c. It is customary to cut clover when it begins to bloom. If it were mown before blooming, the hay would of course be of better quality, but the loss in quantity occasioned by the undeveloped state of the clover would be too heavy; if cut at the end of blooming, then the larger quantity of hay would be counterbalanced by its inferior quality, and, besides, the second cut would be too late in the season. Doubtless, it is better to cut clover rather too soon than too late.

d. Cattle are subject to gaseous swelling in spring, if they can fill themselves with quite young clover in the pasture or in the stable. The cause of this is partly, because an extraordinarily large amount of proteïn is contained in young plants, partly the proteïn in young plants is easily soluble, and, therefore, occasions the development of much gas in the stomach.

3. The comparative analyses of manured and unmanured clover show that the quality of the clover crop, like that of all other cultivated plants, depends greatly on its cultivation and on manuring. A field manured with very nitrogenous manures (saltpetre, guano, bone-dust, compost, &c.), will produce not only a larger quantity, but also more nutritious plants than any adjoining unmanured field. In general, plants of a luxuriant growth are richer in proteïn substances than those of a poor and weak growth. They are a more valuable food, and also produce a better manure. Of a field of dark green and vigorous forage plants, the farmers say "it. has a fattening growth."

It is not difficult, by means of manuring alone, to grow on one and the same field, clover hay worth 50 per cent. more than that grown on another part.

A clover crop treated with mineral manures (wood ashes, lime, plaster, peat ashes), sometimes shows a more luxuriant growth, but the farmer should not be deceived by the larger weight of the crop, which consists, according to accurate investgations, of water chiefly. The results of the experiments instituted by Ritthausen are here quoted, viz.:

Similar, although not so striking, results were obtained by Hellriegel at Dahme, and by Hullwa at Proskau.

* This may be proved by a multitude of analyses, but one only, by Stockhard, will be sufficient, viz.:

Percentage of nitrogen in oat plants.

Periods of growth.

Daily increase of the plants

in weight in 96 days.
Per acre.

22 lbs. 64

To what degree the soil influences the nutritive power of forage plants may be learned of farmers who have moved from a heavy, cold soil to a light, humus soil, or from a well-manured farm to one with poor fields. They soon observe that the fodder did not benefit the cattle so much on the one farm as on the other, or in another district.

4. On a general average, 100 lbs. of green clover or Lucerne will give 25 lbs. of hay; 1 lb. of the latter should possess the nutritive value of 4 lbs. of green clover. To this conclusion many practical agriculturists do not accede, because, they say, green clover is, proportionately, more nutritious than dry clover, so that not more than 3 lbs. of the former will be equivalent to 1 lb. of hay. Thus a large proportion of the nutritive value of clover should be lost by the process of curing! Is that possible? Is this opinion not erroneous? No loss in nutritive substances is occasioned by drying, because the water only, which possesses no nutritive value, is lost, and the softness of the stems of the plants, or their hardness and indigestibility, are not immediately dependent on its presence, for the latter qualities depend more on the age of the clover and other conditions of its growth.

Yet if the experiences of these practical farmers were true, they could be explained in no other way than by the fact that, generally, an older, less nutritious clover is made into hay, while the youngest and juiciest is chosen for green fodder, or that, in the curing of the hay, the dry plants possess a varying smaller amount of nutritive matter, occasioned by the loss of leaves or by heavy, soaking showers. That such experience is more than doubtful in a physiological point of view Boussingault has shown by the following experiment:

A heifer, 10 months old, was fed, during ten days, with as much green clover, accurately weighed, as she could eat. When, for instance, she ate 45 lbs. per day, precisely that number of pounds of the same clover were carefully dried without any loss of leaves, and preserved as hay. After ten days Boussingault ceased feeding her with green clover, and during the following ten days she was fed with hay made of the same quantity and quality of green clover. The weight of the animal at the end of either trial was to show the difference of the nutritive power in green and dry fodder. The following table contains the results of the experiment, which was thrice repeated by Boussingault:

During 10 days. Weight of the During 10 days, Weight of the Weight of the fed with green animal at the fed with clover animal at the

animal on the
1st day

clover, which
weighed-

end of the

20 days.

end of the
10 days.

bay, which
weighed-

According to this, the hay had rather more than less nutritive power than the corresponding green clover. Yet the differences in the live weight at the three trials are so small, that these results can hardly be considered reliable.

5. The nutritive power of the different varieties of clover are stated in the analytical table. It shows, for instance, that white clover is somewhat more nutritious than red clover; that the Scarlet clover is not as nutritious as Swedish clover, &c.

6. Which is more profitable-to let cattle and sheep graze in the clover field, or to mow it? This question is answered pretty definitely by an experiment instituted by Ockel at Frankenfeldt, and commented on analytically by Stockhardt.

A clover field of uniform growth was divided into three equal parcels. Parcel I was mown six times between the 29th of May and the 24th of August, and every time manured with a little guano, in order to supplant the excrements of animals grazing on it as a fertilizing agent for the clover. Parcel II was mown twice-on the 15th of June at the beginning of blooming, and likewise on the 24th of August. Parcel III was mown on the 7th of July, toward the end of blooming, and the second time on the 24th of August. The crops and cuts of said two parcels were carefully gathered, weighed, dried and analyzed, and the results were as follows:

Thus, grazing a clover field would not be as profitable by far, as mowing it. If a sheep eats daily 2 lbs. of hay, then only 20 sheep could have been sustained from the 29th of May to the 24th of August, on parcel I, while the crops from parcels II or III would have yielded the same amount of food for 38 sheep fed in the pen. But in this calculation the difference in the nutritive value of the hay has been omitted, it being less on parcel III than on parcel II, and considerably less than on parcel I.

MEADOW GRASSES.

The meadow grass is a mixture of heteorogenous plants differing in smell, taste and composition. Its nutritive value is more or less, accord ing as the one or the other meadow plant is predominant among it.

In respect to their quality the grasses may be enumerated in the follow ing descending series:

We are indebted to that celebrated investigator, Way, for the commentary on this enumeration, who, in 1849 and 1850, subjected these grasses to an accurate chemical analysis. He gathered them on the meadows of Cirencester, while they were in full bloom, between the 8th of May and the 19th of July.

• There is no grass in the entire catalogue of grasses which varies so much in nutritive, aocording to soil and climate, as the Pos pratense or Kentucky blue grass. The above table is

A similar but less thorough investigation was made by Scheven and Ritthausen. They also gathered all the grasses at the period of their bloom (1855), and analyzed them in the green state.

Botanical name of Grass or Plant. Water. Protein. Fat. nutritive Woody Ashes.

Non-nitrogenous

substan

fibre.

Thus, it will be seen that the grass of the English meadows appears to be somewhat more nutritious than that of the German meadows.

The average analysis of the tables, by Way and Ritthausen, represents quite accurately the composition of the green forage of a meadow. For the dry state, that is, for meadow hay, the analyses by other authors is here presented:

copied from an European work. In Kentucky no grass is superior to this as a pasture grass; it is very much in favor in southern Ohio, whilst in northern and northeastern Ohio it is by no means a welcome inhabitant of the pasture-fields.-Klippart.