THE Commercial and A‘gricultural Magazine.

No. XXII.) MAY, 1801. Vor. LV.

ON COW GRASS, MARL GRASS, OR PERENNIAL RED: CLOVER. To the Editor of the Commercial“ and Agriculturgl Magazine. SIR»

GRICULTURE, like- other ſciences, is beſt explained

by‘confining: the attention to detached parts. Thoſe minute‘circumſtances’ relating to any article are then inveſti- gated, which are generally overlooked in a general detail. Having lately cultivated Cow Graſs with ſucceſs, its hiſtory became to me. an. intereſting obje of enquiry. i

In the ſpring 1800, a field of eight acres was laid down by ſowing twelve pounds per: acre of Cow’ Graſs, with Barley, which ſucceeded“ Turnips, manured for, and, fed off by ſheep. The ſoil a pebbly loam on a gravelly ſubſoil. Notwithſtanding the dry ſeaſon, the clover kept growing after the common clo- ven had ſhrunk in the leaf, and yielded, when mown, a larger crop than I had ever gathered, even in a dropping ſeaſon.

Cow Grafs appears to be longer in the ſtalk, more branching; and crooked than the common clover. It‘is later in arriving at its full growth, and the bloſſom is larger, and of a deeper purple. The leaves are longer, darker, and narrower. The whole plant is larger and heavier. The root is perennial, ſtrikes obliquely, and ſpreads underground. Mr.- Arthur Young, on examining the Cow Grafs here referred to, pronounced it to be the beſt ſpecimen of- the kind, and the fulleſt of bloſlom that he had ever(en.

Mr. Liſle, therefore, T ſhould ſuppoſe muſt have been under a miſtake, when, in ſpeaking of this clover, he ſays, The broad Clover Graſs, which of late years, 1707, has obtained ſome credit, as a longer living graſs than the common broad clover, and is ſown under the name of Cow Graſs, I find to be the common purple Trefoil, or honey ſuckle Trefoil, as deſcribed by Mr. Ray, diſtinguiſhed from the great purple meadow Tre- foil, which has always hitherto been ſown by the Eñgliſh far- mers, and I doubt not ever will, for, by experience, I find the other not to yield half the burden,

This plant.is well deſcribed by: Mr. Afzelius, in the firſt volume of the Tranſactions of the Linnæan Society, where he treats of three ſpecies, of Trefoil, Trifolium Alpeſtre, medium and pratenſe. He conſiders Cow Grafs as the Trifolium medium and not. the Alpeſtre, as has been generally ſuppoſed.

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