SWEET CLOVER 
827 
seed may be planted in the fall. Part of 
the clover comes up before winter, but the 
growth is not so heavy the second season 
since the roots do not have time for devel¬ 
opment. What seed fails to germinate 
during the fall usually does so in the 
spring. 
Alfalfa must be sown between Aug. 15 
and Sept. 1 for proper development before 
winter, while sweet clover may be delayed 
as late as Oct. 1 with fair results. This 
makes it possible for sweet clover to be 
planted in fields in which crops are too 
late in maturing to admit of alfalfa. 
One of the peculiar characteristics of 
sweet clover, and one which, more than any 
other, has caused difficulty in its cultivation 
is its demand for a hard seed bed. Farm¬ 
ers have often been amazed to see the 
apparent ease with which the plant will 
appropriate railroad banks and flourish 
without any care whatever; yet in their 
own fields where it is planted as a forage 
crop it would do only indifferently. 
SOWING SWEET CLOVER WITH OATS. 
With regard to this, Mr. Coverdale, al¬ 
ready referred to, says: 
Secure from a druggist a few sheets of lit¬ 
mus paper. Stick a spade three inches into 
moist surface soil; withdraw the blade and 
put in a sheet of blue litmus paper and press 
the soil tightly against the paper for ten 
minutes. After removal, if the litmus paper 
has turned pink, lime is needed for best re¬ 
sults. However, if there is only a slight pink 
color on the paper, it is possible to get along 
without the lime. 
In either case, Early Champion oats is the 
best variety to seed with. Sow a third les3 
than the usual seeding of oats. It is a pretty 
good plan to inoculate the seed. I prefer 
the glue and dust method when it is done 
right. Select some soil three inches under 
the surface, where sweet clover has grown 
for years. Dry it in a cellar—not quite dry, 
but so it will pulverize nicely. Moisten the 
seed well with glue water that is just a little 
sticky when put between your fingers and 
thumb. Mix thoroly, allowing all the dirt 
possible to hang to the seed. I have had 
the best results by sowing this inoculated 
seed by hand, because in this way the dirt 
sticks to the seed, whereas a seeder rubs and 
grinds it loose. None of the extras need be 
put on where sweet clover has been growing 
in late years. Do not allow the sunlight to 
strike the seed before covering. 
It will pay to make a seed bed on the 
surface, cultivating it quite well, as the 
white sweet clover always makes a stronger 
growth on such prepared land. It is always 
the poorly cultivated as well as the corners 
that are missed that do the poorest. 
If the soil cuts in well, one good harrow¬ 
ing will be sufficient. If not, double and 
harrow. It probably would not pay to plow 
unless the land is a tough sod. I always 
plow such fields with good results, and se¬ 
cure a good deal of seed or hay the first sea¬ 
son. 
If one does not want to disk or plow the 
ground, I would advise sowing the seed in 
March just as the snow is going off. 
NEEDS A GGOD SEED BED. 
A good seed bed is necessary. Otherwise 
plants will be heaved out by the frost in 
the winter intervening between the first and 
second seasons of growth. Just enough 
loose earth should be placed on top to 
cover it. 
Prank Coverdale gives some valuable 
notes on seeding: 
“Sow sweet clover on ground well pre¬ 
pared, on a good mellow seed bed. A sod 
field that has been plowed the previous fall 
is best of all. Spring-plowed sod is all 
right, and will answer nearly as well, and 
will work into a good seed bed. Where the 
rainfall is sufficient, harrow the seed in 
shallow. But in arid sections a drill is best, 
putting the seed sufficiently deep to insure 
moisture enough to make sure of a good 
crop. 
“Sweet clover sown on such ground will 
grow a heavy crop of nodules on its roots; 
and by the end of the second season this 
ground will be thoroly inoculated, and can 
be depended upon for all time to come for 
routine methods, as these bacteria will live 
in the soil for several years. 
“A stand of sweet clover is usually sure 
when sown on land that would grow 60 
bushels of corn per acre, and a nurse crop 
sown with it of barley, wheat, or early oats, 
seeded somewhat thinner than usual. After 
the ground is inoculated from growing pre¬ 
vious fields, a fair cutting of excellent hay 
can be mown in October after the grain has 
been harvested, making a crop of small 
• grain and a cutting of hay the same 
season.” 
SWEET CLOVER—SOWING THE SEED AMONG 
GROWING CORN. 
Considerable has been written in various 
farm papers in regard to sowing sweet 
clover seed in cornfields just after the last 
