Agricultural history.

White clover seems to have been first cultivated in Holland, where it forms an important element in the pasture lands. The harvesting of the seed for sowing began about 1759 in Holstein and in England, but was apparently still earlier in Holland.

Jared Eliot mentions it in Massachusetts in 1747, and Kalm in his American travels a few years later found it common. Strickland, who traveled in the United States in 1794, writes as follows:

“ In every part of America, from New Hampshire to Carolina, from the sea to mountains, the land, whether calcareous or argillaceous, whether wet or dry, whether worn out or retaining its original fertility, from the summit of the Allenghany ridge to the sandy plains of Virginia, is spontaneously covered with white clover, growing frequently with the luxuriance and perfection that art can rarely equal in Europe.”

“I am told it is never met with far back in the woods, but immediately on their being cleared away, either by fire or other-wise, it takes possession of the ground; which should prove that it was natural to it; that the seed lies there, but cannot vegetate till the ground is cleared; but again I have been told, that by some tribes of Indians it is called ‘white man’s foot grass’, from an idea that wherever he has trodden, it grows; which should prove at least, that it had not been known in the country longer than the white man.”

From “Forage Plants and Their Culture”, by Charles V Piper, published 1916, Pg 412

https://archive.org/details/forageplantsthei00piperich/page/n5 

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