ay for sheep. It makes excellent soiling food, because of the abundance
of the growth and the considerable season during which it may be fed in
the green form.

It is peculiarly valuable as a fertilizer and as an improver of soils.
In addition to the nitrogen which it draws from the air and deposits in
the soil, it brings up plant food from the subsoil and stores it in the
leaves and stems, so that when fed it can be returned to the land. It
also fills the soil with an abundance of roots and rootlets. These
render stiff soils more friable, and sandy soils less porous; they
increase the power of all soils to hold moisture, and in their decay
yield up a supply of plant food already prepared for the crops that are
next grown upon the ground.

Mammoth clover may also be utilized with advantage in lessening the
numbers of certain noxious weeds, and in some instances of eradicating
them altogether. This it does in some instances by smothering them,
through the rankness of the growth. In other instances it is brought
about through the setback which is given to the weeds by first pasturing
the crop and then cutting it later for seed.

=Distribution.=--Mammoth clover has long been grown in several of the
countries of Europe and Western Asia. It is also grown in certain parts
of Siberia. It was doubtless introduced into the United States from
Europe by emigrants from that continent, but when exactly is not known.
It has probably been many years since its introduction into America, but
it is only within the more recent of the decades that it has attracted
general notice. In some areas in this country it grows with great
luxuriance, fully equaling, if not exceeding, the crops grown in any
part of Europe.

Mammoth clover calls for climatic conditions about the same as those for
medium red clover. (See page 61.) It flourishes best in moist climates
of moderate temperature, and it will endure more drought than the medium
red variety and possibly more cold.

The distribution of mammoth clover covers nearly all the States of the
Union, but as with medium red clover the adaptation for it is relatively
higher in the Northern than in the Southern States of the Union. The
highest adaptation for mammoth clover is probably found in certain parts
of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the northern valleys of the Rocky
Mountain States, the elevated portions of those further south and the
country around Puget Sound. The adaptation is also high