Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1914 — Sweet Clover. [ARTICLE]

Sweet Clover.

The Kansas experiment station in a recent publication makes it plain that sweet clover, a hitherto neglected plant, despised as a pernicious weed, has very considerable agricultural value. It is stated that “as a soil improver it is unexcelled; for pasturing purposes it has considerable value, and as a forage crop it can be utilized to good advantage where alfalfa or red clover can not be successfully grown.” Attention is called to the fact that “there are several varieties of sweet clovter, of which the common white sweet clover and the large biennial yellow sweet clover are the ioost important. The white variety is generally to be preferred for farm purposes, although the biennial yellow is sometimes preferred where hay productipn is desired,” Sweet clover is adapted to a wide range of soils, and while it does best on good soils, it will make a satisfactory growth on very poor soils. Grown on good soil and properly handled it makes a fair quality of hay which may in many cases be substituted with advantage for thp more valuable alfalfa and clover hays. In actual nutritive constituents it is practically equal to these. It makes an excellent pasture for cattle, sheep, horses and hogs, and for this purpose may be profitably grown on very poor and rough land. For quick results in improving

the soil sweet clover is superior to most other crops. Its ability to thrive well on soils lacking in humus or otherwise badly run down makes it especially adapted for this purpose. Life alfalfa, cowpeas, and other legumes, it has the ability to obtain nitrogen from the air by means of the nitrogen-gathering bacteria which live in tubercles on the roots of the plants, thus adding much nitrogen to the soil in which it grows. When plowed under for green manure or allowed to remain on the land this crop is a very efficient one in building up the humus content of the soil. The large roots, which penetrate deeply, break up the lower layers of the soil and add much humus thereto when they decay, thus improving the physical condition of the soil to a considerable depth below the depth of plowing, Sandy as well as heavy clay and hardpan soils, which would not otherwise produce satisfactory crops, may be so improved in texture by growing sweet clover for a few years that they become quit'' productive. A weed has been defined as a plant which 'has not yet found its proper use. In view of present knowledge of its possibilities sweet clover can no longer be regarded as a weed.