Clover
an exceedingly valuable plant of the pea family. Latin trifolium, three-leaved. In architecture, a trifoliate or three-leaved pattern in the tracery of a church window or other part of church architecture was regarded as particularly appropriate to the doctrine of the trinity, or three in one nature of the Godhead. There is a superstition as old as the Romans that a serpent will on no account touch a leaf of the white clover. The shamrock, the national emblem of Ireland, corresponding to the rose of England and the thistle of Scotland, is usually considered to be a clover.
There are some three hundred kinds of clovers; but farmers are interested in but three,--red, white, and alsike (pink) clover. White clover is the special delight of bees. It is valuable on worn out lands, which it has a faculty of occupying and enriching. It is not a desirable pasture plant. Red clover is one of the most valuable plants on a farm. It makes excellent pasture and fine hay. Its roots penetrate the ground to a depth of two feet or more, and not only render the soil mellow, but this and all other clovers have the peculiarity of drawing nourishment from the air, chiefly nitrogen, and of storing it in little knots or nodules in its roots, where colonies of bacteria work it over into the richest kind of plant food. Clover then not only does not draw from the soil, as corn and wheat do, but a crop of clover actually makes the soil richer. If a growing crop of clover be turned under with a plow, the soil is enriched still more. A farm is never impoverished by growing clover. There is propriety, after all, in saying of one in comfortable circumstances, "He lives in clover."
Red clover will yield two crops in favorable seasons. It is considered good farming to take the first crop and plow the second under. For pasture, as well as hay, a mixture of timothy and red clover is ideal. A ton of red clover well cured contains more nourishment than an equal amount of the best timothy. Fed to cows clover hay increases the flow of milk. The states and provinces bordering on the Great Lakes are the red clover region of North America. Toledo is the greatest clover seed market. An acre produces from three to eight bushels of seed. A bushel contains from 12,000,000 to 25,000,000 seeds. From eight to fifteen pounds are required to sow an acre. A variety of red clover is known as mammoth clover.
Alsike clover is halfway in appearance and value and habits between white clover and red. Sweet clover is a fragrant, white-blossomed upright plant, allied more nearly to alfalfa.
Clovis (465-511), king of the Franks. His chief capital was Soissons. He married Clothilde, a Burgundian princess, who converted him from a Burgundian princess, who converted him from a heathen plunderer of churches into an upholder of the Church of Rome. His soldiers having borne away a vase of great size and beauty from a church, Clovis promised to restore it if it fell to him in the distribution of booty. When the booty was being distributed, Clovis asked for the vase in addition to his regular share. His soldiers could not very well refuse a request from their commander; but one rough old fellow raised his battleax and dashed the beautiful vase to fragments, crying that the king should have no more than his rightful share. Afterward, the story goes, at an inspection of his army, Clovis found fault with the condition of the armor of the soldier who had so offended, and clove him through the head. This is the tale of the vase of Soissons. Another tale runs to the effect that when hard pressed in battle with the Alemanni, Clovis made a vow that, if Clothilde's God would help him win the battle, he would desert his heathen gods for Christianity. The enemy fled; Clovis and 2,000 of his soldiers were baptized and received into the church by the Bishop of Rheims. The conversion of Clovis proved of great service to him in a political way, and brought the greater part of France under his banner. The Franks were the first important Teutonic people to adopt the orthodox form of Christianity. The other early converts (Goths, Burgundians, Lombards, and Vandals) had accepted the Arian form. The Franks afterward conquered the Burgundians, part of the Gothic kingdom, and the Lombards in Italy, and brought all these peoples into the Roman communion.