DF( KMBER 1, 1915 



did not grow larger than peanuts, and were no 

 good. Was it location or a different variety ? 

 Boicourt, Kan. D. 0. Anderson. 



SWEET CLOVRR IN NORTH DAKOTA. 



In looking: over the agricultural journals 

 of late I have several times said to the men 

 of our firm, *' Here is something about 

 sweet clover ihat breaks the recoid of any- 

 thingr heretofore." Well, just now from 

 that new monthly. The National Alfalfa 

 Journal, I clip the following. Read it and 

 see what you think of it. 



A NORTH DAKOTA SWEETCLOVF.R SUCCESS; HOW 

 SWEET CLOVER HAS BEEN MADE TO CHANGE THE 

 VIRGIN SOIL INTO BIG AMERICAN DOLLARS FEED- 

 ING ANl> MARKETING THE CROP. 



In the first place, this sweet-clover plant is not 

 a new plant to the old timers in this county. We 

 have seen it grow in yards around buildings, on the 

 roadsides and railroad grades for the last twenty 

 years. All we know is what people from the mid- 

 dle states told us, and they condemned it as a pest- 

 iferous weed that eventually ruins the farms. Many 

 out it while in blossom on the roadsides and burned 

 it in order to destroy the horrible stuff, and still 

 there would be sweet clover the following year. 



Stock would not or could not eat the " stuff," 

 hence absolutely worthless, so these Illinois farmers 

 told us, and they certainly knew. Many of us con- 

 tended that inasmuch as it looked like alfalfa it 

 might contain the same fertilizing properties, and 

 perliaps stock would eat it if they once got the 

 taste of it. 



Personally I felt that if fho plant prospered so 

 well along the roadside and wherever it could get 

 a foothold in a gravel bank, if it could be utilized 

 as a forage crop the question of diversified farming 

 in North Dakota v.ould be solved forever. I cut 

 some of the green veed and took it with me to 

 my farm to see if the cattle or hogs would eat it. 

 That was in the summer of 1913. I found that, 

 as a matter of fact, both hogs and cattle did eat 

 it after being locked up for half a day without any- 

 thing else to eat. I tried several times and con- 

 cluded that the hogs at least would take to it like 

 a duck to water. 



I had wondered to myself where I could obtain 

 some seed for a trial. I asked the agricultural ex- 

 perts, but none seemed to know just where. One 

 day, Mr. Burns, the Eddy County man, informed 

 me that he had learned that sweet-clover seed could 

 be obtained in Kansas, and that he would arrange 

 with the agricultural station in that state. However, 

 before his answer came I learned from an article 

 in SvLCcmnful Farmin;), one of the best agricultural 

 papers 'n the West, published at Des Moines, Iowa, 

 where I could obtain seed, and further learned from 

 this paper Ihat many had raised the sweet clover 

 for a number of jears, and all praised it, both as 

 a fertilizer and for pasture and hay for all kinds 

 of stock, being almost equal to alfalfa. I also learned 

 that the Atrricultural Department at Washington has 

 issued bulletin No. 485 — which can be had for the 

 asking — and I sent for it and read it several times 

 until I knew all the instruction.*! by heart. 



.\fter being fully convinced that sweet clover is 

 just thp very plant that we need on our fertility-de- 

 pleted fields, I purrha<sed white-bloesom sweet-clover 

 seed to sow twenty acres, prepared the soil according 

 to directions as sent out in Bulletin 485, and seeded 

 twenty acres at the rate of fifteen pounds to the 

 acre, May 10, 1911. 



In order to outline the results fairly I feel it 

 ■.lecessary to mention more particularly the result 

 as a hog pasture than for any other purpose. We 



1005 



had two small hog pastures containing one and 

 one-half acres each, or three acres in all, that had 

 been seeded to oats and barley for several years pre- 

 vious and hogged down. Everything had been eaten 

 to the ground — t^rain, straw, and all. We disked 

 these patches twice, and seeded 15 pounds of hailed 

 seed to the acre, axid left the hogs on it from the 

 day it was seeded. 



In spite of the fact that some fifty large hogs and 

 as many or more yig.s tramped over this ground, pick- 

 ing what }oun;j plants had started to grow, they 

 failed to destroy the roots, as it kept on growing 

 fill summer. I seeded fifteen pounds to the acre on 

 the rest, or seventeen acres. Seven acres of this 

 was seeded on alfalfa ground that was seeded too 

 thin to make a crop of value. On two acres I 

 seeded barley as a nurse crop. Nine acres of the 

 plat was on corn stubble. We disked it two times, 

 and seeded as before. Two acres were spring-plowed 

 and packed with a Dunham packer. Both the corn 

 stubble and spring plowing were seeded without a 

 nurse crop. 



On .Tune 27 we had this plat of 17 acres fenced 

 in and turned the hogs on it — over 50 full grown 

 and about one hundred pigs. The sweet clover was 

 then eight to ten inches high. On July 8 we con- 

 cluded that the hogs could not cat it down fast 

 euough, and we cut all but the spring plowing and 

 barley for hay. We gathered fourteen loads; but 

 there was some pigeon grass and some alfalfa along 

 with the sweet-clover hay. 



The hogs continued to eat it, but could net keep 

 it down altogether. We fed them not to exceed a 

 pound of barley a day. About the middle of July 

 we turned in nine calves. They went at it as 

 tl.ough they had been trained. Still the clover grew 

 too fast, and we turned in fifteen horses, among 

 tiiem seven mares with colts. About the first of August 

 the hogs had increased to over 200, but still this 

 20 acres seemed to supply all the nourishment that 

 these 229 head needed — excepting, of course, what 

 we fed the hogs — and continued to feed them all 

 until the middle of September, when we removed 

 most of the horses. About the first of October we 

 left only the weaned colts, calves, and the hogs, and 

 they continued to feed on the clover until freezing 

 time. About the middle of October we fenced in 26 

 acres of corn for the hogs, but still they turned to 

 the sweet clover for green food, and even went so 

 far as to pull it up by the roots and eat it, roots 

 and all. 



I will say in addition that I never saw stock do 

 so well on any pasture in North Dakota. I have 

 never raised as fine a bunch of calves during my 

 thirty-five years' residence, and have never gained 

 such profit on hogs as I did on this 20-acre plat of 

 white sweet clover. I may add that I shall seed 50 

 acres of corn stubble to sweet clover this spring for 

 additional hog pasture, as I have 135 or more sows 

 which will have pigs in the spring. 



In addition to my experience with sweet clover 

 there are eight others in this vicinity who have gone 

 "wild" and seeded from one to three bushels; but this 

 has mostly been seeded with a nurse crop. I also 

 seeded about one a< re in a barley-field, and it looked 

 very good after the barley was taken off, and will 

 no doubt make a heavy stand the coming year. 



Some have asked if sweet clover should be pre- 

 ferred to alfalfa. So far as I am able to judge I 

 would ansAxer yes and no. It depends entirely upon 

 your local conditions. — P. M. Mattson. 



We think it will pay our friends who 

 aie interested in sweet clover and alfalfa 

 to subscribe for this alfalfa journal, pub- 

 lished at Sioux Falls, S. D., at only 50 cts. 

 a year. 



