Forage Crops For The Colorado Plains 21 
to materially increase the carrying capacities of many native pastures. 
Varieties. —There are three varieties of Sweet Clover that may 
be encountered. The'White Sweet Clover (Melilotus alba); the 
Yellow Sweet Clover (Melilotus officinalis) ; and Small or Annual 
Sweet Clover (Melilotus indica). The two first named varieties are 
biennial, that is the plants live two years. The third variety is an 
annual. The Annual Yellow Sweet Clover has no value for pasture 
or hay as it is very small growing and is less palatable than the other 
two varieties. For the most of the territory, White Sweet Clover 
is greatly to be preferred. It is a better hay crop as it -grows taller, 
and stands more erectly. Yellow Sweet Clover does not grow so 
large and has a more spreading habit of growth. While it is less 
well adapted for hay, there are some localities where it will do better 
than the White, notably in extremely high altitudes. In the Platte- 
Arkansas Divide country at altitudes above 7,500 feet. Yellow Sweet 
Clover is preferable to the White as it will mature in a shorter season. 
Yellow Sweet Clover is better for pasture purposes than for hay pur¬ 
poses. 
Soil Preparation. —When seeded for a hay crop or when seeded 
upon old lands, the soil should be prepared exactly as for alfalfa. 
When seeded in native pastures or in sandy regions among native 
grasses it can frequently be seeded on the snows in the winter time, 
or seeded early in the spring and harrowed. Usually this will give 
sufficient covering to permit the crop to start. Sometimes on land 
having a rather heavy sod, running over the land with a disk set 
rather straight, followed with a harrow, is found to be good practice. 
Seeding. —Sweet Clover may be seeded in the spring or fall. 
There is little danger of its being injured by frosts. It cam therefor 
be seeded as early in the spring as the land can be prepared and con¬ 
veniently worked. Fight to 10 pounds of hulled seed are a great plenty 
for dry land conditions. Fifteen to 20 pounds of the unhulled seed should 
be used to make approximately the same stands. Sweet Clover has 
many so-called hard seeds, which germinate slowly. In this case the 
“hard seeds” are viable, but the seed coat is impervious to water. 
Owing to this “hard seed” condition, it is often possible to plant in 
the fall and get better stands than from spring seeding. 
The crop should be given much the same care as alfalfa. The 
first cutting should not be made until the sprouts which are to pro¬ 
duce the following crop commence to appear. Usually one crop can 
be received the first year if there was sufficient moisture in the seed¬ 
bed to properly start the development and maintain the growth thru 
possible dry spells. The second year two cuttings should be received, 
except in very drouthy years. The cutter bars should be set high 
in cutting the second year crop in order not to kill the plants. The 
plants start out from sprouts which come out on stalks close to the 
