ly provides grazing during the
summer and autumn months, from May, June or July onward, according to
the locality, and it fails with the appearance of the first heavy
frosts. In moist situations, it will furnish grazing during all the
summer and autumn, if not allowed to seed, but in time of drought, it
may wither on dry, thin soils and come on again when the rains of autumn
begin to fall. In order to keep the grazing tender and palatable, it
should be reasonably close. If allowed to mature much seed before
grazing begins, the plants will then die, to the great injury of the
grazing.

That stock do not take kindly to it at first, as they do to alfalfa and
some other plants, cannot be doubted. But they can soon learn to relish
it. It has been praised both for milk and meat production; hence, the
aim should be to have it in all permanent pastures. In some of these it
may be necessary to sow a few pounds of seed per acre at the first. If
the grazing is not too close, the plants thereafter will sufficiently
re-seed the land. It has been found quite possible in short rotations to
secure pasture from Japan clover without sowing it on land on which it
has once grown. But to accomplish this effectively, the grazing must not
be so close as to preclude a self-seeding. By growing such plants for
winter and spring grazing, as turf oats and sand vetches, and then
grazing the Japan clover, which will grow later on lands thus managed,
grazing may be furnished indefinitely from year to year.

=Harvesting for Hay.=--Japan clover is a good hay plant when grown on
strong soils. The quality is good also when grown under adverse
conditions, but the quantity is deficient. On good soils, the yield is
from 1 to 2 tons per acre, the average being about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 tons.
The hay is also quite merchantable in Southern markets. It is considered
superior to baled timothy--timothy brought in from the North--especially
when fed to cows producing milk. Japan clover is best cut when the
plants are in full bloom. But harvesting is frequently deferred to a
period somewhat later where self-seeding of the land is desirable. Late
cutting, however, lowers the quality of the hay, both as regards
palatability and digestibility. Much that has been said as to the
curing of medium red clover will also apply to Japan clover.

Successive crops of hay may be grown from year to year on the same land,
as already intimated. (See page 285.) But where other crops ar