CHAPTER XII 
SWEET CLOVER 
FEW years ago a plant sprung up along our 
A roadsides in great profusion. It grew so vig- 
orously and spread so rapidly that farmers be- 
came alarmed and feared it would become a troublesome 
weed. 
Strange as it may seem, this plant seldom invaded the 
cultivated fields or rich spots of the farms. It was 
found only where the soil was the thinnest and poorest. 
It was soon discovered that this plant supposed to be 
a noxious weed, was designed to be a renovator of ex- 
hausted soils. That it languished and died on a fairly 
rich soil, but grew luxuriantly on soils so poor that noth- 
ing else scarcely would grow on them. 
Thus the sweet clover plant despised and rejected at 
first, at last became a chief corner stone in soil restora- 
tion. 
When planted on the poorest of clay soils where noth- 
ing grew, it soon made them so fertile that other grasses 
came and smothered out the clover. It has been known 
to so enrich bottom land whose top soil had been washed 
away by high waters that 60 to 75 bushels of corn was 
again grown on it. It has reclaimed poor, much-washed 
hillsides. 
Years ago the wreckage of a Dutch ship was cast 
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