136 



FOURTEENTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



SWEET CLOVER. 



(Prof. J. G. Mosier.) 



For this valuable paper we refer 5'ou 

 to Mr. Hosier's paper given at the 

 State meeting at Springfield also. (See 

 following his picture.) 



Pres. Kannenberg — If there are any 

 questions to ask I suppose the Pro- 

 fessor will answer them. 



Prof. Mosier — I will try. 



Mr. Dadant — You spoke about test- 

 ing the soil for acidity. A great many 

 of us do not know how to test soil for 

 acidity. How shall we go about it? 



Now we have been using blue litmus 

 paper right along for testing. Take a 

 mass of soil, make a ball by squeezing 

 it together; break it apart and put 

 blue litmus paper in, leaving part of 

 it in for 10 minutes, and, if the soil is 

 acid, the blue litmus paper will turn 

 pink. 



The test we are recommending is the 

 hydro -chloride acid test, to determine 

 whether there is limestone in the soil. 



We need the presence of limestone 

 in the soil, and by using hydro-chloride 

 acid, pouring it on the soil, we can tell 

 if limestone is there. If a bubbling 

 takes place it is an indication that 

 there is limestone; if not, it is an in- 

 dication that limestone is absent. The 

 soil may be neutral. 



If you take a piece of limestone and 

 drop some hydro-chloride acid on it 

 before you go to make the test, you 

 can see how that bubbling would take 

 place. If there are fragments of lime- 

 stone in the soil that is all that is 

 necessary. 



The reason we are using this test is: 

 For a long time after we made appli- 

 cations of blue litmus, we found it 

 would give an acid test and there 

 would still be limestone in the soil, 

 so we have almost entirely quit using 

 that and find the better test is hydro- 

 chloride acid. 



On the southern Illinois soils we 

 have a man who is doing limestone 

 work. He is interviewing farmers and 

 they bring him samples of soil to test; 

 once in a while they will test him. 

 They bring samples of soil that they 

 have put limestone on — so now he is 

 testing with hydro-chloride acid. That 

 is the best test for all to use as to the 

 presence of limestone in the soil. Get 

 the commercial hydro-chloride acid. 

 You can get enough for five or ten 



cents to make all the tests you want 

 to make. 



You may have the surface soil acid 

 and the sub-soil containing limestone. 

 If j'ou have conditions favorable 

 enough, the sweet clover, or alfalfa 

 plant will get the roots .down into that 

 limestone in the sub-soil and it will 

 stand anything, but, if conditions are 

 not favorable so they will do that, they 

 are apt to die out. "v 



You may go into a field where you 

 will see some plants of alfalfa or sweet 

 clover, and you may find the soil is 

 acid and the roots have cut down to 

 where the limestone is. You will see 

 other plants thrifty and green and they 

 have reached the limestone. It is 

 always best to have soil with some 

 lim.estone in it. 



In southern Illinois we have unusual 

 conditions; the sub-soil is -much more 

 acid than the surface soil, and we can 

 put limestone under the surface soil 

 and mix it, but we cannot get it with 

 the sub -soil until it reaches down in 

 there. 



If sweet clover grows it will punc- 

 ture that and limestone will soon get 

 down in that sub-soil. 



A member — I understood you to say 

 it was two different installments; do 

 you mean two different times? 



Mr. Dadant — In the casei of the 

 farmer: If you have a rank growth of 

 sweet clover it might fill up, second 

 year's growth, yet in some flelds^'here 

 it is rather permanent I have seen it 

 growing scattered around; there is 

 some *there that will start this year 

 and bloom next year. 



Mr. Wheeler— It might be of interest 

 to some of you to know something 

 about the history of the sweet clover 

 plant. I mean the history of its in- 

 troduction. 



Thirty-one years ago next spring I 

 got some sweet clover of Thomas G. 

 Newman. I moved west to northwest- 

 ern Iowa. I bought a bushel or two 

 of Mr. Newman and paid him a lot of 

 money for it. They were getting out 

 pamphlets then. Mr. Newman was 

 trying to work up an interest in sweet 

 clover, telling how good it was, and 

 trying to get farmers to- sow it. 



At that time, 31 years ago, I heard 

 a good many of the same things I 

 have heard tonight, and I thought in 

 future years farmers would use it; I 



