72 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



sowed sweet clover along the road; 

 you never saw sweet clover there be- 

 fore, but it is growing there today and 

 that ground was not inoculated. 



Doctor Phillips — Yes, it was; some- 

 thing else was growing that 'inoculated 

 it. 



. Mr. Kildow — The soil through that 

 country does not have to be inoculated. 



President Baxter — It must be the soil 

 of Hancock county grows without in- 

 oculation. 



Mr. Stone — The ground along the 

 road is rich with nitrogen and the 

 nitrogen inoculates the soil. It is nitro- 

 gen that alfalfa and sweet clover lack 

 when they fail to grow. The Univer- 

 sity has discovered that, and we did 

 ten years before the University did, 

 that when, the land was rich it did not 

 need inoculation. The nitrogen in the 

 soil was inoculation enough. 



If you try to sow sweet clover in a 

 worn out field you can keep on sowing 

 and you will not get sweet clover; we 

 tried it. We sowed alfalfa and sweet 

 clover and failed to put the inocula- 

 tion in it and neither of them grew; 

 the soil was acid; we had to put lime 

 in; we sowed twenty acres twice and 

 lost the alfalfa seed and sweet clover; 

 we had some sweet clover but it would 

 die out before it seeded; after losing 

 two crops of seed we put limestone in 

 and you never saw such a crop of 

 alfalfa as we have had for the last 

 four years. This year we cut four 

 times; had two tons the first cutting; 

 iy2 tons the second; 1 ton the third, 

 and % ton the fourth cutting. 



Mr. Kildow — He speaks about the 

 ground being full of nitrogen. I won- 

 der how it was in the Sanitary ditch. 

 Tt is full of limestone out there and I 

 never saw Buch a crop of sweet clover 

 as grew there. 



President Baxter — Sweet clover does 

 not need 'any nitrogen. 



Mr. Seastream — When sweet clover 

 came to be talked among bee-keepers, 

 I asked about the seed; I didn't know 

 much about inoculating the soil. I put 

 bushels of seed in, scattered it over 

 the country where I lived and never 

 got a stand, but after a while I, like 

 the rest of them, learned it needed 

 some inoculation; I got some carpen- 

 ter's glue and mixed it up with the 

 seed, and it grows nicely. I have even 

 tried it on limestone and it grows 

 there, too. 



Mr. Heinzel — I have seen it grow in 

 a gravel pit where there was nothing 

 but stone. 



Mr. Pyles — It seems to me we are 

 getting nitrogen and bacteria mixed; 

 we must have the bacteria first to 

 start the nitrogen in the soil. In any 

 limestone soil sweet clover will grow; 

 sweet clover is a hardier plant .than 

 alfalfa. 



Any land that will grow red clover 

 will grow sweet clover, and will pro- 

 duct a crop of sweet clover. 



Along the drainage canal you will 

 find sweet clover growing with the 

 limestone. You will find sweet clover 

 growing among that pile of stone, 

 nothing, but stone so far as you can 

 see but there must be some soil mixed 

 with it. 



I know of land where there are 

 great quantities of lime and there you 

 will find lots of sweet clover and that 

 is where it yields honey. 



We must not get the idea that we 

 must first have nitrogen; we must first 

 have bacteria that stores nitrogen. 



President Baxter — We have been 

 growing sweet clover for the last forty 

 years to my knowledge and I know for 

 a positive fact that sweet clover will 

 grow on land that has not been arti- 

 ficially inoculated. Wherever sweet 

 clover grows, sweet clover will store 

 nitrogen taken from the air and not 

 from the ground, and sweet clover will 

 produce more nitrogen, acre for acre, 

 than will red clover. 



Mr. Dadant — We must not deduce 

 from that that sweet clover will grow 

 anywhere. 



We live right by a big dam on the 

 Mississippi River. Below our home- is 

 an immense quarry made by the Water 

 Power Company. Millions of tons of 

 stone have been taken out. We said 

 to ourselves: As soon as the thing is 

 finished we are going to sow sweet 

 clover in that waste. It got there ahead 

 of us. 



On the other hand, I sowed on a 

 very poor piece of land up on the 

 hills, where there is no linestone near, 

 several acres of sweet^ clover, and in 

 some places there was not a bit of it. 



I am satisfied that land is too sour 

 or needs improvement either by lime 

 or bacteria beforehand. 



President Baxter — Can't get bacteria 

 if it is sour. 



Mr. Hawkins — I can cite you the 



