WHITE CLOVER

White Clover (Trifolium repens) is also called Dutch, White Dutch, White Trefoil, Creeping Trifolium and Honeysuckle clover. The name Dutch clover has doubtless been applied to it because of the extent to which it is in evidence in the pastures and meadows of Holland; the name Creeping Trifolium, because of the creeping character of the stems, which, under favorable conditions, send roots down into the soil; and Honeysuckle clover, because of the honey supplies which it furnishes for bees. It is one of the plants known as Shamrock, the national emblem of Ireland.

White clover is perennial, the stems of which creep along the ground and, as above intimated, root at the joints; so that from this source plants are indefinitely multiplied. They also come from the seed. The leaves are small and very numerous, and with the exception of the flower stems and flowers, furnish all the forage obtained. The flowers are very numerous, especially when showery weather precedes and accompanies the flowering season. They are large for the size of the plant, are supported by a leafless stem of considerable length, and are white or tinted with a delicate rose color. The roots are numerous and fibrous. They cannot go down into the soil so deeply as the larger clovers; hence, the dwarfing effect of dry seasons upon the growth.

This plant is exceedingly hardy. It comes out from under the snow with a green tint, and the leaves are not easily injured by the frosts of autumn. The growth is not rapid until the general late rains of spring fall freely. It then pushes on rapidly, and, sending up innumerable flower stems, turns the pastures in which it abounds into immense flower gardens in the months of May and June, according to the latitude of the locality. The bloom remains out for a considerable time, and free grazing has the effect of prolonging the period of bloom. Under such conditions, blossoms continue to form and mature seeds during much of the summer. When these escape being grazed, they fall down upon the land and aid in forming additional plants. Hence it is that when white clover has once possessed a soil, it so stores the land with seed possessed of so much vitality that subsequently white clover plants grow, as it were, spontaneously on these lands when they have been thus grazed even for a limited term of years.

The power of this useful plant to travel and possess the land is only equalled by that of blue grass. When timber lands are cleared, white clover plants soon appear, and in a few years will spread over the whole surface of the land. But the amount of grazing furnished by it varies greatly with the character of the season. Some seasons its bloom is scarcely in evidence; other seasons it overspreads the pastures.

While it is an excellent pasture plant for stock, they do not relish it so highly as some other pasture plants; when forming seed, it is least valuable for horses, owing to the extent to which it salivates them. Its diminutive habit of growth unfits it for making meadows, unless in conjunction with other hay plants. In nutritive properties, it is placed ahead of medium red clover. Some growers have spoken highly of it as a pasture plant for swine.

Being a legume, it has the power of enriching soils with nitrogen, but probably not to so great an extent as the larger varieties of clover. Its rootlets, however, have a beneficent influence on the texture of soils, because of their number, and because of the power of the stems to produce fresh plants, which occupy the soil when other plants die. The latter furnish a continued source of food to other grasses, which grow along with white clover in permanent pastures.

Along with blue grass, white clover plants aid in choking out weeds. This result follows largely as the outcome of the close sod formed by the two. But in some soils, plants of large growth and bushes and young trees will not thus be crowded out.

Distribution.—White clover is certainly indigenous to Europe and to the Northern States, and probably Western Asia. It grows in every country in Europe, but with greatest luxuriance in those countries which border on the North Sea, the climates of which are very humid, and more especially in the Netherlands and Great Britain. It stands in high favor in Holland, but is not regarded so highly in England, owing, probably, to the great variety of grasses grown there in permanent pastures. It is generally thought that it was not indigenous to the Southern States, but has reached these from those farther north. It would seem to be capable of growing in all countries well adapted to the keeping of cattle; hence, it follows in the wake of successful live-stock husbandry.

White clover seems able to adapt itself to a great variety of climatic conditions. Nevertheless, it is certainly better adapted to a moderately cool climate than to one that is hot, and to a moist, humid climate than to one that is dry. It has much power to live through dry seasons, but it will not thrive in a climate in which the rainfall is too little for the successful growth of small cereal grains. Where snow covers it in winter, this clover will grow on timber soils as far north as any kind of cereal can be made to mature; and it will also grow as far south as the Mexican boundary on the higher grounds, when there is enough moisture present to sustain it.

It would probably be correct to say that this plant is found in every State in the Union, and that it succeeds well in nearly all the Northern States, from sea to sea. Although it grows well in certain parts of the Southern States, especially in those that lie northward, the general adaptation in these is not so high as in those further north. The highest adaptation in the United States is probably found in the Puget Sound region and in the hardwood timber producing areas of the States which lie south from the Great Lakes and in proximity to them, as Northeastern Minnesota, Northern Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and New York. But the adaptation is also high in the more elevated of the mountain valleys of the Northwestern States when irrigated waters may be led on to these lands. The areas lowest in adaptation are those that lie within the semi-arid belt. The low-lying lands of the South, where hot weather is prolonged in summer, are likewise low in their adaptation, but not so low as the former. The prairie areas of the Northern Mississippi basin have an adaptation for growing white clover that may be termed intermediate, but where hardwood forests grow naturally on these the adaptation is high. In New England the climatic conditions are very favorable, much more so than the soil conditions.

In Canada, conditions are found highly favorable to the growth of this plant in the country lying eastward from Lake Huron, north of Lakes Erie and Ontario and also on both sides of the St. Lawrence River. Adaptation is also high along the Pacific and in the mountain valleys not distant from the Pacific. In all the areas of Canada, which once produced forests, this plant will grow well. But north from Lakes Huron and Superior, the soil conditions are against it, because of their rocky character. Certain forest areas west from Lake Superior, and also in other parts, the sandy soils of which sustain a growth of Jack Pine (Pinus murrayana) trees, do not grow white clover with much vigor. The prairie areas of Canada, westward from Lake Superior to the mountains, do not grow white clover with much success, and the adaptation for its growth would seem to lessen gradually until the Rocky Mountains are approached.

Soils.—Small white clover will grow on almost any kind of soil, but by no means equally well. Highest, probably, in adaptation, especially when climatic conditions are considered along with those of soil, are the clay loams west of the Cascade Mountains and northward from California to Alaska. During the moist months of early summer, this plant turns the pastures in these areas into a flower garden. Almost equally high in adaptation are the volcanic ash soils of the Rocky Mountain valleys. When amply supplied with water, the finest crops of white clover can be grown even superior to those grown on the lands described above. Almost the same may be said of what are termed the hardwood timber soils, which are usually made up of clay loam lying upon clay. Such areas abound in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario and some States further south. In these soils it grows with much luxuriance, more especially when lime and potash are abundant. Similar luxuriance may be looked for in the deposit soils of river basins in which the clay element predominates, but not in those that are largely made up of sand. It will also grow well on the stiffest clays, whether white or red, when moisture is present. On prairie soils, the success attending it is dependent largely on their texture, composition and the moisture which they contain under normal conditions. The more firm these soils are, the better will the clover grow in them, and vice versa. This is equivalent to saying that the more clay they contain, the better will the white clover grow in them.

Where the humus soils of the prairies are deep and are underlaid with clay, white clover will grow much better in the subsoil, if laid bare, than in the surface soil. Prairie soils which lift with the wind are ill adapted to the growth of this plant, whatsoever may be their composition. Much of the soil in the semi-arid belt would grow this plant in fine form, but want of moisture, where irrigation is absent makes its growth prohibitory in a large portion of this area. On ordinary slough soils, this clover finds a congenial home, but it will not grow quite so well, relatively, in these as alsike clover. On sandy soils, such as those on which Jack pine and Norway pine (Pinus resinosa) grow, this plant will maintain itself, and in wet seasons will make considerable showing on these; but in very dry seasons the plants will die, the growth the following season coming from seeds already in the soil. In the soils of the extreme South, the inability of white clover to make a good showing is probably more the result of summer heat than of want of power in the plants to gather food. In those of the Southwest, want of moisture and excessive heat render its growth, in a sense, prohibitory.

Place in the Rotation.—Since white clover is usually not sown for meadow, but is rather sown for pasture, it can scarcely be called a rotation plant in the strict sense of the term; and yet, because of the extent to which it grows when it has once obtained a footing in soils, it is more or less frequent in all rotations in which grass or clover is one of the factors. As it usually comes into the grass pastures, when these have become established, it will occupy about the same place as blue grass in rotations; that is to say, whatever would be proper to sow after the blue grass would be proper to sow after this plant; since the two usually unite in making the same sod. It will, therefore, be in order to follow this plant with corn to feed upon the nitrogen furnished by the clover. The same will be true of any small cereal that has special adaptation for being grown on overturned sod, as for instance, flax or oats, or of any crop that revels in the decay of vegetable matter, more especially in the early stages of such decay, as, for instance, potatoes and rape. When white clover is sown on land that is cultivated, though only sown as a factor in a pasture crop, as with all other clovers it may best be sown on land that is clean; that is, on land on which the preceding crop has been cultivated to the extent of securing a clean surface on the same. If, however, this crop must needs be sown on land that has not been thus cleaned, its great inherent hardihood will enable it to establish itself where some clovers and grasses would fail.

It is common to sow white clover on land from which the forest has recently been removed, also on natural prairie, where it has not previously grown. In these instances it simply follows the crop of forest in the one case and of native prairie in the other. But it will not take possession of the land in either case to the exclusion of other grasses.

Preparing the Soil.—The preparation of the soil for growing this plant is much the same as for growing other plants of the clover or grass family. Fineness, firmness, cleanness and moistness are the chief essentials to be looked for in making the seed-bed. For the same reason that it has much power to grow among weeds for so small a plant, it has also much power to grow on surfaces not in the best condition of preparation for receiving so small a seed. But when sown to provide a seed crop, it is specially necessary to make the land thoroughly clean before sowing the seed. This is necessary for the reason, first, that small white clover, because of its tardiness in growing in the spring, and because of its comparatively small growth has not much power to crowd weeds; and second, because of the labor involved in preventing weed seeds from maturing in a crop that ripens its seeds somewhat late in the season. While it is advantageous to burn off the grass from a natural meadow where white clover, is to be sown, it is not so essential, nevertheless, as when preparing such land for being sown with some other varieties of grass or clover. The young plants will endure under conditions which would cause those of many other varieties to fail.

Sowing.—White clover is sown by much the same methods as the medium red variety. (See page 75.) But it will stand more hardship than the other variety; hence, it may be sown earlier. This means that it may be sown in northerly latitudes any time, from the melting of the winter snows until early summer, and in southern latitudes almost any season, except during the hot summer months. In either latitude, however, the early spring is usually the most suitable season for sowing.

The seed may be sown by hand, by hand machines, or by the seeder attachment of grain drills. It is more commonly sown along with other clovers and grasses, and the methods of sowing these will also be suitable for the sowing of white clover. (See page 18.) But when the seed is sown alone, as for producing seed crops, the nurse crop need not of necessity be sown thinly, from the fear that the young plants should be smothered by an undue density of shade.

There is no mixture of clovers and grasses grown for pasture to which this plant may not be added with profit, providing the seed is not already in the land in sufficient supply. But it is seldom sown with either clovers or grasses, or with these combined, for the production of hay. It is the judgment of the author, however, that in localities which have special adaptation for the growth of this plant, it should render excellent service in providing hay for sheep, if sown along with alsike clover, and a little timothy; the latter being sown mainly to support the clovers so that they will not lodge. The white clover would furnish hay considerably finer even than the alsike; hence, such hay should be peculiarly adapted to the needs of sheep. Some authorities object to the presence of white clover in hay intended for horses or cattle, lest it should induce in them more or less salivation. The author leans to the opinion that in cured hay injury from the source named will in no instance prove serious, owing to the small amount, relatively, of white clover in average hay crops.

The amount of seed to sow will vary with such conditions as soil, climate and the nature of the pasture, but in any event it need not be large. The seeds of white clover are small, considerably smaller than those of alsike. For ordinary grazing along with other grasses, or grasses and clovers, it will seldom be necessary to sow more than 1 pound of seed per acre. Sometimes a less quantity will suffice, as when there is more or less of seed in the land, and, as already intimated, because of the store of seed in the land in many instances, it is not necessary to sow it at all. Especially is this true of sections which have been tilled for some time. When sown with alsike clover to provide hay, 2 pounds of seed per acre would be a maximum amount, and 4 pounds when sown alone to provide seed.

When sown in newly cleared forest lands or on prairie sod, the methods to be followed will depend upon circumstances. More commonly when thus sown the seed is not covered artificially; consequently, much of it in dry seasons may not grow. The plan, therefore, of sowing small amounts of the seed on such lands two years in succession would be safer than to sow twice the amount of the same in one year. In time this clover would find its way into such areas. It comes through such agencies as birds, hay fed to teams engaged in lumbering, and the overflow of streams; and as soon as it gets a foothold its distribution is further accelerated by the droppings of cattle which contain the seeds, and by the winds.

The power of this plant to increase is simply wonderful. This is owing to: 1. The relatively large number of seedheads produced from the plants. 2. The power which these have to multiply by means of rootlets from the incumbent stems, which fasten into the soil. 3. The prolonged season during which the heads form. 4. The habit of growth in many of the heads, because of which they are not grazed off. 5. The strong vitality of the seed. And 6. The great hardihood of the plants.

Pasturing.—White clover ranks next to blue grass as a pasture plant within the area of its adaptation (see page 261), when its productiveness, continuity in growth, ability to remain in the land, palatability and nutritive properties are considered together. In palatability it ranks as medium only. In the early part of the season while it is still tender and juicy, it will be eaten by stock with avidity, but as the seed-maturing season is approached, it is not so highly relished. In nutrition it ranks higher than medium red clover. It does not make much of a showing in the early part of the season, but in favorable seasons, about the time that blue grass begins to fail, it grows rapidly and furnishes much pasture.

It is pre-eminently the complement of a blue-grass pasture. When these grow together, the two will furnish grazing in a moist year through all the season of grazing. Both have the property of retaining their hold indefinitely in many soils and of soon making a sward on the same without being re-sown, when the cultivation of the ground ceases. The blue grass grows quickly quite early and late in the season, and the clover grows likewise during much of the summer. As the older plants of the clover fail, fresh ones appear, and the blue grass feeds on the former in their decay. They thus furnish humus and nitrogen for the sustenance of the blue grass.

But much moisture is necessary in order to insure good blue grass pastures, and they are more luxuriant when the moisture comes early in the season, rather than when the plants are nearing the season of bloom. To such an extent is white clover influenced in growth by such weather, that in some seasons it will abound in certain pastures, while in others it will scarcely appear in the same. Those favorable seasons are frequently spoken of as being "white-clover years."

While this plant furnishes good grazing for all kinds of domestic animals kept upon the farm, as a pasture for horses and mules, there is the objection to it that it will in a considerable degree so salivate them that much "slobbering" follows. This is sometimes produced to such an extent as to be seriously harmful. The trouble from this cause increases as the seed-forming season is approached. It has been known thus to salivate cattle, but the danger of injury to them from this source is slight. These injurious results to horses will be obviated in proportion as the other grasses are allowed to grow up amid the clover; in other words, in proportion as the pasture is not grazed closely early in the season. The animals which then graze on these pastures must take other food with the clover.

Harvesting for Hay.—Since white clover is seldom grown alone for hay, and since it seldom forms the most bulky factor in a hay crop, the methods of harvesting will be similar to those practiced in harvesting the more bulky factor or factors of the crop. The want of bulk in this clover is against it as a hay crop, owing to the smallness of the yields, compared with the other hay crops that may be usually grown on the same land. As a factor of a hay crop, however, this little plant will add much to its weight and also to its palatability, especially for sheep and dairy cows.

When it is grown for hay in mixtures in which the large clovers or timothy predominates, the white clover should, of course, be cut at the most suitable season for cutting these clovers or the timothy, as one is present in excess. When the larger clovers predominate, the method of curing will be the same as for curing these (see page 234), that is to say, it can best be cured in cocks. When timothy predominates, the method of curing will be the same as for timothy; that is to say, it may be cured in the cock or in the winrow, according to circumstances. Owing to the fineness of the stems, it may be cured more quickly than red clover; hence, its presence in a crop of timothy will not delay much the curing of the latter unless when present in great abundance.

Under some conditions it would be easily possible to grow white clover for hay alone, and in some instances with profit, more especially in providing what would be a matchless fodder for young lambs and young calves. It might be so grown in the clover lands that lie immediately southward from Lakes Superior and Huron, in the northern Rocky Mountain valleys and on the valley lands around Puget Sound. On these lands in a favorable season, it would be quite possible to cut not less than 2 tons per acre, while on average land white clover alone would not yield more, probably, than ½ ton per acre. But even when grown for the purpose named, some alsike clover sown along with the white clover would add to the yield of hay, and without in any considerable degree lessening its value for the use named.

Securing Seed.—White clover is a great seed-producing plant. The season for bloom covers a period relatively long, and the number of blossoms produced under favorable conditions on a given area is very large. But when seed crops are to be produced with regularity, it is necessary that moisture can be depended upon in sufficient supply in the spring months to produce a vigorous growth in the plants. Such a climate is found in the Puget Sound country and in a less degree for some distance south from Lakes Huron and Superior. In areas which can be irrigated, it is not imperative that the climate shall be thus moist. Such areas, therefore, may be looked upon as possessed of superior adaptation for the growth of seed crops of white clover.

The areas are limited, however, in which seed crops are grown in the United States; so limited are they that it has been found very difficult to locate them. Wood County in Central Wisconsin grows a considerable quantity, and some counties northward in the same State, and probably also some parts of Northern Michigan, will grow seed equally well.

Where a seed crop is grown every care should be exercised to have it free from foul weeds. The aim should be to grow it on clean land. Sometimes, however, the seed is self-sown; that is, it comes into the land without being sown, but even in such areas it is safer to sow 3 pounds of seed per acre in the early spring along with a nurse crop. The best seed crops in Wisconsin and Michigan are grown on a reasonably stiff clay soil. To get a full crop of seed, it should be pastured for a time in the spring, or the crop should be run over with the mower about June 1st, setting the mower bar so as to cut 3 or 4 inches high. No harm will follow if some of the tops of the clover should be cut off. The grass and weeds thus cut are usually left on the ground, but sometimes it may be necessary to remove them. In a short time the field should be one mass of bloom.

The crop is ready for being harvested when the bulk of the heads have turned a dark brown and when the bulk of them have assumed a reddish brown tint, notwithstanding that some of the later heads may still be in full flower. Vigorous crops may be cut with the self-rake reaper set to cut low, otherwise many of the heads will not be gathered. To facilitate this process, the ground should be made quite smooth even before sowing the seed. But the seed crop is more commonly cut with the field mower, to the cutter bar of which a galvanized platform is bolted, the sides of which are about 6 inches high. From this the clover is raked off into bunches with a rake. These bunches should not be large, and since nearly all the heads in them will point upward, they should not be turned over if rained on, but simply lifted up with a suitable fork and moved on to other ground.

The seed crop cures quickly. It may be drawn and threshed at once, or it may be stacked and threshed when convenient. If stacked, a goodly supply of old hay or straw should be put next the ground, and much care should be taken to protect the clover by finishing off the stack carefully with some kind of grass or hay that will shed the rain easily. Since the heads are very small and numerous, and since, as with all clovers, they break off easily when ripe, much promptness and care should be exercised in harvesting the seed crop. The best machine for threshing a seed so small is the clover huller.

The yields of seed will run all the way from less than 3 bushels per acre to 5 bushels, and some crops have been harvested in Wisconsin which gave 7 bushels per acre. Four bushels would probably be about an average yield. As the price is usually relatively high compared with other clovers, the seed from white clover would be quite remunerative were it not that in a dry season the yield is disappointing. In some instances two crops are grown in succession; in others, one crop is reaped. The land is then sown to barley the next year, and the following year clover seed may be reaped again without sowing a second time. Usually, after two successive crops of seed have been cut, blue grass crowds the clover.

It should be possible to grow prodigious crops of white clover in certain of the northern Rocky Mountain valleys, as, for instance, in Montana and Washington, where the conditions for the application of water to grow the plants and of withholding the same when ripening the seed are completely under the control of the husbandman. The soils in these valleys, as previously intimated, have high adaptation for growing white clover.

Renewing.—White clover is probably more easily renewed than any plant of the clover family. In fact, it seldom requires renewal in a pasture in which it has obtained a footing as long as it remains a pasture. This arises from the abundance of the seed production and from the power of the same to retain germinating properties for a long period. Nevertheless, there may be instances when it may be wise to scatter more seed in the early spring in a pasture in which white clover may not be sufficiently abundant. It is also renewed, in a sense, when suitable fertilizer is applied on the pastures. A dressing of potash will greatly stimulate the growth of any kind of clover on nearly all soils; hence, the marked increase in the growth of the clover that usually follows the application of a dressing of wood ashes, especially in the unleached form. Top-dressings of farmyard manure are also quite helpful to such growth.

The conclusion must not be reached that because white clover is not much in evidence in a permanent pasture for one or two, or even three dry seasons, if these should follow each other, that it will not come again and with great vigor and in much abundance when a wet season arrives again.

For Lawns.—No other plant of the clover family is so frequently sown when making lawns. For such a use it is not sown alone, but is always the complement of Kentucky blue grass or of a mixture of grasses. No two plants can be singled out that are more suitable for lawn making than white clover and Kentucky blue grass. Both are fine in their habit of growth. The two in conjunction usually make a more dense sward than either alone, and the clover will grow and produce many flowers, if not kept clipped too closely when the blue grass is resting in midsummer.

As lawns are usually small, and a dense sward is desired as quickly as it can be obtained; the seed should be sown thickly on lawns, at the rate of not less than 5 pounds of seed to the acre. The early spring is the best time for sowing the seed, but in mild climates it may be sown at almost any season that may be convenient, providing the ground is moist enough to germinate the seed. In cold climates, the seed should be sown not later than August, unless when sown too late for autumn germination. This in some instances may not only be proper, but commendable.

As a Honey Plant.—White clover is proverbial for its ability to furnish honey. There is probably no single plant which furnishes more or better honey. But its value for such a use varies greatly in different years. In seasons that are quite dry in the spring, it makes but little growth and produces but few blossoms; hence, in such seasons bees can obtain but little honey, relatively, from such a source. It would doubtless be good policy, therefore, for the growers to encourage the sowing of alsike clover where bees are much kept, since the growth of this clover is less hindered by dry weather at the season named. Less close pasturing than is commonly practiced would favorably influence the production of honey from white clover, and would also result in considerably greater yields of pasture.