protect the crown and roots until a new growth is 

 made. If permitted to go to seed the second season, 

 and the seed to ripen, it will reseed itself. The 

 sweet-clover plant lives but two years. It dies at 

 the end of the second season, and its large fleshy 

 roots decay rapidly, admitting the air deep into the 

 subsoil. J. W. G. 



Warsaw, Ky. 



A PLEA FOR SWEET CLOVER. 



What J. W. G. says about sweet clover on page 63 

 agrees with my experience. One reason that so 

 many farmers condemn it without a trial is that they 

 have seen stock refuse to eat it when green and 

 rank. The bitter taste of the green clover, which 

 sometimes causes stock to refuse it, largely passes 

 away when cured for hay. For hay it grows too 

 coarse to be allowed to stand until in bloom, unless 

 it is to be run through a feed cutter. That which 

 we ran through the cutter was all eaten, although not 

 harvested until beginning to bloom and nearly five 

 feet high. We intend to try it in the silo with corn. 

 Another reason why this clover is not more used is 

 that it is feared as a weed. By cutting or plowing 

 under so that no seeds form there is no danger. 

 Farmers are just beginning to wake up to the fact 

 that the humus in the soil should be kept up as 

 well as the elements of fertility. No matter how 

 rich in fertilizer a soil may be, it can not do its best 

 unless filled with humus. When humus is added to 

 a soil its texture is improved, it is enabled to with- 

 stand drouth much better, and nitrogen, the most 

 costly plant food element, is increased. The advan- 

 tage of sweet clover is that it is so very thrifty and 

 hardy, so well able to get along with poor soil, drain- 

 age, and preparation. Some soils are said to require 

 inoculation, but we have not found such. 



If there is any leguminous crop equal to sweet 

 clover for green manuring in the cold North "we 

 want to be shown." H. M. P. 



Vermont, Feb. 12, 1910. 



64 



