Clovers and How to Grow Them

by Thomas Shaw

Overview

This is a 1913 work on growing different types of clover in a garden. Clover, or trefoil, are common names for plants of the genus Trifolium, consisting of about 300 species of plants in the leguminous pea family Fabaceae. They are small annual, biennial, or short-lived perennial herbaceous plants. This volume offers the reader all the information they might need to know about growing clovers, including soil type and preparation, different varieties, planting, propagation, and much more. Contents include: “General Principles for Growing Clovers”, “Medium Red Clover”, “Alfalfa”, “Alsike Clover”, “Mammoth Clover”, “Crimson Clover”, “White Clover”, “Japan Clover”, “Burr Clover”, “Sweet Clover”, and “Miscellaneous Clover”. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new introduction on the history of gardening.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783752422146
Publisher:	Outlook Verlag
Publication date:	08/11/2020
Pages:	198
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.45(d)

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER III MEDIUM RED CLOVER Medium Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) is also known by the names Common Red Clover, Broad- Leaved Clover and Meadow Trefoil. The term medium has doubtless come to be applied to it because the plants are in size intermediate between the Mammoth variety ( Trifolium magnum) and the smaller varieties, as the Alsike (Trifolium hybri- dum) and the small white (Trifolium repens). But by no designation is it so frequently referred to as that of Red Clover. This plant is spreading and upright in its habit of growth. Several branches rise up from the crown of each plant, and these in turn frequently become branched more or less in their upward growth. The heads which produce the flowers are nearly globular in shape, inclining to ovate, and average about one inch in diameter. Each plant contains several heads, and frequently a large number when the growth is not too crowded. When in full flower these are of a beautiful purple crimson, hence, a field of luxuriant red clover is beautiful to look upon. The stems of the plants are slightly hairy, and ordinarily they stand at least fairly erect and reach the height of about one foot or more; but when the growth is rank, they will grow muchhigher, even as high as 4 feet in some instances, but when they grow much higher than the average given, the crop usually lodges. The leaves are numerous, and many of them have very frequently, if not, indeed, always, a whitish mark in the center, resembling a horseshoe. The tap roots go down deeply into the soil. Usually they penetrate the same to about 2 feet, but in some instances, as when subsoils are open and well stored with accessible food, they go down to the depth of 5 or 6feet. The tap roots are numerously branched, and the branches extend in all directions. Whe...