back. Larger instruments are often fitted with a pair of wheels to allow 
ready movement. All the seeds are not obtained when the clover-comb is used, as many flower-heads 
fall on the ground and others, as well as many isolated flowers which have broken away from the heads, 
escape the teeth. After removal of the clover seed which takes a good deal of time and labour, the 
grass is made into hay. 
Many seeds are also lost when the ordinary system of hay-making is followed, as the flowers have 
brittle pedicels and readily detach in consequence of the moving and turning necessary to prepare the 
hay. To secure the full amount of seed necessitates, therefore, in all cases, very great care, 
The best plan is to use a threshing machine and thresh the seed out of the capitula in the field, receiving 
it in cloths. If that cannot be done, the plants are carefully carried to the barn in covered carts and 
