824 
SWEET CLOVER 
alkali regions of Colorado. In some places 
irrigation and the growth of alfalfa for a 
number of years had forced the alkali out 
of the earth and on to the surface. The 
alfalfa roots, piercing the layers of the 
subsoil, brought up saline and other depos¬ 
its which in turn destroyed the life of the 
plants. 
Nothing but a kind of salt grass could 
be made to grow. Whole farms and towns 
were deserted. Finally farmers accidentally 
discovered that sweet clover would grow 
where nothing else would, that cattle could 
be pastured on it successfully, and that it 
could be used for hay or harvested for the 
seed. 
Finally—and this is most important— 
the alkali deposits on the surface and in 
the subsoil somewhat began to disappear. 
Now alfalfa again is grown. The crops are 
rotated with sweet clover and the soil 
maintained in its fertility. 
Lands of this nature, formerly unfit for 
alfalfa, corn, or wheat, now yield immense 
crops of all three. In some cases the value 
of farms in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, 
Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, and Mon¬ 
tana, where sweet clover has been grown, 
has risen nearly 50 per cent. 
Sweet clover has transformed King 
Island, off the coast of New South Wales, 
from an island of useless sand dunes into 
one of the best grazing regions in the 
commonwealth. Sown on white beach sand, 
sweet clover changed the character of the 
soil until at the end of five years much of 
it had become dark brown in color, and in 
some places almost black. Each year it is 
improving the value of the land. At 
present the export trade of King Island 
consists of fat cattle, dairy produce, and 
horses, and by far the most extensively 
used fodder is sweet clover. 
AN EXCELLENT PASTURE. 
As a pasture, sweet clover is very satis¬ 
factory. According to an analysis by the 
Wyoming Experiment Station, it does not 
differ greatly from alfalfa in food content. 
Altho cattle will sometimes refuse grass 
in order to feed on sweet clover, it is 
sometimes a little difficult to get them to 
acquire an appetite for its rather bitter 
leaves. For this reason it is sometimes a 
little difficult to get them started. To cre¬ 
ate this appetite, they should be turned into 
the field early. 
“A man prominently identified with live¬ 
stock interests in the Middle West once 
told me that no self-respecting animal 
would eat sweet clover. I wish he could 
see my steers today,” wrote C. E. Gapen in 
the Country Gentleman , interviewing W. P. 
Graham, an Illinois sweet clover growel¬ 
and authority. 
Mr. Graham pastures three head of 
cattle to the acre with success, instead of 
the traditional “one head to the acre.” He 
maintains, by the way, that sweet clover is 
a better soil renovator than alfalfa. 
For pasture for cattle, seeding it with 
timothy or any of the native grasses gives 
best results. The sweet clover acts as a 
nurse crop for the timothy. The former is 
richer in protein and the latter in carbo¬ 
hydrates, two. constituents as necessary in a 
stock ration as in human. Then, too, if one 
fails, the other is likely to take its place. 
In pasturing hogs, an acre of sweet 
clover will do for about twenty slioats. A 
superior pasture is secured by seeding with 
oats on good ground. These fields will 
provide an immense feed for two seasons, 
and, if enough is left to reseed itself, the 
pasture will be perpetual. 
In regard to this, Mr. Coverdale, the 
authority already mentioned, says: 
SWEET CLOVER FOR HOG PASTURE. 
Nine years ago I sowed a sixty-acre field 
to white sweet clover, and also a forty-acre 
field. Altho the plants started, not a single 
one lived until winter, and the whole under¬ 
taking was a failure because of the poor and 
impoverished condition of the soil. Many 
others around here lost their seed in the 
same way. The tables have turned, however, 
for we are now securing perfect stands of 
this iegume. The hogs keep it down to 
about six inches high by continual brows¬ 
ing.. My neighbor has a field of alfalfa ad¬ 
joining this; and he has been changing the 
hogs from one to the other, but he is much 
better pleased with the results from the 
sweet clover, as it is so much more hardy. 
He has now bought seed to change his alfal¬ 
fa field into sweet clover, as the alfalfa 
won’t stand being pastured. A few more 
farmers in this neighborhood have secured 
seed, and will have hog pastures just like 
this one. 
The field sown is identical with our own, 
especially our hog pasture. I have come to 
