828 
SWEET CLOVER 
cultivation. Ordinary broadcast seed- 
sowers cannot be used, because the corn¬ 
stalks and leaves are so much in the way. 
It has been several times suggested that 
sowing the seed while going thru the corn 
on horseback would answer better; and 
no doubt this plan is giving fair results. 
About three years ago a machine was 
advertised for the express purpose of 
sowing clover and other seeds between the 
rows of corn. One was purchased and 
given a trial with excellent results. This 
machine has some cultivator teeth to work 
the seed into the soil. The publishers had 
a splendid stand of sweet clover, sown 
in 1916. They also had a splendid catch in a 
field of corn where the corn was about 
ready to cut. 
The only trouble with the machine for 
sowing is that it sows more seed than is 
needed; and there is no way of controlling 
the amount of seed very accurately. The 
cultivator teeth work well; and with the 
rains that came after the seed was sown, it 
seemed that almost every seed had germ¬ 
inated. As a result, there were about four 
times as many plants as were needed be¬ 
tween the rows of corn. 
The machine for sowing is a revolving 
cylinder made of galvanized iron, and the 
whole thing is pulled by a horse. 
SWEET CLOVER STRAW AFTER THRASHING OUT 
THE SEED. 
Horses.and cattle after they get a taste 
of sweet clover hay will eat the dry stalks 
from which the seed has been thrashed; 
and even after these dry stalks have been 
out in repeated rains, so that any other 
kind of clover or hay would be ruined, the 
sweet clover seems to be hurt but very 
little. 
INOCULATION. 
Sweet clover is unable to make a satisfac¬ 
tory growth without the help of nitrogen¬ 
gathering bacteria in nodules on the roots. 
These bacteria, if they do not already ex¬ 
ist in the soil, must be placed there with 
the seed. The process of starting the 
growth of the proper bacteria is what is 
known as inoculation. The bacteria are 
usually present on lands where sweet clo¬ 
ver has been grown before. 
Inoculation may be accomplished easily 
by gathering soil from about the roots of 
roadside sweet clover, moistening the seed 
with a thin solution of commercial glue, 
and mixing a few handfuls of the soil with 
a peck of seed. Unless the seed is thoroly 
dried it may spoil. 
Another form of the soil-transfer method 
is to scatter between two and three hundred 
pounds of soil to the acre, the soil being 
taken from a field in which the plants show 
an abundance of tubercles on the roots. The 
government bulletin suggests that the seed 
be mixed with a small proportion of the 
soil and the remainder of the soil scattered 
broadcast and immediately harrowed in. 
The work should be done on a cloudy 
day or during the evening, or else the soil 
in which the bacteria are growing should 
be turned under before the sun’s rays have 
time to penetrate the particles. Sunlight 
destroys bacteria of all kinds. 
The soil may also be inoculated by the 
pure-cultured method. A bottle of the pure 
culture of the proper kind of bacteria is 
opened and mixed with water. This solu¬ 
tion is then mixed with the soil and the 
soil distributed over the field immediately 
after it has dried. The drying should be 
done in a shaded room away from the 
sunlight. This gives the sun no chance to 
kill the bacteria in the seed. 
MAKING MORE SEED GERMINATE. 
One of the great obstacles which have 
been found hitherto to the successful 
growing of sweet clover has been the un¬ 
even germination of the seed. At the price 
of sweet clover seed this has been indeed a 
fault. Some farmers have reported decided 
success in getting a stand while others have 
hardly been able to get a fair amount. 
Sweet clover often grows apparently of 
its own free will in the most unexpected 
places, but efforts at starting it have been 
hindered by the lack of germinable seed. 
This has been due not to the infertility of 
the seed itself, but to the hardness of the 
cellulose case which surrounds the germ. 
Sweet clover shares this fault with 
alfalfa and the true clovers. A large 
proportion usually fails to come up the 
first year and much of it never sprouts at 
all. In the wild state it has its advantages 
where seed falls in September and October 
and does not sprout until spring. By that 
time the rains and freezes have softened 
