GROWING LEGUMES IN DRY AREAS 337 



ment may represent with reference to ordinary plant 

 growth. Sweet clover will thrive on barren, gravelly and 

 sandy soils, and when grown it may be made to increase 

 their fertility by the nitrogen which it has brought to 

 them, and to improve their mechanical texture by bury- 

 ing the growth that has been made in the soil. 



Place in the rotation. As sweet clover is a plant 

 that grows under hard conditions it may be given almost 

 any place in the rotation. It may be grown with much 

 propriety on lands that are low in the elements of plant 

 food, and that are lacking in friability, also on lands that 

 are impregnated so strongly with alkali as to preclude 

 the growing of crops on the same. The burial of the 

 sweet clover in the same will have an effect that is simply 

 beneficent in the amelioration of such soils. 



Preparing the soil. The preparing of the soil for 

 sweet clover is by no means an elaborate process. In 

 some instances, the scattering of the seed on sandy or 

 gravelly soil will result in a stand of the plants, even in 

 the absence of harrowing. But this does not mean that 

 sweet clover will not do relatively better on well pre- 

 pared land. It is a fact nevertheless that sweet clover 

 does not grow well on land that is possessed of a marked 

 degree of friability. 



Sowing. Information regarding the best methods 

 of sowing sweet clover is much lacking. That the seed 

 may be sown in the early spring and along with a nurse 

 crop is doubtless feasible. The clover should not seri- 

 ously interfere with the growth of the nurse crop. The 

 next year the clover should furnish a crop of hay or of 

 pasture as may be desired. The fact, however, that sweet 

 clover will sow itself makes it quite apparent that it 

 would be possible to obtain a stand of sweet clover by 

 sowing it in the autumn, either alone or with a nurse 

 crop. When sown with a nurse crop, the seed may be 

 put in by mixing it with the grain, or by sowing it with 



