Morris tribune., 1922-12-22
SWEET CLOVER SEEN AS
GOOD FORAGE CROP

Recently in Pipestone county OBJ
served a herd Of cattle that were car
rying an unusual amount Of flesh for
cattle that had had no feed except
pasture, while on netghboring farms
most of the cattle were In rather
moderate flesh. When the owner OF
these cattle was asked the reason ne
led me to a sweet clover pasture.
"These rs acres Of sweet clover are
the reason" he said. These %
acres of pasture have carried 80 an
iamls throughout the esason and
never had my livestock in such good
condition at the end of the season.
With ordinary native pasture, 1t
ordinarily takes about two acres to
carry one animal. 1 intend to use
sweet clover pasture almost entirely
In the future"
The foregoing is typical Of the ex-
perience of farmers here and there
throughout western Minnesota who
have been using sweet clover for pas
ture the last year or two. Occasion
ally farmer says he has had difficult
ty in getting his animals to eat 1t at
the start, but we have heard Of no
case where there was any trouble
when the cattle were turned on the
sweet clover early in the spring be-
fore the other grasses had made a
good start.
Sweet clover, contrary to popular
belief, requires an abundant supply of
lime in the soil and should be seeded
only in those localities where alfalfa
is known to thrive without lime.
However, it stands wet feet better
than alfalfa. In general, the soils Of
western Minnesota have an abund-
ance of lime and farmers in that sec
ton who have not tried sweet clover
for pasture would do well to try a
few acres the coming year. It may
be seeded with small grain the same
as other clover and grasses. About
10 pounds of unscarified seed should
be used per acre while IL pounds OF
the scarif1ed is sufficient.
By scarified seed we mean seed
that has been put through some ma
chine for scratching the seed coats
Otherwise usually 20 to 40 per cent
of the so-ca1led hard seeds will mo-
terminate the first year. Occasional
ly there are so per cent Of these hare
seeds. 1t is important in any cas-
to make a termination test so tina
one may be sure to use sufficient seeC
to provide a good stand the first year
If it is desired to pasture the swee
clover more than one year it is vel
to keep in mind that sweet clover is ;
biennial, or two year plant, the sam
as red clover. However, we hav
seen several sweet clover pasture
that have given good results for tire
or four years in succession. In thi
case unscarified seed was used so tina
only part of the plants grew tn
first year; the rest of them grew tn
second year and provided pasture 70
the third year from seeding. 1t
almost impossible to pasture tn
sweet clover so closely that it doe
not seed rather freely, so that If on
starts with unscarified seed he has
continuous crop Of new plants tina
will replace those that die out.
An added advantage to sweet clio
yer pasture is that the price Of see
is the cheapest of any of the cloverE
There are two varieties Of biennis
sweet clover, the white blossom an
yellow blossom. The white blossor
is the stronger growing variety an
seems to be generally preferred.-W
L. Cavert, agricultural extension di
vision, University Of Minnesota.