Seeds of Clover have the property of remaining long in the ground after
it has become thus in a manner exhausted; and it frequently occurs that
ashes being laid on will stimulate the land afresh, and cause the seeds
to vegetate; which has given rise to the erroneous opinion with many
persons, that ashes, and particularly soap ashes, will, when sown on
land, produce Clover.

Red Clover is usually cultivated in stiff clays or loamy soils; and when
sown alone, about sixteen or eighteen pounds of seed are used for the
acre.



54. TRIFOLIUM medium. ZIGZAG, or MOUNTAIN-CLOVER.--Is in some degree
like the preceeding; it produces a purple flower, and the foliage is
much the same in appearance: but this is a much stronger perennial, and
calculated from its creeping roots to last much longer in the land. It
is equally useful as a food for cattle, and does not possess that
dangerous quality of causing cattle to be hove, or blown, by eating it
when fresh and green. This plant is, however, only to be met with in
upland pastures, and there in its wild state; for it does not seed very
abundantly, and is not in cultivation.

In the London seed-markets we often hear of a species of red Clover
termed Cow-grass, and it generally sells for more money, and is said to
differ in having the characters ascribed to it of this plant, namely, a
hollow stem; the leaves more sharply pointed; the plant being a stronger
perennial, and having the property of not causing the above-mentioned
disorder to cows that eat of it. It is said to be cultivated in
Hampshire, from whence I have often received the seeds which have been