sufficient to moisten the surface to the depth of more than half an inch between April 20 and October. FOOD VALUE OF SWEET CLOVER While sweet clover is not recommended as a substitute for alfalfa, where the latter can be raised, it is the best forage crop after alfalfa, and its adaptability to lands on which alfalfa cannot be successfully grown gives it a range of utility that is not yet fully appreciated. It contains almost exactly the same quantity of digestible nutrients as alfalfa and in the same nutritive ratio, namely 1 : 3.8. Digestible Nutrients in Sweet Clover and Other Forage Crops and Relative Value of Same Per Ton* IS SWEET-CLOVER FORAGE A THEORY OR A FACT? A fair proportion of the dairy cows about Carson City are producing milk from sweet clover. At Garden City, Kansas, E. G. Finnup has 3,000 acres in sweet clover, and this on good alfalfa land. From 120 to 200 acres are cut for seed, the balance is pastured to cattle and cut for hay. He states that it is easier to grow, makes a better early pasture than alfalfa, turns off as much livestock products per acre, and does not bloat cattle or sheep. Thousands of other farmers in the East and South within the last few years have come to a realization of the value of sweet clover as a forage crop, and have proven its success. In Utah it has been an important forage crop for a number of years. Feeding tests conducted by nearly all the Experiment Stations have quite uniformly resulted in demonstrating its equivalent value to alfalfa, and superiority to the grasses, for cattle, sheep, and swine. Throughout the humid sections of the Eastern and Middle States the lament that alfalfa could not be grown except in a few favored localities has been silenced by the discovery that the once-despised sweet clover of the waste lands, lanes, and byways is a substitute. Finally, if sweet clover can be grown on our subirrigated waste lands, as hitherto described, it must in time become an important supplemental forage crop. in Nevada. SWEET CLOVER FOR SEED So sudden has been the reversal of opinion throughout the country regarding sweet clover-from a noxious weed to a forage crop of increasing importance-that the demand for seed makes it a very profitable crop at the present time to grow for that purpose. During the past several years the price of the seed has been as high and frequently higher than for alfalfa. Owing to its wider soil and climatic adaptability, the seed may be grown in many localities where alfalfa seed cannot. It will mature in most any part of Nevada. During a visit to the Truckee-Carson Project in September, 1915, the writer observed sweet clover in seed along several miles of roadway that could have been easily harvested. Threshed and cleaned, it would have brought 12 to 15 cents per pound. A strip of sweet clover 8 feet wide along a roadway one mile long contains approximately an acre, and at such prices may represent a value of $75 and upwards-certainly worth while to harvest! Method of Culture-The method of growing sweet clover for seed is substantially the same as hitherto given for alfalfa. If the field method is adopted, it should be sown thin, not over ten pounds of seed to the acre. The cultivated method, as with alfalfa, will produce the largest yields. The first year's crop may be cut or pastured. The second year head the spring growth (with guards set very high) about the middle of May, letting the succeeding crop go to seed. The harvesting and threshing is the same as for alfalfa. Sweet clover, as a seed producer, has been generally found to yield more heavily than alfalfa. There are no records, however, as yet available as to yields in Nevada. The expectancy in other States is from 25 per cent to 100 per cent more than for alfalfa seed, but it is doubtful if this large increase would be borne out in localities where the yield of alfalfa seed is as high as here. A good stand of sweet clover for seed purposes in this State would seem to offer promise of a crop of equal value to alfalfa seed so long as the prices remain about the same. PUBLICATIONS The following publications relating to alfalfa and sweet clover will be mailed free on application to the Division of Publications, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.: "Alfalfa Seed," by Edgar Brown... "Irrigation of Alfalfa," by Samuel Fortier.. .Far. Bul. No. 194 .Far. Bul. No. 339 .Far. Bul. No. 373 .Far. Bul. No. 495 "Alfalfa-Seed Production," Westgate, McKee & Evans.. "Sweet Clover," Westgate & Vinall... .Far. Bul. No. 485 “Alfalfa-Seed Production; Pollination Studies," by C. V. "Grimm Alfalfa," Charles J. Brand... .U. S. D. A. Bul. No. 75 .Bur. Plant. Ind. Bul. 209 .....B. P. I. Circ. 24 "Seed Cultivation in Rows," Brand & Westgate.......... .B. P. I. No. 185 |