Part 2

Sweet clover as a pasture crop 4

Sweet clover hay 10

Sweet clover as a silage crop 20

Sweet clover as a soiling crop 22

Sweet clover as a feed 23

Sweet clover as a soil-improving crop 28

Sweet clover in rotations 31

Sweet clover as a honey plant 32

GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE USES OF SWEET CLOVER.

The utilization of sweet clover as a feed for all classes of live stock has increased rapidly in many parts of the country, owing primarily to the excellent results obtained by many farmers who have used this plant for pasturage or hay, and also to the fact that feeding and digestion experiments conducted by agricultural experiment stations show that it is practically equal to alfalfa and red clover as a feed.

As a pasture plant, sweet clover is superior to red clover, and possibly alfalfa, as it seldom causes bloat, will grow on poor soils, and is drought resistant. The favorable results obtained from the utilization of this crop for pasturage have done much to promote its culture in many parts of the United States. On account of the succulent, somewhat stemmy growth of the first crop the second year, difficulty is often experienced in curing the hay in humid sections, as it is necessary to cut it at a time when weather conditions are likely to be unfavorable. When properly cured the hay is relished by stock.

At the present time sweet clover is used to only a limited extent for silage, but its use for this purpose should increase rapidly, as the results thus far obtained have been very satisfactory.

In addition to the value of sweet clover as a feed, it is one of the best soil-improving crops adapted to short rotations which can be grown. When cut for hay, the stubble and roots remain in the soil, and when pastured, the uneaten parts of the plants, as well as the manure made while animals are on pasture, are added to the soil and benefit the succeeding crops. In addition to humus, sweet clover, in common with all legumes, adds nitrogen to the soil. This crop is grown in many sections of the country primarily to improve soils, and the benefits derived from it when handled in this manner have justified its use, as the yields of succeeding crops usually are increased materially.

The different species of sweet clover are excellent honey plants, as they produce nectar over a long period in all sections of the United States.

SWEET CLOVER AS A PASTURE CROP.

With the possible exception of alfalfa on fertile soils, no other leguminous crop will furnish as much nutritious pasturage from early spring until late fall as sweet clover when it is properly handled. Live stock which have never been fed sweet clover may refuse to eat it at first, but this distaste is easily overcome by turning them on the pasture in the spring, as soon as the plants start growth (fig. 1). Many cases are on record where stock have preferred sweet clover to other forage plants. The fact that it may be pastured earlier in the spring than many forage plants and that it thrives throughout the hot summer months makes it a valuable addition to the pastures on many farms. Sweet clover is an especially valuable forage plant for poor soils where other crops make but little growth, and it is upon such soils that thousands of acres of this crop are furnishing annually abundant pasturage for all kinds of live stock. In many portions of the Middle West, where the conditions are similar to those of southeastern Kansas, it bids fair to solve the serious pasturage problems. Native pastures which will no longer provide more than a scant living for a mature steer on 4 or 5 acres, when properly seeded to sweet clover will produce sufficient forage to carry at least one animal to the acre throughout the season. In addition to this, a crop of hay or a seed crop may be harvested from a portion of the land when it is so fenced that the stock may be confined to certain parts of the field at specific times. Land which is too rough or too depleted for cultivation, or permanent pastures which have become thin and weedy, may be improved greatly by drilling in, after disking, a few pounds of sweet-clover seed per acre. Not only will the sweet clover add considerably to the quality and quantity of the pasturage but the growth of the grasses will be improved by the addition of large quantities of humus and nitrogen to the soil.

Sweet clover has proved to be an excellent pasture crop on many of the best farms in the North-Central States. In this part of the country it may be seeded alone and pastured from the middle or latter part of June until frost, or it may be sown with grain and pastured after harvest.

When sweet clover has been seeded two years in succession on separate fields, the field sown the first year may be pastured until the middle of June, when the stock should be turned on the spring seeding. When handled in this manner excellent pasturage is provided throughout the summer, and a hay or seed crop may be harvested from the field seeded the previous season.

Some of the best pastures in Iowa consist of a mixture of Kentucky bluegrass, timothy, and sweet clover. On a farm observed near Delmar, Iowa, stock is pastured on meadows containing this mixture from the first part of April to the middle of June. From this time until the first part of September the stock is kept on one-half to two-thirds the total pasture acreage. The remainder of the pasture land is permitted to mature a seed crop. After the seed crop is harvested the stock again is turned on this acreage, where they feed on the grasses and first-year sweet-clover plants until cold weather. The seed which shatters when the crop is cut is usually sufficient to reseed the pastures. By handling his pasture land in this manner, the owner of the farm has always had an abundance of pasture and at the same time has obtained each year a crop of 2 to 4 bushels of recleaned seed to the acre from one-third to one-half of his pasture land. This system has been in operation on one field for 20 years and not until the last two year's has bluegrass showed a tendency to crowd out the sweet clover. It is essential that sufficient stock be kept on the pastures to keep the plants eaten rather closely, so that at all times there will be an abundance of fresh shoots.

Whenever the first crop of the second year is not needed for hay or silage it can be used for no better purpose than pasturage. In fact, it is better to pasture the fields until the middle of June, as this affords one of the most economical and profitable ways of handling the first crop. In addition to its value for pasture, grazing induces the plants to send out many young shoots close to the ground, so that when the plants are permitted to mature seed a much larger number of stalks are formed than would be the case if the first crop were cut for hay. The hay crop is likely to be cut so close to the ground that the plants will be killed, whereas but little danger of killing the plants arises from close pasturing early in the season. Excellent stands of sweet clover will produce an abundance of pasturage for two to three mature steers per acre from early spring to the middle of June.

Cattle which are pasturing on sweet clover alone crave dry feed. Straw has been found to satisfy this desire and straw or hay should be present in the meadow at all times, After stock are removed from the field it is an excellent plan to go over it with a mower, setting the cutter bar so as to leave the stubble 6 to 8 inches high. This will even up the stand, so that the plants will ripen seed at approximately the same date.

Experiments by many farmers in the Middle West show that sweet clover is an excellent pasture for dairy cattle. When cows are turned on sweet clover from grass pastures the flow of milk is increased and its quality improved. Other conditions being normal, this increase in milk production will continue throughout the summer, as the plants produce an abundance of green forage during the hot, dry months when grass pastures are unproductive. If pastures are handled properly they will carry at least one milk cow to the acre during the summer months.

In many parts of the country sweet clover has proved to be an excellent pasturage crop for hogs. When it is utilized for this purpose it usually is seeded alone and pastured for two seasons. The hogs may be turned on the field the first year as soon as the plants have made a 6-inch growth. From this time until late fall an abundance of forage is produced, as pasturing induces the plants to send out many tender, succulent branches. Pasturing the second season may begin as soon as growth starts in the spring. If the field is not closely grazed the second season it is advisable to clip it occasionally, leaving an 8-inch stubble, so as to produce a more succulent growth.

An acre of sweet-clover pasture ordinarily will support 20 to 30 shotes in addition to furnishing a tight cutting of hay (fig. 2). For the best growth of the hogs, they should be fed each day 2 pounds of grain per hundredweight of the stock. Hogs are very fond of sweet clover roots and should be ringed before being turned on the pasture. The tendency to root may generally be overcome by adding some protein to the grain ration. Meat meal serves this purpose very well.

The Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station conducted an interesting pasturing experiment with spring pigs in 1910, In this experiment, pigs weighing approximately 38 pounds each were pastured for a period of 141 days on two plats of red clover, a plat of Dwarf Essex rape, and a plat of yellow biennial sweet clover. The pigs pasturing on each plat received a ration of ear corn. The ration given to the pigs on one plat of red clover and on that of rape was supplemented with meat meal to the extent of one-tenth of the ear corn ration. The feed given to the pigs pasturing on sweet clover was supplemented with meat meal at the same rate during only the last 57 days of the test. The red clover was seeded in 1908 and reseeded in 1909, so that the plat contained a very good stand of plants at least one year old. The sweet clover was seeded in the spring of 1910, while the rape was sown on April 4, 1910, in 24-inch rows. The pigs were turned on the forage plats on June 22.

The results of this experiment, as presented in Table I, show that sweet clover carried more pigs to the acre and produced cheaper gains and a greater net profit per acre than either red clover or rape. To judge from the date of seeding of the plants tested, it was to be expected that the pigs pasturing on the sweet clover would not gain as rapidly at first as those pasturing on the other forage plants, as the growth of the sweet clover at this time was undoubtedly much less than that of the other crops. This assumption is borne out by the results given for the first 84 days of the test. During this period the pigs on the rape made a net gain of $11.55 per acre and those on the red clover $6.86 per acre more than those on the sweet clover. In these computations corn was valued at 50 cents per bushel and hogs at $6 per hundredweight. During the latter part of the experiment there was but a scant growth of red clover on the plats, while the sweet clover produced an abundance of forage, and during this period of the experiment the pigs pasturing on sweet clover made a net gain of $10.14 per acre more than those pasturing on red clover and $17.41 per acre more than those pasturing on rape. (Table I.) The difference in net profits probably would have been greater had white sweet clover been used instead of yellow sweet clover, as it makes a larger growth and contains approximately the same ratio of food elements.

Table I.--Relative merits of Dwarf Essex rape, red clover, and yellow sweet clover when pastured by spring pigs for 141 days, June 22 to November 10, 1910.

---------------------------+------+-------+-------+--------+---------------+--------+------- | | | | |Supplementary | | | | | | |feed required | Total | Net | | | | | for 100 | cost |profit | |Initial| Total |Average |pounds of gain.| of 100 | per |Number| weight| gain, | daily +-------+-------+ pounds |acre. Forage tested, plat area, | of | per | all | gain |Shelled| Meat | of | and ration. | hogs.| hog. | hogs. |per hog.| corn. | Meal. |gain.| ---------------------------+------+-------+-------+--------+-------+-------+--------+-------- | |Pounds.|Pounds.| Pounds.|Pounds.|Pounds.| | Rape (Dwarf Essex, 0.9 | | | | | | | | acre), and ear corn | | | | | | | | plus one-tenth meat meal.| 18 | 37.8 |2,801.7| 1.10 | 292.5 | 33.99 | $3.79 | ...... Reduced to acre basis. | 20 | .... |3,113.0| .... | ..... | ..... | ..... | $88.64 | | | | | | | | Clover (medium red, 0.8 | | | | | | | | acre) and ear corn | | | | | | | | alone. | 15 | 39.0 |1,790.0| .84 | 370.6 | None. | 3.71 | ...... Reduced to acre basis. | 18.75| .... |2,237.5| .... | ..... | ..... | ..... | 51.20 | | | | | | | | Clover (medium red, 0.8 | | | | | | | | acre) and ear corn | | | | | | | | plus one-tenth meat meal.| 15 | 39.0 |2,394.0| 1.13 | 299.3 | 34.77 | 3.84 | ...... Reduced to acre basis. | 18.75| .... |2,992.5| .... | ..... | ..... | ..... | 64.55 | | | | | | | | Sweet clover (yellow | | | | | | | | biennial, 0.8 acre) and | | | | | | | | ear corn plus | | | | | | | | one-tenth meat meal. | 18 | 37.8 |2,594.0| 1.02 | 313.6 | 24.70 | 3.70 | ...... Reduced to acre basis. | 22.60| .... |3,242.5| .... | ..... | ..... | ..... | 74.50 ---------------------------+------+-------+-------+--------+-------+-------+--------+---------