178 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



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made into hay. There are two species, white and yellow. 

 The yellow-blooming variety (M. officinalis) is smaller 

 and of less value than the white-blooming one, though 

 it lacks the troublesome coarseness of its relative, M. alba. 

 Sweet clover is a biennial, starting one year and making 

 no attempt to bloom, blooming the second year and dy- 

 ing. Seed may drop so that there will be a continuous 

 growth on the land, and sometimes men sow the seed for 

 two years in succession so as to have it in continuous 

 growth. Of few plants has more been said for and 

 against. Some states have proscribed it as a noxious 

 weed ; others have expressly stated that it was not a weed 

 at all. Men have, without reason, feared it and cursed 

 it; others have with care established it and are using 

 it as a bee pasture and as forage, both green and dry, 

 for cattle, sheep and swine. Sweet clover has a mar- 

 velous luxuriance of growth. I have seen it full 8' high, 

 and that on very hard soil, but rich in carbonate of 

 lime and phosphorus. It carries the same bacteria as 

 alfalfa, and enriches soils in the same manner. It is 

 the most vigorous soil-enricher of any of the clovers 

 and will do what the others will not, that is, begin on 

 very poor worn soils. It luxuriates on poor hillsides and 

 in time covers them over with good grasses. It grows 

 on old, worn fields in the South and is grazed eagerly 

 by lambs, ewes, pigs and calves. It is occasionally made 

 into hay, and the Wyoming Experiment Station has 

 shown that lambs fed on this hay make as much gain 

 as on alfalfa, or even a little more. It is the best bee 

 pasture extant, and it will grow on soils too hard and 

 too deficient in humus for alfalfa. After growing for 



