4 FARMERS BULLETIN 820. 



the benefits derived from it when handled in this manner have justi- 

 fied its use, as the yields of succeeding crops usually are increased 

 materially. 



The different species of sweet clover are excellent honey plants, as 

 they produce nectar over a long period in all sections of the United 

 States. 



SWEET CLOVER AS A PASTURE CROP. 



With the possible exception of alfalfa on fertile soils, no other 

 leguminous crop will furnish as much nutritious pasturage from 

 early spring until late fall as sweet clover when it is properly 

 handled. Live stock which have never been fed sweet clover may 

 refuse to eat it at first, but this distaste is easily overcome by turn- 



FIG. 1. Cattle pasturing on sweet clover. 



ing them on the pasture in the spring, as soon as tne plants start 

 growth (fig. 1). Many cases are on record where stock have pre- 

 ferred sweet clover to other forage plants. The fact that it may 

 be pastured earlier in the spring than many forage plants and that 

 it thrives throughout the hot summer months makes it a valuable 

 addition to the pastures on many farms. Sweet clover is an espe- 

 cially valuable forage plant for poor soils where other crops make 

 but little growth, and it is upon such soils that thousands of acres of 

 this crop are furnishing annually abundant pasturage for all kinds 

 of live stock. In many portions of the Middle West, where the con- 

 ditions are similar to those of southeastern Kansas, it bids fair to 

 solve the serious pasturage problems. Native pastures which will 

 no longer provide more than a scant living for a mature steer on 4 or 

 5 acres, when properly seeded to sweet clover will produce sufficient 



