SWEET CLOVER 3O7 



in which case in time it will be superseded by other 

 plants. 2. On worn lands so poor that they refuse 

 to grow valuable food products sown, partly, at 

 least, with a view to renovate them. And 3. In cut- 

 tings made by railroads and in gullies that have 

 been made in fields, with a view to prevent soil 

 movement. It may also come to be sown in grain 

 crops in localities where other varieties of clover 

 will not grow, to be plowed under the following 

 spring. 



Preparing the Soil. — Since sweet clover will 

 grow on the firmest and most forbidding soils, even 

 when self-sown, it would not seem necessary, or- 

 dinarily, to spend much time in specially preparing 

 a seed-bed for it. The fact stated is proof of its 

 ability to grow on a firm surface. It does not fol- 

 low, however, that such a condition of the seed- 

 bed will give a better stand of the plants than a 

 pulverized condition of the same, as some have con- 

 tended. It may be that on soils that are quite loose 

 near the surface, and under conditions that incline 

 to dry a seed-bed firm and even hard, may be more 

 conductive to growth in the plants than one in which 

 the conditions are the opposite. Much rolling of 

 loose soils has been recommended when preparing 

 the seed-bed with a view to firm them. 



When the seed is sown along with grain, the 

 preparation of the soil needed for grain would be 

 ample preparation also for the clover. When sown 

 on stubble land, in many instances no preparation 

 by way of stirring the soil would seem necessary. 

 And wh^ti sown on jrailrpad einbankrnents, roa4 



