FORTY-FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT. 151 



MY EXPERIENCE WITH SWEET CLOVER AS A SOIL RE- 



JUVENATOR. 



O. W. BRA MAN, GRAND RAPIDS. 



T feel that I would just like to take a little shot at our Secretary — 

 T notice that he has put especial emphasis on my havinG; had experi- 

 ence in growing sweet clover. He has over-estimated my experience in 

 that line. 



Nevertheless, I will take np a little of your time in discussing this 

 valuable crop. But I will say right here that my experience covers 

 only about two years — a little less. Sweet clover is a cousin to the 

 alfalfa. It is a plant that has been called to our attention very gener- 

 ally throughout this State, as well as a number of other states. It 

 seems to thrive abnormally well along the roadsides, in gullies, in the 

 wash-outs, in cuts, in gravel beds and in other places where there is 

 no vegetable matter practically. It comes up and grows to the heighth 

 of five, six, seven, eight and even ten feet high. Our attention was 

 called to it because of this fact, that it had wonderful possibilities as 

 a soil builder (filler). 



There are three varieties: White blossom, dwarf annual and the 

 biennial variety. A year ago last season I sowed the first sweet clover 

 that I ever had any experience Avith on my own farm, although I had 

 seen my neighbors — and the expei'ience they had had with it, and also 

 noticed it growing along the highway. 



I supposed I was buying white blossom, but it turned out that I got 

 only one-third white blossom and the other two-thirds was of the yel- 

 low variety, hence my experiment from that point of view was a partial 

 failure. 



I took nine acres of soil that had been farmed with the general farm 

 crops for about thirty or forty years, the last ten being with such crops 

 as corn, potatoes, oats, timothy hay, etc., without any special attention 

 paid to the proper crop rotation. The result was this one particular 

 field got into bad physical and chemical condition. The soil was sandy 

 clay loam, and had naturally produced good crops until the last 

 four or five years. I plowed it up in July after the hay which was on 

 it was off. The field was inoculated Avith alfalfa — the same bacteria 

 work on the sweet clover as on alfalfa. I got the field in good condi- 

 tion, and there came a shower and I sowed the sweet clover, and in 

 four days it was up. I was q-uite enthusiastic over the possibilities 

 of it at first. This field had had no fertilizer or lime — just simply 

 got into good mechanical condition, so far as tillage was concerned. 



Well, I watched that clover very closely, but after it had been in 

 three or four weeks, certain specimens commenced to quit growing — 

 as though they did not have the energy, or vitality that it should have 

 The next winter I went to work and top-dressed about two-thirds of 



