red clover. Do not these facts indicate great possibilities for 

 sweet clover? W. C. D. 



Sweet clover usually works into a new territory 

 along the railroads. The seed falls out of a passing 

 car, or comes in baled hay fed to horses. We know 

 of one case in Bergen County, N. J., where this clover 

 started in a railroad cut where freight cars stand. 

 We shall be interested to know how this experiment 

 of scattering the soil turns out. 



Oct. 2, 1909. 



Sweet clover will probably grow on soils that are 

 slightly acid, but it much prefers limestone soil. 

 It will grow on soil that is practically exhausted and 

 worthless, and will thrive there, producing consid- 

 erable humus from its decaying roots and tops, and 

 also adding much nitrogen to the soil through its 

 bacteria. The writer has corresponded with many 

 men who have sown down fields that they considered 

 practically worthless, leaving the sweet clover to 

 grow up, fall, and decay, for three or four years' 

 time, then plowing and cultivating for more useful 

 crops, and, without exception, they state that one 

 would never recognize it as the same soil that they 

 at first seeded down to this plant. Sweet clover is a 

 oiennial; that is, it lives for just two years. A field 

 sown to it will come into bloom the second year, and 

 it not harvested will reseed itself on the same ground, 

 thus continuing indefinitely to grow, to deposit its 

 roots and tops in the soil as a fertilizer, as well as 

 to build up the soil by its bacteria. Some writers 

 prefer seeding the field two years in succession, there- 

 by obtaining somewhat quicker results, because there 

 will be plants in bloom each year, whereas if sown 

 out once for the most part there will be plants in 

 bloom only every other year. 



Sweet-clover seed is said to heat very easily, and 

 most commercial samples appear to be worthless, 

 nivery one of our correspondents recommends caution 

 in buying the seed. Probably if it were grown more, 

 the growers would learn better how to handle it, 

 and a better article would be put upon the market. 

 It is also quite slow about germinating, many writers 

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