324 



plants over in that hard ground would win- 

 ter all right without being thrown out by 

 the frost; and as I was very much troubled 

 on that ground in that way, I let those strug- 

 gling plants in the paths remain. It was 

 just as he said. They wintered all right, 

 and were not disturbed by the frost at all. 

 Of course, mulching is a remedy for this 

 trouble, but the strawberry-beds do not al- 

 ways get it. I believe successful wheat- 

 growers have found that packing the ground 

 by repeated rollings in order to make a very 

 firm and hard seed-bed has a similar result; 

 and I think that somewhere in this bulletin 

 there is a suggestion that sweet clover must 

 have hard ground in which to push its roots, 

 in order to crowd that vigorous tap-root 

 away down into the soil two or three feet. 

 To penetrate the hard impervious subsoil 

 there has got to be some powerful pushing, 

 and the plant can not do this unless it has 

 a good firm solid foothold. Do you get the 

 idea? 



FAILURE OF THE SEEDS TO GERMINATE. 



For twenty or thirty years past, during 

 which we have sold sweet-clover seed, there 

 have been complaints that it did not come 

 up at all, or else only a small part of the 

 seed germinated. And we have found out, 

 also, that, like basswood seed for instance, 

 what did not come up one year might come 

 the next, and so on to the third year or even 

 later. Well, on page 16 there is a remedy 

 besides the well-known one of freezing and 

 thawing during winter and spring. Read 

 the following: 



SEEDING SWEET CLOVER. 



It usually reauires 20 to 30 lbs. of hulled seed and 

 at least 5 lbs. more of unhulled seed per acre. A 

 lesser weight of seed would be sufficient were it 

 not for the fact that often one-half of the seed has 

 such hard seed-coats that it does not germinate 

 the first season, and therefore is practically use- 

 less. This retarded germination of the hard seed 

 can be overcome by soaking the seed in commer- 

 cial concentrated sulphuric acid tor half an hour. 

 It should then be quickly washed, using running 

 water if possible, as sulphuric acid becomes very 

 hot when mixed with a small proportion of water. 

 A great deal of water is therefore necessary in or- 

 der to lessen the danger of burning. The seed 

 should then De dried ofT quickly by spreading it 

 out on a floor or canvas, and stirring at intervals. 

 The acid corrodes or eats away the hard imperme- 

 able seed-coat sufficiently to enable the seed to ab- 

 sorb enough moisture to germinate. This method 

 has been investigated by Prof. 11. L. BoUey. of the 

 North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 and by Dr. H. H. Love and C. K. Leighty, of the 

 New York (Cornell) Experiment Station. Tests 

 made In the Department of Agriculture gave an 

 increase in germination of 40 to 45 per cent. Great 

 care must be exercised when working with sulphu- 

 ric acid, as it burns the flesh and any wooden ob- 

 jects badly, and is especially dangerous to have 

 around in the presence of children. The vessels 

 used for treating the seed should be of earthen or 

 enameled ware to prevent corrosion by the acid. 

 After the seed is treated it should preferably be 

 sown promptly, as it has a tendency to dry out aft- 

 er the coat has been eaten oflf by the acid, but it 

 can be held for two weeks or a month under favor- 

 able conditions without any considerable deterio- 

 ration. 



FERTILIZERS FOR SWEET CLOVER. 



As a rule, sweet clover does seem to do 

 better on ground where nothing else will 

 grow — such ground as is thrown out in mak- 

 ing canals or deep railway cuts, for instance; 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



but I have occasiuaally seen tremendous 

 growths of sweet clover on ground made very 

 rich with old well-rotted stable manure. 



SWEET CLOVER FOR FEED; THE REASON WHY 



.SOME HORSES AND CATTLE 



REFUSE TO EAT IT. 



I was once riding with a beekeeper in 

 Michigan. He said they had sweet clover 

 all around them, but his horses and cattle 

 would not touch it. While we were talking, 

 and the team svas naturally moving at a 

 slow pace, all at once his two horses began 

 cropping right and left at the sweet clover 

 that grew by the roadside. Of course we 

 had a big laugh. But he tried to explain it 

 by saying they had a fashion of cropping at 

 any weed or tree, especially when it was 

 near their dinnertime. I do not remember 

 just now, but I think this friend discovered 

 later that his horses and cattle would eat 

 sweet clover. 



Preliminary experiments with leguminous crops, 

 even at the hands of careful experimenters, can not 

 always be taken as final. In this connection it may 

 be mentioned that, when cowpeas were first tried 

 In portions of this country. It was found so difficult 

 at first to induce stock to eat the vines, either 

 when cured or made into ensilage, that even at a 

 certain State experiment station the opinion was 

 expressed that cowpeas were of no local value as 

 feed for live stock. Subsequent developments 

 proved that this crop has great possibilities, even 

 in the sections where the preliminary trials show- 

 ed it to be very unpromising as a feed owing to the 

 difficulty experienced in making stock eat the for- 

 age. 



Much greater difficulty is usually experienced Ln 

 inducing the stock to become accustomed to sweet 

 clover than is the case with other legumes; but the 

 fact that in at least half of the .States in the Union 

 stock have become accustomed to eat this plant 

 indicates that the natural distaste which stock at 

 first show can be successfully overcome. 



SWEET CLOVER AND ITS VALUE TO CROPS 

 THAT FOLLOW IT- 



At the Ohio Experiment Station sweet-clover 

 land gave a yield of 26.9 bushels of corn, as com- 

 pared with 18.6 bushels on similar land not in sweet 

 clover the previous year. An experiment perform- 

 ed at Tost, ( lermauy, showed that sweet clover pre- 

 ceding oats increased the yield of oats 17 bushels 

 per acre. Part of the field was devoted to potatoes, 

 with the result that the yield was more than doub- 

 led when compared with an adjoining plat not pre- 

 viously seeded to sweet clover. Some idea as to 

 the large amount of green material which sweet, 

 clover provides for soli improvement is shown by 

 a report from the Ontario Experiment Station in 

 the cutting of over BO tons of green fodder per acre, 

 as compared with Vi^A tons of mammoth clover, 

 which stood next in rank. 



Its large roots, which develop the first year, facil- 

 itate drainage and do much to break up and im- 

 prove the tilth of the soils which lie below the reach 

 of the plow, as these roots rapidly decay when the 

 plant dies, and their effect is therefore almost im- 

 mediate. 



In our book on sweet clover I tell about 

 getting a fair crop of very nice potatoes on 

 hard unpromising olay and gravel, thrown 

 out of a deep railway cut, by plowing under 

 a dense crop of sweet clover when it was 

 about a foot high. 



The above are only glimpses of the valu- 

 able points of the bulletin. 



It is fully illustrated with some beautiful 

 pictures of sweet clover and crops that have 

 been grown afterward. 



Address the Department of Agriculture, 

 Washington, D. C, calling for Bulletin 485. 



