respects, as Florida, Southern Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, it may have an important mission. It may yet be grown in these areas, or some of them, where irrigation is practiced in conjunction with cotton, or with certain of the cereals. If it can be thus grown, it will prove of much value, as it would only occupy the land when not occupied by the crops usually grown in summer, and it would bring much fertility to the same, in addition to the forage provided. Since in Tunis it has been found that the plants have not been killed by cold 2° below zero and in Algiers 9° below that point, the hope would seem to be justifiable that this clover may yet be grown much further north than the States named. If grown thus, however, it should not be as a substitute for alfalfa, but rather to occupy the ground in winter when not producing otherwise. It may yet be found that the Saida variety may have adaptation for some localities in the West where irrigation cannot be practiced. This clover is not likely to render any considerable service to any part of Canada, because of the lack of adaptation in the climate.

Egyptian clover has highest adaptation for deposit soils, such as are made by the settling of silt held in solution by waters that overflow. In these it will grow with vigor, though they rest upon coarse sand or even upon gravel not too near the surface. Irrigating waters to some extent are necessary to grow the plants in best form, although, as previously intimated, the Saida variety may yet be grown without the aid of such waters. It is the first crop

sown on reclaimed alkaline lands, and growing it on these tends to remove the alkali and to sweeten and otherwise improve the soils.

The place for this plant in the rotation is readily apparent. Like crimson clover, it it clearly a catch crop, as it were, and a winter plant, but with the difference that it grows much more rapidly under suitable conditions and furnishes much more food. The advantage of growing it northward in the Western mountain valleys when sown in spring, as intimated by the writer of the bulletin already referred to, would seem to be at least problematical, since it could not be sown early enough in the spring to produce a crop as early as alfalfa already established. It would then be grown also as the crop of the season, rather than as a catch crop. The place for Egyptian clover in the rotation is clearly that of a winter crop, to provide soiling food for stock and plant food for the land, which may be utilized by the summer crop that follows.

In Egypt the seed is frequently sown on the silt deposited by the waters that have subsided and before it would be dry enough to plow. At other times, it is sowed on land stirred on the surface to a greater or less depth, and sprouted through the aid of irrigating waters. In the valleys of the West that preparation of the soil found suitable for alfalfa would also, doubtless, be found suitable for this clover.

The seed is sown in the autumn in Egypt, usually in October, but the season of sowing lasts from September to January, and some crops have been

obtained sown as late as April 1st, but when sown late, the number of the cuttings is reduced and the occupancy of the soil by the clover interferes with the growing of other crops. Under American conditions, it will doubtless be found that the best season for sowing Egyptian clover will be just after the removal of the crop that occupied the land in summer. The seed is usually sowed by hand and without admixture, but the Fachl variety is sown in some instances with wheat or barley when seed is wanted. The methods of sowing found suitable for alfalfa would also seem to be proper for sowing Egyptian clover. (See page 78.) As much as one bushel of seed is sown per acre, but it is thought that a less amount will suffice under good methods of tillage.

Egyptian clover is sometimes pastured, but it has higher adaptation to soiling, because of the softness of the stems. When pastured reasonably close, cropping would probably be preferable, as there would then be less waste from the treading of the plants. Nevertheless, in Egypt considerable quantities of the hay are stored for feeding in the summer months when green fodder is scarce.

Egyptian clover is sometimes made into hay, but it is not essentially a hay plant. Much care is necessary when it is being cured to prevent loss in the leaves, and when cured the stems are so brittle that it is difficult to prevent waste in handling the hay. It is pre-eminently a soiling crop, and the greater portion is fed in the green form. From 4 cuttings of the Muscowi variety as much as 25 to 30 tons.

of

green fodder are harvested, and about 10 tons are produced by 2 cuttings of the Saida variety.

Egyptian clover has not been grown sufficiently long in this country to justify giving information based upon American experience that could be taken as authoritative, with reference to the best methods of harvesting the seed crop. There would seem to be no reasons, however, to suppose that the methods followed in harvesting alfalfa could not be followed with equal advantage in harvesting Egyptian clover. Nor can anything be said as yet with reference to which cutting of the series will furnish the best seed crop.

The best service, probably, which this crop can render to the United States is the enrichment of the soils on which the plants are grown. As the same bacteria which inoculate alfalfa soils will not answer for Egyptian clover, and as the requisite bacteria may not be found in soils where it is desirable to grow this clover, the conclusion that it will not grow sufficiently well in certain soils on which it is being tried should not be reached until the question relating to the presence or absence of the proper bacteria has been settled. If necessary to introduce bacteria from Egypt, the obstacles in the way of such introduction would not be at all serious, if undertaken by the Department of Agriculture.

YELLOW CLOVER

Yellow clover (Medicago lupulina) is to be carefully distinguished from Hop clover (Medicago procumbens), which it resembles so closely in the

form of the leaves and the color of the bloom as to have given rise in some instances to the interchangeable use of the names. The latter is so named from the resemblance of the withered head when ripe to a bunch of hops. Its growth has been almost entirely superseded by Medicago lupulina, since the other variety was low in production and also in nutrition. Medicago lupulina is also called Black Medick, Nonesuch, Black Nonesuch and Hop Trefoil. In both England and Germany it is now more commonly grown than white clover. It is more or less recumbent in its habit of growth, but the stems do not root as do the runners in the small white variety. The stems, though tender in the early spring, become woody as the season advances. The flowers, as the name would indicate, are yellow, and the plants produce seed numerously. The roots, like those of the small white variety, are more fibrous than in some of the larger varieties.

Yellow clover is perennial. Owing to the power which the plants have to multiply through rooting and re-seeding, they can stay indefinitely in congenial soils. The growth is vigorous in the early part of the season, but less so later, and with the advance of the season the herbage produced becomes more woody in character.

This plant furnishes considerable pasture during the spring months, but in the summer and autumn it makes but little growth. Though palatable early in the season, it is less so later. Nevertheless, it may be made to add materially to the produce of pastures in which it grows.