CULTURE OF SWEET CLOVER 



383 



but its lack of palatability makes it much less valuable in 

 actual practice. Cattle and hogs however, will become ac- 

 customed to the taste. The young plants are less bitter 

 and may well be used for pasture. 



515. Culture. When it is desired to grow sweet clover on 

 poor soil to improve it, the seed is sown in the spring at the 

 rate of about 15 pounds to the acre, and har- 

 rowed in. In the South, it can be sown after 

 an early crop is harvested. If the plants are 

 plowed under the following spring before blos- 

 soming, there will be no difficulty in eradicat- 

 ing it, but if it is allowed to seed it is likely to 

 give trouble. The seed is so like that of al- 

 falfa, that it sometimes is used as an adul- 

 terant. 



The same soils on which sweet clover 

 thrives are usually adapted to alfalfa, and as 

 the same bacterium lives on the roots of both 

 plants, land on which sweet clover grows ordi- 

 narily does not require inoculation to produce 

 alfalfa. Sweet clover, however, will grow on 

 soils and in climates where alfalfa will not 

 succeed. 



Failure to secure a good crop, when culti- 

 vated, may be the result of poor seed. The germinating 

 power of the seed should always be tested. On account of 

 its hard coat much of the seed fails to germinate the first 

 season. This plant also requires a firm soil. Of course the 

 soil should be tested for lime. Sweet clover may be sown 

 broadcast on rough or stony land, that is practically un- 

 tillable. It may also be grown along river bottoms. 



This crop should be pastured or cut down sufficiently to 

 insure an abundance of fresh shoots for grazing. When 

 harvested it may be cut with a binder and shocked, or with 

 a mower and stacked. Where more than one crop is ex- 



Figure 130. — 



Sweet clover. 



