Its vigorous growth and rapid spread along our 

 highways is due no doubt to the wide dissemination 

 of these germs by the mud and dust of travel. They 

 are also carried by winds and waters over adjacent 

 surfaces, and wherever this occurs the sweet clover 

 thrives. 



We need, therefore, to provide both seed and the 

 inoculation of the soil with the nourishing bacteria. 



Our alfalfa-growers are advised to gather the bac- 

 teria-infected soil from the sweet-clover patches on the 

 roadsides and sow it upon their alfalfa seeding, and 

 doubtless the best way to gain the same end with 

 our melilot is to do this. 



As to time and amount of seeding we may follow 

 our practice with red clover. But if one sows the un- 

 hulled seed it is safe to follow nature and sow in the 

 fall, leaving the seed to start in the spring. 



This in old meadows, pastures, and with fall grains, 

 is doubtless the best time to seed. I have found four 

 quarts per acre of the unhulled seed enough for a 

 good stand. 



ITS DISTRIBUTION AND HISTORY. 



Although sweet clover is so new to us that very few 

 people have thought of its value as a farm product, a 

 knowledge of its value is as old as history. Its native 

 home is Western Asia, as its name (Bokhara clover) 

 indicates, the same as that of the human race. Its 

 use as a forage-plant seems to have been common 

 from the first. Homer notes it as growing on the 

 plains of Greece and Asia Minor, and tells us that the 

 steeds of the Greeks fed upon it during the siege of 

 Troy. I have been told by men from the East that it 

 is still raised in these lands on irrigated lands as 

 alfalfa is in the West and for the same purpose. 



The ijame "Melilotus," honey-blossom, common to 

 both Greek and Latin, shows that it was well known 

 to both races, and under the name is often noted in 

 classic literature. But by far the best record of this 

 plant is preserved to us by Pliny in his Natural His- 

 tory. He refers to it several times, describes the 

 plant, gives its distribution and uses, and tells more 



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