250 Twenty-First Biennial Eepobt 



present tliat it is actually a matter of annoying difficulty 

 to keep soil or other media on wMcli experimental clover 

 is grown, free from the organisms. 



Alsike clover has been advocated lately for planting 

 ■in place of red clover; it grows very well in Kentucky, 

 especially in wet places, but is not as productive as red 

 clover. It lasts only two or three years. 



Crimson clover I consider a valuable plant for fall 

 sowing; It matures early in the spring, is as produc- 

 tive as red clover, and has the same effect on the soU. 

 It seems to languish during hot summer weather when 

 sown in the spring, and I would not advise sowing it 

 then. A^ plot grown on the farm several years ago 

 yielded, June 7, hay at the rate of 2.8 tons per acre. 



We have grown most of the other clovers that have 

 been brought to this country — Hungarian, Egyptian, 

 sweet, trefoil and the rest. They have generally failed 

 in one quality or another. One is too coarse ; another is 

 not sufficiently productive; stock does not like a third. 

 Trefoil for sheep may prove of value in our mountains. 

 It is a slight plant with a yellow blossom, growing about 

 as high as white clover. The seeds are sometimes im- 

 ported to be used as an adulterant in red clover seeds. 

 In this way, and by their accidental presence with other 

 seeds, the plant has become widely scattered in the State, 

 and is to be encountered in small quantity almost any- 

 where in pastures and along roads. 



White sweet clover, or Bokhara clover, is the tall 

 plant with white blossoms to be seem growing on neg- 

 , lected land at the edges of cities. It is a good bee plant, 

 and produces a forage resembling alfalfa closely, in gen- 

 eral appearance, when young. It is sometimes mistaken 

 for alfalfa, but may be quickly recognized at any stage 

 of growth, by crushing the leaves, when the sweetish 

 odor from which it takes its name is given off. Our 

 animals do not like it. Farther south it is said it is 

 eaten by cattle readily enough. 



It is chiefly interesting because of its close resem- 

 blance to alfalfa, and the fact that the nodule bacteria 

 on its roots seem to be identical with those causing 

 nodules on alfalfa. 



