inoculate when first they sow the seed. It is a simply done 

 thing just a quantity of soil, say 100 Ibs., mixed carefully 

 with 20 pounds of seed, sown together and instantly har- 

 rowed in will give the desired inoculation. Early August or 

 July seems a good time to sow alfalfa here, though some 

 sow in spring with success. A man could get this inoculated 

 earth in wagonloads and put it on with a manure-spreader, 

 if he chose, and all the better, so he harrowed it in promptly. 

 We were interested in studying sweet clover, as it grew along 

 the roadsides and in waste places. Every man's hand is 

 against it (save the bee-keepers), yet it is evident that, 

 even here cattle graze it, for we saw none in the pastures. 

 It had been grazed down close there. Not that it is worth 

 while sowing it in Iowa, but there are many regions where 

 it can be grown with profit, I am sure. We will sow it in 

 Louisiana, for instance. 



This clipping is from a recent Breeders' Gazette, 

 and is part of an article by Joe Wing. Mr. Wing 

 recently told me that much sweet clover was growing 

 in the Gulf States, and that some preferred it to 

 alfalfa. He is intending to sow it on the Louisiana 

 plantation in a mule pasture, but intends to sow burr 

 clover with it. For hay, he says it must be sown 

 thickly and cut earlier than alfalfa. 



W. E. DUCKWAIX. 



WHERE SWEET CLOVER COI^ES FROM. 



Some years ago the earth from the excavation of Jerome 

 Park Reservoir, New York city, was used to fill in salt 

 meadows near Pelham Park. The material was practically 

 all subsoil, rocks, gravel, and clay. For the past three years 

 or longer this has been covered with an almost unbroken 

 growth of sweet clover, 50 acres of it or more. The average 

 height is six feet, though many stalks are 8 and 8y 2 feet 

 high. The growth is so dense tnat it is difficult to force 

 one's way through. The roots of the plants of this year's 

 growth are abundantly noduled ; the old seeding plants have 

 very few nodules. The old roots are l 1 /^ to 2 feet long, and 

 there is already a good deal of humus from the dead plants 

 and roots. In places grass is coming in, and there are hun- 

 dreds of very thrifty locust trees scattered about. How .came 

 the clover there? It extends also along and beside the em- 

 bankment of the now disused railroad on which the filling 

 was conveyed from the reservoir. I have taken some of tne 

 soil and seed and sown it on a rundown field on my farm 

 in the hope that what it has done for the filled meadows it 

 may do for my field. The Department of Agriculture recom- 

 mends sowing the seed in early spring ; but in the case of 

 these meadows the seed is evidently self-sown from now on. 

 A horse to which I offered some of the young plants ate 

 them with avidity. The taste to me is not unlike that of 



