MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 169 
an application of about 250 pounds per acre of high 
grade acid phosphate or some better phosphate car- 
rier. Inoculate the seed when it is sown. That is 
easily done if one can get earth from some alfalfa 
field or some sweet clover patch. Not much earth 
is needed; 100 pounds of earth is ample for an acre. 
Dry the earth in the shade, spreading it out on the 
barn floor, and shoveling it over now and then, mak- 
ing it fine. Mix the earth with the melilotus seed 
and sow together. Melilotus seed is sometimes seen 
in the hull, though seedsmen usually sell the 
cleaned seed. It resembles alfalfa seed almost ex- 
actly, being sometimes a trifle larger. It weighs 
60 pounds to the bushel cleaned. To sow 15 pounds 
per acre of cleaned seed would doubtless give a 
stand. Mix this with the 100 pounds of inoculated 
soil and sow together, for thin land long run with- 
out manure, land too poor for alfalfa. If it is rich 
soil one would best sow alfalfa at once and be done 
with it, but if the soil needs building first, probably 
the sweet clover plant is as good a thing as one can 
build with. It is especially adapted to worn soils 
(after liming or naturally filled with lime) in south- 
ern states. 
No Fear of Pest—Some fear may be entertained 
lest the sweet clover becomes a pest in the land. 
There is no danger of that. Simply mowing the 
plant will destroy it as it is a biennial and must 
seed every second year. It often appears in alfalfa 
fields the first and second years after starting and 
sometimes the seedsmen are harshly criticised for 
