The best ears exceed a pound in weight. While 



§e yield is not remarkable, the change due to the 

 )ver enrichment is very great and could hardly 

 nave been wrought otherwise at so little cost. 

 Beloit, Wisconsin. I. m. Buell. 



SEED GATHERING AND SEEDING. 

 From HoanVs Dairy inan, Aug. 16, l%7. 



The lavish production of seed in this plant makes 

 the securing of this an easy matter. The stems also 

 shed their leaves as the seed matures, leaving little 

 besides the long spikes loaded with the short brown 

 seed-pods. These dry quickly after cutting, and can 

 be easily whipped or beaten off. A roadside patch 

 of a few square rods will often yield Seed enough for 

 several acres, and I have whipped off two barrels of 

 the seed-pods in half a day. I usually cut with a 

 hand sickle, and lay in small piles to dry. There is 

 no reason why it should not be secured and hulled In 

 the usual way if one has enough to handle thus, and, 

 when there is demand for it, no doubt farmers will 

 raise the seed as they now raise clover. It is adver- 

 tised by the leading seedmen under the name Bok- 

 hara clover, at about |16 per cwt. One can afford 

 to gather the wayside crop for one-third this rate. 



My attempts at seeding with melilot have been 

 very interesting. From the readiness with which it 

 spreads along the highways, in gravel beds, in rubble 

 piles about old quarries, in cuts and ditches, even in 

 June and quack-grass sod, one would look for no 

 trouble in seeding cultivated fields. 



But it behaves quite differently in field culture. On 

 new land, or that freshly manured, there is no 

 trouble; and if the soil is too barren to afford any 

 other growth, it will maintain itself; but if the soil 

 is both poor and weedy, the latter will smother the 

 tender young plants even though they make a fair 

 start. I notice, however, that, wherever the surface 

 is subject to overflow from a sweet-clover-covered 

 iiirface a vigorous growth is maintained from the 

 Hlrt, due no doubt to bacterial inoculation. 



75 



