seed. Ten to twenty pounds of seeds are allowed to 

 the acre. He says the animals acquire a taste for it, 

 and, after being used to it, like it very much. It is 

 claimed that millions of acres of similar land on the 

 continent of Australia can be reclaimed in the same 

 manner by the yellow sweet clover. What is pecu- 

 liarly interesting about all this is that both the 

 soil and climate of King Island correspond almost 

 exactly to Florida, and, furthermore, that cattle-rais- 

 ing is the prominent industry as it is also in Florida. 



If the experience of the Australians can be dupli- 

 cated in Florida we may yet live to see the "Land of 

 Flowers" become the leading bee State of the Union. 

 One thing in favor of this view is that yellow sweet 

 clover grows admirably in Bermuda a milder cli- 

 mate than that of Florida. W. K. M. 



Medina, O., Nov. 1, 1907. 



SWEET CLOVER; WHAT IT HAS DONE FOB KING ISLAND. 



We take the following (in addition to the above) 

 from a newspaper clipping furnished us by Mr. Her- 

 bert J. Rumsey, of Boronia, New South Wales, Aus- 

 tralia. If there are any farmers or other people 

 left who insist that sweet clover is a noxious weed 

 they had better read and ponder. 



Many years ago, it appears, a Dutch ship was wrecked off 

 the island coast, and some of the sailors' mattresses were 

 washed ahore. These mattresses were stuffed with what is 

 locally known now as melilot grass, and this grass contained 

 a fair amount of seed, which, falling on the sandy beaches, 

 threw up a few tufts and in the course of years gradually 

 spread unt^l it now covers nearly the whole of the coastal 

 sandy areas. 



Strictly speaking, it is not a grass at all. It is a yellow- 

 flowered clover, known botanically as Melilotus officinalis, 

 and a half-brother of Melilotus alba, commonly called Bok- 

 hara clover. Furthermore, being a leguminous plant it ab- 

 sorbs a certain amount of nitrogen from the atmosphere and 

 transfers it to the soil. This remark may appear slightly 

 superfluous to many readers, but it strikes the keynote of 

 Mr. Macdougall's remarks on the subject. He said in effect : 



The fertilizing power of this grass is simply wonderful. 

 It has transformed King Island from an island of useless 

 sanddunes into one of the best grazing districts of the com- 



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