SWEET CLOVER 
819 
roads were required in Ohio to mow it as 
well as Canada thistle, burdock, teasel, and 
other pernicious plants. Many farmers de¬ 
voted a large amount of their time to en¬ 
deavors to eradicate it, and there yet re¬ 
main a few uninformed persons who re¬ 
gard it as a dangerous weed. But gradu¬ 
ally its value became recognized, and today 
there is not an agricultural experiment sta¬ 
tion in this country that does not recognize 
its worth and approve of its cultivation. 
White biennial sweet clover is an herb 
with smooth branching stems, and com¬ 
pound leaves composed of three oblong 
leaflets. The first season it grows 18 to 20 
inches tall and stores up in a very large 
taproot reserve foods for a rapid and vig¬ 
orous growth the following season. The 
second year it makes a growth of 8 to 12 
feet, blooms profusely, and dies after ma¬ 
turing its seed. The small white flowers re¬ 
semble those of white clover, but are in 
long slender racemes instead of heads. The 
pod is egg-shaped, wrinkled, and contains 
a solitary seed. Young plants resemble al¬ 
falfa, both species belonging to the legume 
family; but it may readily be distinguished 
by the color of its bloom. 
The plant has a strong odor, and the 
leaves a bitter taste due to cumarin. Cu- 
marin is a vegetable substance usually ob¬ 
tained from the Tonka bean, but also oc¬ 
curring in sweet clover and some other 
plants. It is well known to physicians and 
has long been used as a corrective, tonic, 
and antiseptic in intestinal disorders. It 
imparts a characteristic flavor to certain 
kinds of Swiss cheese. Cumarin is believed 
to lessen the danger of bloating in cattle, 
which sweet clover causes much less fre¬ 
quently than the time clovers and alfalfa. 
It is much less bitter in early spring than 
later in the season. Cattle may at first 
refuse to eat the hay, but by sprinkling it 
with brine, this difficulty may be readily 
overcome. Possibly cumarin contains a nar¬ 
cotic principle, for stock soon become fond 
of sweet clover hay, and often give it the 
preference to other forage plants. Much 
effort has been made to obtain a variety of 
sweet clover free from cumarin, both by 
selection and by hybridizing the white spe¬ 
cies with smaller less valuable species of 
this genus which are not bitter. An at¬ 
tempt has also been made to introduce less 
bitter races from foreign countries. It 
may, however, be doubted if this is desir¬ 
able, as the presence of cumarin may be a 
medicinal benefit, and the dislike of stock 
to the bitter flavor can readily be over¬ 
come. 
White sweet clover in many parts of the 
country is utilized for pasturage and hay 
and, to a less extent, for ensilage, as, with 
the possible exception of alfalfa, no other 
legume will furnish from spring until fall 
more nutritious forage. It is also a great 
soil-improving crop. By means of its large 
roots it breaks up the deeper layers of the 
soil, and when ploughed under adds a large 
amount of humus to its constituents. In 
common with other legumes it increases the 
amount of nitrogen in the soil by the aid of 
the nitrogen-fixing bacteria which live in 
the tubercles on the roots. It is also a valu¬ 
able honey plant, secreting nectar freely in 
all sections of the country. In the follow¬ 
ing pages of this article its uses will be 
described at greater length. 
WIDE DISTRIBUTION AND ADAPTABILITY. 
White sweet clover is adaptable to great 
extremes of climate and soil, and will pro¬ 
duce a valuable crop of forage in sections 
where alfalfa and red clover will not suc¬ 
ceed. It is as vigorous in the severe cli¬ 
mate of Quebec, Canada, as in middle Ala¬ 
bama. It thrives in the semiarid regions of 
Utah and Colorado as well as in western 
Washington, where there is a rainfall of 
over 100 inches. White sweet clover will 
grow on rocky limestone knolls and hills, 
almost bare of vegetation, and in a few 
years furnish excellent pasturage. I f 
planted on poor, sterile land it will deepen 
and enrich the impoverished soil and again 
render it productive; but it requires a com¬ 
pact seed bed, and should not be planted 
on loose sand. It is more tolerant of poor 
drainage, overflow, and seepage than either 
alfalfa or the clovers. It will grow well on 
wet lands near large reservoirs, which are 
useless for ordinary crops; but it can not 
be planted in the rice lands of the South. 
Provided they contain lime and the re¬ 
quired bacteria, both clay and sandy loams 
will yield a good crop of this legume. It 
will endure more acid than clover and more 
alkali than alfalfa. While it grows most 
luxuriantly in fertile ground it can be 
