Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/221

 it grow luxuriantly in a verandah garden, where the soil was all made and only some six or eight inches in depth. The time to sow it is early in spring, and the quantity of seed per acre will depend upon the kind of soil and the amount of preparation that it has had. It can be sown with couch grass, and without any preparation, either during; or directly after heavy rains. But when sown to make a crop it is as well to allow from ten pounds to twelve pounds per acre, and if sown on well pulverised soil and just before rain it will require no harrowing. In making hay from clover it should not be cut till it has fully blossomed and assumed a bronzey or brownish hue. Then it should be mown as closely as possible and as evenly. Any good bush grass can be added to the clover if preferred, and thus the quantity of hay can be greatly increased.

Choose good weather for the haymaking, you want at least three or four days' hot sunshine.

Let the swarth (the grass, clover, &c., &c., cut with the scythe) lie as it falls and without spreading the first day. At sundown rake into cocks for the night, and spread out again next morning when the dew is off the ground, rake up at night as before, and repeat this for three days.

Many farmers now-a-days let their hay dry in the cocks and without spreading out at all. It is merely a matter of opinion, and mine is that the old fashion is the surest.

After the third day's drying take the hay under cover, and if your bush grass has not already been mixed with the clover spread it in layers between now, and in this way much of the grass will absorb the juices of the clover. Allow from five to seven quarts, or from ten to fourteen pounds of coarse salt to each ton of hay, spreading it evenly here and there through the mow or stack. If for sale it can then be pressed into bales or used from the stack.

Clover makes excellent silage and can be mixed with bush grass in proportions of one ton of clover to one and a half of grass.

When allowed to ripen, clover is a biennial, dying off after the second year, but it can be sustained from year to year by allowing the seed to ripen and fall until the ground is so full of roots that the young plants are choked. Then the field should be ploughed up and some other crop put in for a time. When manuring for clover bone dust, ashes or gypsum are the best to employ.

There are many varieties of clover (which really comes under the same head as the bean, pea, vetch, &c.), the common red and white appear to be the best and most often seen. An old sheep yard makes an excellent patch for a clover field, but cattle and sheep should never be allowed to surfeit themselves