168 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



relish either the hay or the green plant, but in time most ani- 

 mals eat both with apparent relish, though always preferring 

 grass and other legumes. 



Sweet clover seeds abundantly in its second year of growth 

 and will thus occupy the land continuously if not destroyed by 

 cultivation. It never makes a full stand except on lime land. 

 Soil deficient in lime, but made up largely of clay, often pro- 

 duces individual plants of thrifty growth, but I have never seen 

 on such land a stand thick enough to be profitable. The chief 

 value of melilotus is for the renovation of the stiff, waxy, lime 

 soils of the central prairie regions of Alabama and Mississippi 

 where the subsoil is a soft or rotten limestone. 



In Alabama yellow melilotus is not at all comparable in value 

 with white melilotus. 



The yellow comes up earlier in winter, blooms in April, and 

 is dead by June. It never attains the size of either to-p or root 

 attained by sweet clover and hence is not equal as a renovating 

 plant. Moreover, the bitter principle is much stronger in yellow 

 melilotus, so strong indeed as to taint the milk and butter made 

 from it, a condition that rarely if ever occurs with white meli- 

 lotus. 



Note the curious fact that sweet clover like alfalfa 

 revels in lime land. I have seen it growing with 

 great luxuriance in piles of crushed limestone rail- 

 way ballast where one would hardly think any plant 

 could find sustenance, but that railway ballast was 

 of limestone and full of limestone dust. 



Use of Sweet Clover. Here would seem to be the 

 correct use of melilotus, for making land ready for 

 alfalfa. If it is land deficient in lime put on ground 

 limestone enough to make it alkaline, or else use 

 burned lime if the ground limestone can not be had. 

 Then in case the land needs humus and fertility to 

 be made ready for alfalfa, sow to melilotus for two 

 years. There is no magic about melilotus probably 

 aside from the magic of its bacteria, and it will 

 grow the better for fertilization, so fertilize it with 



