WILD WHITE CLOVER.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 23 September 1920, Page 4

WILD WHITE CLOVER.

RepLying recently to a correspondent the Biologist (Mr A. H, Cockayne) gave the following information on this subject: Cartain lines of white clover grown in the Hawke's ! Bay district are cold as wild white clover. Such seed is derived from long established rye-grass pastures, and is for the most "pait dressed out of perennial rje-grass seed crops. In very old pastures the clover that persists is looked upon as being moro or leas naturally selected, the shorterlived strain going out in the early years of the pasture. Just how fay the persistence of the clover is due to to re-seeding and not to propagation by vegetative stools I am not prepared to say, but there can be little doubt that the clover in such permbnent pastures is kept going by s certain amount of natural re~seeding It is, of courso, quite reasonable to expect that such plants would undergo a process of natural selection. JN early all imported white clover seed is harvested from crops that have been sown longer than two years, and there certainly have been instances in New Zealand where such seed has produced plants that do not remain permanent. I should not, however, recommend the purchase of imported wild white clover, as it is exceedingly expensive, being about £l 10s per poun,d. There is no doubt that the local white clover dressed out of old pasture rye-grass is exactly the same as European wild white, and the price is very much cheaper. —Journal of Agriculture