WILD WHITE CLOVER.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LIX, Issue 10615, 13 July 1931, Page 1

WILD WHITE CLOVER.

CERTIFICATION IN BRITAIN. Last year a scheme for the certification of crops of wild white clover seed was brought into operation by the National Farmers’ Union with the co-operation of the British Ministry of Agriculture. The importance of genuine wild white clover seed in sowing down permanent pastures is well recognised, and the object of the scheme is at once to encourage the production and marketing of genuine home-produce wild white clover seed and to enable prospective purchasers to ensure that they obtain the genuine article. The broad outline of the scheme is that growers of wild white clover seed may apply to have their pastures examined and recorded as eligible to produce either genuine old pastures seed or seed once grown from old pasture seed. Each field submitted for recording is, on payment of a small fee, examined by officers of the Ministry, and a sample of clover heads is taken for a “growing-on” test. Provided that the history of the held and the results of these two tests are satisfactory, the field is recorded, and in subsequent years when the applicant desires to take a crop of seed he is entitled to apply for a certificate in respect of that crop.