36 



FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



This organism has been pretty gen- 

 erally distributed along the roadsides 

 "with the mud carried on vehicles and 

 on bottom lands by floods. The higher 

 cultivated lands of the state do not 

 generally contain this germ, so inocu- 

 lation is necessary. Either one of two 

 methods may be employed: 



1. Soil transfer method: Soil is ob- 

 tained from where well infected sweet 

 clover or alfalfa has grown the past 

 year and scattered over land to be 

 seeded, at the rate of from 300 to 500 

 pounds per acre. This may be done 

 with a shovel. The harrow should 

 follow immediately to cover the soil 

 and prevent the sunshine from de- 

 stroying the bacteria and also to dis- 

 tribute the inoculating material 

 somewhat uniformly through " the soil. 



2. Glue solution method: In this 

 method the infected sweet clover or 

 alfalfa soil with its bacteria is glued 

 to the seed and inoculation produced 

 in that way. About eight ounces of 

 furniture or carpenter's glue should be 

 dissolved in a gallon of hot water, 

 which, when sufficiently cool, should be 

 sprinkled on the sweet clover seed at 

 the rate of about one quart to a bushel 

 of seed. The seed should then be 

 stirred so, as to moisten it uniformly. 

 About three quarts of the dry, pulver- 

 ized soil should be added and thor- 

 oughly mixed with the seed. If the 

 work has been well done each seed 

 will have a coating of infected soil 

 around it. The seed should be dried 

 and is then ready for sowing. A safe 

 precaution to be taken is not to allow 

 the sun to shine on seed before it is 

 covered. 



The fact that sweet clover is grow- 

 ing luxuriantly along the roadside does 

 not necessarily prove that the adjoin- 

 ing fields contain the proper bacteria. 

 It is always well to make sure and 

 inoculation is one of the conditions 

 that must be complied with in order to 

 be reasonably sure of securing a stand. 



Uses — Pasture, Hay and Seed. 



Stock easily learn to like sweet 

 •clover, especially when young and 

 tender. Permanent blue grass pas- 

 tures could profitably be seeded to 

 sweet clover since this crop will fur- 

 nish plant food for the blue grass and 

 result in growing more of the latter 

 than without the clover. Since it ig a 

 biennial, in order to obtain the largest 

 amount of green pasture, part of the 



field should be seeded during two suc- 

 cessive years. After that no seeding 

 will be necessary. For temporary pas- 

 tures sweet clover should be seeded 

 with some othel" crop such as red, 

 alsike clover or timothy to furnish 

 pasture after the sweet clover has 

 seeded the second year. But little will 

 be eaten after it blooms and becomes 

 woody. The pasture season may be 

 prolonged by clipping with a mower 

 five or six inches high some time before 

 blooming. This starts a new succu- 

 lent growth that will afford pasture for 

 much longer. The value of sweet 

 clover is being demonstrated on many 

 farms and some experiment stations. 

 The Iowa station has carried on some 

 experiments using sweet clover as pas- 

 ture for hogs and the first season's 

 growth has proved to be about as good 

 as alfalfa. 



The following extract from a letter 

 will show how cattle thrive on this 

 much abused plant: "I had a very 

 fine stand this season following a bar- 

 ley crop. Sixty days after cutting the 

 barley, there was a growth of from 15 

 to 24 inches. I put 29 steers in this 

 field that were j.ust common feeders in 

 only fairly good condition, purchased 

 in Kansas City. They were fed noth- 

 ing else but had plenty of water and 

 salt and in 55 days the average gain 

 was 154 pounds each." 



The Wyoming Experiment Station 

 found that lambs fed on alfalfa made 

 an Average gain of 34.4 pounds each in 

 14 weeks, while on sweet clover an- 

 other bunch of lajmbs made a gain of 

 30.7 pounds for thje same time. 



As a hay crop ^weet clover is prov- 

 ing to be very vailuable. Stock eat it 

 when cured as well as when green. 

 During favorable seasons a hay crop of 

 a ton or more may be cut the first year. 

 One man writes me that his first year's 

 growth made 2% tons of hay. A crop 

 of hay may be cut during the second 

 year and the second crop allowed to 

 seed or the first crop may be allowed 

 to seed. In cutting the hay crop dur- 

 ing the first season's growth, there is 

 no danger of injuring by cutting too 

 low, but, for cuttings made during the 

 second year, the mower should be run 

 at least 4 inches high. New buds or 

 sprouts do not start from the root 

 crown as in the case of alfalfa after 

 being cut once. The new growths 

 start from the stubble and this must 



