826 
SWEET CLOVER 
removing about an inch of dirt. This is the 
reason, by the way, why this clover will not 
winterkill. The crown sprouts are about an 
inch below the surface of the ground, so that 
a covering during the winter is a certainty 
—a point of vast importance to one who is 
depending upon it the coming season. 
MAKING HAY PROM SECOND-YEAR GROWTH. 
Handling the second-year growth is, per¬ 
haps, a more difficult problem, as the clover 
gets very rank early in the season before 
good curing weather arrives. In this respect 
it is just like alfalfa. We have never dared 
to try to cure the hay until along in June; 
but at the same time every effort that we 
have made has been successful; we have 
never yet made a forkful of poor sweet 
clover hay. With the improved variety of 
white sweet clover that we now grow, I am 
not sure but that we might cure the hay 
even as early as the first of June. If we 
could do this, the problem of making hay 
from second-year white clover would be 
solved, and two good cuttings could be eas¬ 
ily made during the second year, and a seed 
crop secured late in the fall. 
There are many ways in which this clover 
can be handled for hay. One plan, which is 
Amry successful and easily carried out, is to 
wait until the clover is in bloom, and just 
beginning to form seed. This is just before 
the leaves begin to show yellow. While the 
foliage is still on, go over the field with a 
self-binder and set in shock rows, two and 
two. These bundles will cure nice and green, 
and will dry very quickly. They should be 
hauled and stacked like oats until winter, 
when the bands may be cut and the bundles 
thrown into the mangers for any kind of 
stock. It will keep perfectly dry if' well 
stacked, and will make very satisfactory 
feed. The binder should be run high enough 
to leave behind a stubble which contains a 
few lea\ms, otherwise it will die out. If the 
leaves are left on, a nice crop of seed of 
excellent quality can be cut later in the fall. 
Another plan is to pasture the second-year 
clover with some kind of live stock until 
late in May or the first of June. The hay 
will then be just about right in good hay 
weather, and can be made just as tho it 
were a first-year crop. 
The reader may be interested to know that 
clover of any kind in this part of Iowa was 
Amry rare last year, as severe drouth had 
killed all other clovers except a little alsike 
here and there. Sweet clover grew as tho 
there had been no drouth. 
An Alabama farmer Avho owns 640 acres 
grows 160 acres a year of oats and sweet 
clover, and cuts the combination crop ex¬ 
pressly for bay. He says the hay when 
baled and marketed in Birmingham, Ala., 
sells readily at $15 a ton. 
Sweet clover should be cut as soon as the 
first blossoms appear. If left longer, the 
stems become woody and a great many 
leaves fall off when it is cured. The moAver 
should be started in the morning as soon as 
the dew is off. Great care should be taken 
to prevent sun-burning as this destroys its 
palatableness and nutritive properties. 
Sometimes the plants are high enough 
in May for mowing; but since hay cannot 
be cured at that time, the field may well be 
used as pasture until haying weather comes. 
Care should be taken against feeding too 
much of the hay. Stock may become 
cloyed and go “off feed.” 
Sometimes, just as in pasturing on sweet 
clover, it is a little difficult to get stock 
started to eating it. The taste for sweet 
clover is an acquired one. By moistening 
the hay with brine- they can usually be 
made to eat it. This should no more be 
urged as an objection to the use of sweet- 
clover hay than the fact that western cattle 
will sometimes refuse corn is an argument 
against the use of corn as a feed. 
Cut Avhile young and tender the fall of 
the first year, sweet clover may be put into 
silos just as corn. During the winter it 
may be fed to stock just as other silage. 
In 1914 W. P. Graham of Ogle County, 
Ill., fed steers with 70 tons of sweet clover 
which he hqd put up in a tile silo. 
SEEDING SWEET CLOVER. 
At almost any time of the year the plant 
may be sown and will mature, on account 
of the hard seed coat which makes germina¬ 
tion slow. 
In December, January,. February, and 
March the seed may be sown broadcast on 
the snow or on ground honeycombed by 
frost. Spring rains soften the seed coat 
and bring about germination in the spring. 
Spring sowing is the plan most popular in 
northern Kentucky where sweet clover 
makes its greatest success. 
Solving in March allows the seeds to be 
covered by the rains and alternate freezing 
and thawing. 
Spring sowings take place in April or 
May. At that time it is covered lightly 
and the soil firmed with a roller or drag. 
Some authorities belieA r e this spring sowing 
the best, all things considered. 
In a country where the winters are mild, 
