DECEMBER 1, 1913 



868 



High-pressure Gardening 



SWEET CLOVER A " NOXIOUS WEED." 

 Deaur Sir: — This statement appeared in the Gen- 



eseo Republic, Aug. 1, 1913. The paper is printed 



in Geneseo, 111. 



Colona, 111., Aug. 1. C. J. Glenn. 



Here is the clipping referred to : 



A DANGEROUS PLANT. 



The plant melilotus, or sweet clover, with its pret- 

 ty name and unparalleled vitality, may give mankind 

 the trial of the ages. It probably will prove a 

 scourge worse than war and all other scourges com- 

 bined, and yet it may give back to the world the ni- 

 trogen that our soils are begging for to-day. 



In some parts of the world nitrogenous rocks are 

 scattered by the glaciers of the past, and the slow 

 decomposition of these rocks gives a nitrogen sup- 

 ply; but in the great Northwest, where the rocks are 

 covered with many feet of alluvium, the soil is even 

 now in great need of nitrogen food that can come 

 only from plants like sweet clover, red clover, white 

 clover, alfalfa, cow peas, etc. 



Melilotus alba, or white-blossom sweet clover, is 

 the one we are after in this article. There is also 

 the yellow variety (M. officinalis), and the common 

 alfalfa (Medicago sativa) , which are more easily 

 managed and controlled. Sweet clover was first 

 sown broadcast on the roads to feed the bees, and 

 for a time did little harm ; but the wagon- wheels have 

 carried it into every road in nearly every State, if 

 not every State of the Union. I have studied it in 

 several States, and have found it close up to the tim- 

 ber line on the Rocky Mountains. 



The reason why it has not gone into the fields 

 and pastures more is because the clover bacteria are 

 not in most of our cultivated fields ; but it is surely 

 creeping into the fields and pastures, and will soon 

 make the farmers take notice. 



I will stake my reputation on the statement that, 

 if one pint of seed with clover bacteria were sown 

 on a forty-acre timber pasture, and a young man 

 were given a scythe, a hoe, and a spade, and hired 

 for life, he could not exterminate it if he lived sixty 

 years. I have never seen a road cleared of it yet. 

 It gains a little every year, no odds how much it is 

 mown down, as mowing is a positive failure. It is 

 ;i biennial plant, and will produce seed the second 

 year. If mowed ever so much, the lower branches 

 will seed the gi'ound all over and gain a little ground 

 as the nodules in the soil gradually spread. I can 

 show a multitude of roads and lanes so covered that 

 there is scarcely a wagon-track open ; and the worst 

 feature is that nothing else grows when melilotus 

 comes in. 



If it gets into the fields and pastures as it now 

 occupies the roads and hedges, the food supply of 

 the domestic animals and the human family will be 

 about shut off. It is fast injuring our roads, for no 

 road-grader was ever made that would kill it out on 

 any road. It is a menace to the traveler, for it en- 

 tirely hides all guUies and ravines, and teams are 

 often floundered in a hidden trench in crossing the 

 road, as it grows six feet high in any poor soil. 



Our domestic animals will eat a little sweet clover 

 if starved to it, but they generally pass it by and 

 hunt for other grasses. They will soon hunt in vain. 

 I can show any one thousands of places where it is 

 gradually taking possession, and it will stay until 

 some genius can invent or devise an exterminator 

 to cope with it successfully. Science must come to 

 the rescue now or it will prove to be the problem of 

 the nineteenth century. 



If quick relief does not come, the whole human 

 race will be hopelessly enslaved by this fiend of all 

 fiends, this curse of all curses, this wolf in sheep's 

 clothing, this demon in disguise. — L. R. Witherell, 

 KnoxviUe, 111. 



One reason why I have given place to the 

 above is because it so forcibly illustrates 

 how some people, when they get a going, 

 ride their hobbies to death, trampling under 

 foot good common sense, reason, and every 

 thing else. In the second paragraph our 

 vehement friend acknowledges that the 

 much-needed nitrogen can come only 

 through the influence of sweet clover and 

 other legumes; then he straightway de- 

 plores the kind of " mission work " that the 

 wagon-wheels of our limestone roads are 

 doing. Then again he honestly owns up 

 the need of the clover bacteria which are 

 "slowly but surely" creeping into the fields. 

 Very likely it will be a slow job to elimi- 

 nate sweet clower with a scythe, hoe, and 

 spade; but, my dear friend Wetherell, that 

 is not the way we exterminate the weeds 

 from fields in our part of the country. 

 When sweet clover does get into the fields, 

 it is the easiest plant in the world to ex- 

 terminate by simply plowing it under; and 

 it is the veiy best legume to enrich poor 

 soils that has ever been discovered. In re- 

 gard to its being an enemy to good roads, 

 it makes one smile to think of that letter in 

 the book we have just printed on sweet 

 clover, that tells about making the very 

 finest kind of roads with sweet clftver and 

 spreading it in sandy places. In closing, 

 our friend admits that domestic animals 

 will eat it if starved to it ; but he does not 

 add that, when once they get to liking it, 

 they prefer it to any other clover. Either 

 he has never discovered that fact or this 

 ugly mood prevents him from owning it up. 

 Now, my good friend Wetherell, how does 

 it come that you omit all mention of what 

 our experiment stations are just now de- 

 ciding about sweet clover? And, finally, is 

 it possible that you do not know any thing 

 about the sweet-clover bulletin that the De- 

 partment of Agriculture of the United 

 States has just been sepding out? Your 

 closing sentence that ends with " this demon 

 in disguise " is a big joke, in view of the 

 fact that the agi'iculturists of the world are 

 just now deciding it is an angel of mercy 

 to the hard-working farmer instead of be- 

 ing what it has been called, a " noxious 

 weed." 



Later. — Since the above was put in type, 

 I noticed the article in that excellent au- 

 thority, the Country Gentleman, which was 

 quoted p. 816, Nov. 1.5. 



I might mention here that all or nearly 

 all the agricultural papers are now falling 

 in line, and giving sweet clover the credit 

 that justly belongs to it. 



