The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1914-07-20
THE BUSINESS
FARMERS CORNER
SWEET CLOVER
1t Ranks with Alfalfa
EDWARD MCDONALD

Sweet clover is known by a variety
OF names, among them Melilotus, Bee
Glover, Mountain Glover, and Bokhara
Glover, and for long time this yalu'
able legume was considered weeds
indeed thought so by many to-day-but,
as the knowledge of it increases, its
value is becoming properly estimated.
Before planting Melilotus, however,
one should have thorough understand
ing Of its requirements, or 1t might end
in becoming troublesome. It's value as
pasture, hay, and soiling crop is as yet
in its infancy, and its excellent points
are far from being fully known. The
bacteria on the roots of sweet clover are
capable of inoculating alfalfa, while its
large, long roots, going deep down into
the soil, do much toward aerating and
breaking up the sub-soil sweet clover
will soon possess itself of vacant land,
being very robust and prolific, yet it will
not often encroach upon cultivated fields
or moving meadows. The white sweet
clover plant is an erect branching bien-
NAL plant with regular ascending stems
not thickly supplied with leaves. In the
second season 1t makes growth OF from
four to twelve feet, producing many
blossoms, and dying when it has ma
tured its seed. The plant, when young,
closely resembles alfalfa except that it
has a bitter taste; when in blossom its
identification is simple by the long, loose
racemes of white flowers. The seeds, I'M
like alfalfa, are borne singly in each pod,
and it is like other legumes, a gatherer
of nitrogen, which it stoes in nodules
on its roots.
Adapted to Wide Range.
Sweet clover is adapted to a wide
range of conditions, and has great
drought resisting ability. Any well.
drained soil will grow sweet clover, al
though it makes its best growth on well
lined soil. 1t requires compacted seed
bed, with just enough loose soil on top
to cover the seed; the lack of this knowl-
edge has been the cause of many failures
in seeding down. Ii the ground must be
powed, do it several months before seed
ing, thus: Plow early in spring, plant
TO early cabbage, early potatoes, or any
early maturing crop and when harvested
disk both ways and SOW to sweet clover;
or better still, SOW in the spring on old
corn ground that has been well disked.
1t usually requires 90 or 80 lbs. of hulled
seed.
Ii is very essential that sweet clover
plants be inoculated, but this is easily
done by mixing with the seed a little
soil taken from the roadside or fence
corners where the plant usually -four
ishes as a weed. The treatment the first
season consists of cutting back weeds
which may threaten to choke it, this
operation tends to make the clover plants
stool out instead of growing tall and
spindly. The field may be pastured the
first season. The great advantage of
sweet clover is its very early growth in
spring, producing pasturage long before
other grasses have started. If used for
moving, il yields an excellent hay crop
in June and again in late summer; il
will also stand pasturing the entire sea
son, and cattle, once accustomed 70 il,
thrive on il; finally, as a green-manure
crop, il has no superior.
copyright 1914 BY Z. X. Parkinson-An
rights reserved