The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1913-09-26
sweet Glover IS
FOUND VALUABLE
Find Plant Makes Good Feed for
the Stock and the Seed Brings
Fancy Prices.

Hutchinson, Kan, Sept. 22.-After
trying in vain for several years to
stamp out the wA,d sweet clover
which grew In abundance in the pas
lures and fields of the Arkansas Val
ley in Western Kansas, the farmers
have given 1t up. Instead of eradi-
eating it, they are now harvesting
and threshing the seed of the wild
clover, selling it for $3.50 bushel.
1t is worth more than alfalfa. 1t was
by sheer accident that the discovery
was made that sweet clover Is good
for something instead of being
noxious weed.
A patch of it appeared few years
ago In some meadow hay land in
Finney County, on the Shull farm,
two miles east of Garden City. 1t
was cut and stacked with the other
hay. When the cattle were turned
on the hay the farmer. a Mr.. Shut,
was surprised to find that they fin
ished the stack. eating the sweet
clover in it first. This plant started
next year in several places along the
river. Neighbors of Mr.. Shr'l tried
the same scheme with like results.
From the beginning it has continued
to grow in favor for pasture hay and
seed. "t
Charles |. Zirkle mas completed
threshing sweet dover on his land
near Charleston, in Gray County. 1t
is not irrigated. but lies in the rich
bottom. Scattering patches produced
500 patches OF seed. which marketed
for S625. The cost of harvesting and
threshing was small.
Last year Mr.. Zirkle threshed sos
bushels of seed from sixty acres, or
more than eight bushels to the acre.
He had poor stand on some of this
land and Mr.. Zirkle and several
others who saw the seed coming
from the threshing machine estimated
that some of it made as much as
twenty bushels to the acre. E. G.
Finnup of Finney County on one
pate of good stand averaged twelve
bushels to the acre. The food value
by the ton. of sweet and red clover
as given by the Department of Ag-
riculture is: Sweet clover, SlS.40; red
colver, $14.12. /.
J. ]. Haskell of Finney County, in
writing OF the vsi'ue of the sweet
clover. to the Mail and Breeze, said:
"A year or two after we discover
ed that our cattle would eat sweet
clover the State Board of Agriculture
asked for a sample Of it. Milt Mar
shall sent several stalks and the re-
port came back that the sample
seemed remarkably free from Gu
marin, the ingredient which causes
the bitter taste characteristic of the
plant and to this fact was attributed
the cattle's fondness for 1t. Later we
learned that the cumarin, which
caused the bitter taste, had been in
use in medicine. as corrective tonic
and intestinal antiseptic for many
years. Also that it made 1t possible
to pasture cattle upon the clover
without dangre of bAOat.
"In summing up the situation we
came to the conclusion that We had
a clover which would grow under al
most any conditions of soil or eli
mate; that there was little or no
trouble in getting stock to eat 1t;
that 1t was not only food. but a
ti,aic as well, and that all the time
it was being grazed or moved 1t was
at work building UP the sol.''
Two years ago this spring there
were 1000 head of cattle In sight OF
Mr.. Haskelrs Hamilton County place,
grazing ON sweet dover for two
weeks. before another green thing
appeared. As spring pasture, stock
readily acquire taste for Vt. The
Allen Brothers of Hartland shipped
in 1000 head of cattle week before
last from Florida. where they had
never eaten sweet clover and ture ID
them into sweet clover pasture. The
first day they picked out the blue
stem. but after the second day they
were aI eating the sweet clover.
These cattle had been on the road
eleven days and were very thin and
weak when received. being In the
best condition possible to bloat easily
but not one Heated. a ,.,u.. - 49,.
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