IMPROVEMENT OF RED CLOVER.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XII, Issue 4, 20 April 1916, Page 293

IMPROVEMENT OF RED CLOVER.

J. BEVERLEY,

Assistant Plant-breeder.

In connection with plant-breeding operations at Moumahaki Experimental Farm considerable attention has been given to red clover and cow-grass. A red-clover single-plant selection (five years old, August, 1915) is being developed at the present time. Usually red clover dies back after flowering, but in this case the floweringstems layer themselves with ease, which indicates that the selection is likely to be truly permanent. From the parent plant 270 flowering stem-growths were removed and planted out in rows 3 ft. apart in October, 1915. The photograph on the following page shows the vigorous growth and seeding of these plants three months later in January, 1916. The parent plant gives a large kidney-shaped goodcoloured seed, and a little over a thousand seedlings have been grown from it' as single plants, the best of which are now under observation for further selection. It is interesting .to note that 4 per cent, of the seedlings have white flowers.

In another experiment several varieties of red clover were sown in the open at the end of May, 1915, with a view to the winter killing off all the weakest plants. Some germinated and damped off later. Runciman’s clover, however, did well under these winter conditions of seeding, and is worthy of notice in many other respects. This clover is supposed to have been brought from England by the early missionaries, and to have been perennial for over forty years on the site of a mission station near Paemako, on the Mokau River, twenty miles from Te Kuiti. Mr. Runciman, who had a property at Paemako, recognized .the value and perennial nature of the variety, and spent time and. money in propagating it. From this source it is now found- in many places.