ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



be left sufficiently high to give room 

 for the new buds. The root crown 

 normally furnishes but one series of 

 shoots and if cut too low the second 

 crop will be a partial or total failure. 

 There will be no objection to cutting 

 a second crop of hay if sufficient 

 growth takes place. This will damage 

 the seed crop, however. 



Cut the first crop before it blooms 

 and the second crop before it becomes 

 too woody. 



Mr. Graham, of Rochelle, filled a silo 

 with the first year's growth of sweet 

 clover and fed it to steers together 

 with corn. During the first 30 days an 

 average gain was made of 91 pounds 

 per steer. 



The yield of sweet clover seed is 

 usually higher than that of any other 

 clover, being from 3 to 18 bushels per 

 acre, and may be obtained from the 

 first, second or possibly a small yield 

 from the third crop if the season is 

 favorable. To obtain the best seed 

 crop it is necessary to cut a crop of 

 hay or clip it when 18 to 20 inches 

 , high. In handling the seed crop it can 

 best be done by harvesting with a 

 binder and shocking as in the case of 

 oats. The time of cutting the seed is 

 very important since if cut when too 

 ripe much will be lost by shattering. 

 A general rule is to cut it when three - 

 fourths of the seed are black and the 

 rest a yellow brown. The seed ripens 

 very irregularly and some branches 

 will be in bloom when others are ready 

 to harvest. It should be hulled as 

 soon as dry. The ordinary clover 

 huller does not handle sweet clover 

 very satisfactorily. If possible, use a 

 thresher with a clover hulling attach- 

 ment. Probably the best way, until 



the hullers are adapted to handling 

 this crop, it to run the crop through an 

 ordinary thresher, thus obtaining the 

 unhulled seed. If it is desirable to 

 have the seed hulled this unhulled ma- 

 terial may be run through an ordinary 

 huller. This will give the seed in good 

 shape. 



Sweet Clover as a Soil Renovating 

 Crop. 



As a crop for soil improvement sweet 

 clover promises to become of great 

 value especially in our systems of 

 grain and mixed farming and possibly 

 in the live stock system. It has this 

 advantage over alfalfa that it works 

 well into systems of rotation and 

 would be turned under with a clear 

 conscience. With the exception of 

 alfalfa it is the deepest rooting crop 

 grown, the tap roots penetrating to a 

 depth of 3 to 5 feet. This makes it 

 especially valuable as a subsoiler. The 

 root development takes place largely 

 during the first season. The growth 

 of top during the first year is not 

 usually very large, probably not much 

 larger than the total root development 

 during the same time. 



The growth of top during the second 

 year is one feature that makes it such 

 an excellent crop for soil improvement. 

 One of the most important problems in 

 soil manag'ement is maintaining the 

 supplj'' of nitrogenous organic matter 

 to provide nitrogen for the crop an<J 

 humus for keeping the soil in good 

 tilth. Sweet clover provides an 



abundance of both. 



The following table gives the re- 

 sults of some investigations of sweet 

 clover at the Illinois Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station: 



Illinois Investigations of 



PARTS OF PLANT 



Sweet Clover (M, Alba). 



DRY MATTER PER ACRE NITROGEN PER ACRE 



DEPTH 

 (Inches) 



e 



n 

 o "' 



O 3 



o 



3 



a. 



-0 





Tops harvested 



Surface residue 



Total tops 



Large surface roots to 7 



Small surface roots to 7 



Total surface roots to 7 



Subsurface roots 7 to 20 



Total roots 



Total tops and roots 



Table from Doctor Hopkins' "Soil 



9029 



1338 



10367 



1568 



241 



1809 



601 



2410 



12777 



81 



14 



5 



19 



100 



174 



23 



197 



17 



5 



22 



9 



31 



228 



86 



10 



4 



14 



100 



Fertility and Permanent Agriculture." 



