MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 167 



tention to the fact that alfalfa and sweet clover 

 bear the same bacteria on their rootlets and that 

 sweet clover inoculates land for alfalfa. (Breeder's 

 Gazette, Sept. 16, 1903.) So there is quite a use- 

 ful combination of facts. Sweet clover is very- 

 hardy, it will grow on poor soil, it enriches soil very 

 much and it improves the physical condition of soils, 

 then it inoculates the land for alfalfa. In truth 

 many fine fields of alfalfa have had their start from 

 inoculation taken from sweet clover weed patches 

 along roadsides. 



Melilotus has never been treated as a farm crop in 

 the North. In the South it is much used in Alabama 

 and Mississippi, both as pasture and for hay. No 

 better authority on melilctus could be found than 

 Prof. J. F. Duggar, Director of the Alabama ex- 

 periment station. I quote from a letter from him: 



In reply to your request, I give you the following data on 

 Melilotus alba (sweet clover), as it is grown in the central 

 prairie belt of Alabama and Mississippi. 



The seed should be sown in February and lightly covered. It 

 may be sown either on ground devoted entirely to this crop or 

 sown with seed oats or among growing plants of fall-sown oats. 

 At least one bushel of unhuUed seed per acre is needed. If sown 

 alone and on good land there will usually be one or two cuttings 

 the first year. If sown with oats as a nurse crop and on poor 

 land, the first year's growth will scarcely be sufficient for cut- 

 ting, but will afford a fair amount of pasturage. 



The second year new shoots spring from the old crowns early 

 in March and the first cuttings of hay can be made early in May. 

 There is usually a second cutting. Melilotus should be cut when 

 just beginning to bloom, since after this date it rapdly becomes 

 woody. The hay, especially that secured the year the seed are 

 sown, is very nutritious, the composition resembling that of 

 alfalfa, though melilotus hay contains a smaller proportion of 

 leaves, and the stems are coarser, especially in the hay secured 

 the second year of the plant's life. At first live stock do not 



