156 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



short the last of August, the first year's crop is just ready 

 to turn onto. 



The following are a few of the significant remarks by 

 men who have pastured sweet clover with dairy cows : 



**My stock will leave anything for sweet clover." 



**Sweet clover is about three times as good as blue 

 grass for pasture. I had good green feed all summer and 

 the hot, dry weather did not affect it. A great many neigh- 

 bors who gave me the laugh last spring for sowing weeds 

 are going to try it this year. I laughed several times in the 

 fall when I compared the blue grass fed to stock to the sweet 

 clover fed animals." 



"I have about half the acreage of sweet clover that I 

 did of blue grass and about two months more of pasture, 

 that is, during July and August." 



"When cows were taken off a fairly good blue grass 

 pasture in September, the milk flow increased as much as 

 ten pounds per cow after being on the sweet clover three 

 days." 



"I have had dairy cows on sweet clover for eight years 

 and find it to be one of the best pastures. In 1922 each cow 

 gained from 8 to 18 pounds in milk flow when turned on 

 sweet clover pasture in the spring. One cow gave 69 pounds 

 per day in two milkings without grain or other feed." 



Essentials of Sweet Clover Management. 



Many farmers pasturing sweet clover do not turn out 

 soon enough in the spring to keep it down. It should not 

 be allowed to get more than four or five inches high before 

 commencing to pasture. If it is not stocked enough to keep 

 it down after this, it will get too large and woody and some 

 of the plants will go to seed and quit growing. Sweet clo- 

 ver should be allowed to get well above the stubble the 

 first fall before the cows are turned on, and it should not be 

 pastured close late the first fall because the plants should 

 be allowed a chance to store up nutriment in the roots so 

 as to make a strong growth early in the spring of the sec- 

 ond year. 



If the soil is acid, it must be limed or sweet clover can- 



