640 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



successful growing of this legume if the foregoing plans are adhered to. 

 Twenty pounds of hulled seed is about the right amount of seed to sow 

 per acre. We used a side delivery the past season, delivering the hay 

 into the rows when not quite dry. Then we let it dry a little more in 

 those delivered rows, then used a hay loader when all was about dry; but 

 the moisture from the ground and the hay, still a trifle green, all made 

 up very nicely. Only a few leaves were lost. I believe this will usually 

 work well, and it saves much labor over the cockup plan. 



In handling the seed bundles it will be found profitable to spread a can- 

 vas over the wagon rack to catch the shattering seed. 



The growing of sweet clover is the best possible way to prepare ground 

 for the successful growing of alfalfa. 



Sweet clover will not live long unless the bacteria nodules begin to 

 form on the roots; and these nodules will be very slow to show up unless 

 good rich ground is used to begin with, or the land is limed, or a good 

 covering of manure, or both, are used; and when all the above precau- 

 tions are taken into consideration, and any of them applied, very few 

 indeed will fail to make sweet clover a paying proposition on the farm, 

 and he who is in the corn belt, and sets himself to the successful growing 

 of this legume, will soon find himself growing much larger yields of not 

 only hay and pasture, but a large increased yield on each acre of corn. 



TO IXOCULATE SEED — A PLAN THAT WORKS WELL. 



Dig up strong sweet clover roots on ground where this legume has been 

 growing for years, carry to a place where the sun never shines, shell off 

 the dirt with the nodules, and let dry and pulverize into a fine dust. 



This dust is teeming with the fresh bacteria, and is at this time ready 

 to use for the purpose of inoculating either sweet clover seed or alfalfa 

 seed. 



Prepare water with sufficient granulated glue stirred in to make a thin 

 sticky syrup. It will be necessary to heat the water some so the glue will 

 dissolve. When cool it is ready for use. Empty the seed on a floor in 

 the shade, then pour over the seed sufficient of this syrup, and shovel it 

 over and over until glue is all on the seed, when it will be ready for the 

 dust. Sprinkle sufficient of this dust to dry the seed, so that the seed will 

 no longer stick together. When done every seed will be coated with this 

 dust that contains the bacteria, and is exactly in the right place to cause 

 the young plants to grow nodules at once. 



When the above work is done the seed is ready to be sown either with 

 nurse crop or alone. Be sure that when sown the seed is covered at once, 

 as sunlight will kill the bacteria, and the thing that makes for success is 

 to keep these operations always in the shade or on a damp cloudy day. 



If this method is used, sweet clover will thrive on very poor land, and 

 build it up very fast. In any case where this legume has not grown suc- 

 cessfully, the seed should be treated as above. The application of 

 ground limestone applied to the land at the rate of one and one-half to 

 two tons per acre causes the alba to grow an abundance of nodules, and in 

 this case no inoculation is needed. 



