HUBAM SWEET CLOVER

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 176, 13 April 1923, Page 9

HUBAM SWEET CLOVER

NEW ANNUAL WHITE-FLOWER-ING PLANT. There is at present an exhibition in tho offices of the' Fields Instruction Branch of I the Agricultural Department a stalk of Hubam sweet clover, which was grown on Mr. H. Renall’a property at Kakatau, Carterton. Mr. Renall obtained a handful of seed from a. friend at Masterton, and planter a small patch. So prolific was the growth that the crop was 6ft. high 90 days after it had been sown. Though Houbam is Un annual, Mr. Renall thinks that if it were kept cut it could bo made perennial. Many glowing reports have been received from America regarding Hubam, but, while the plant manifests very .valuable features under tho conditions prevailing in the United States, it has yet to be proved whether it will do anything more than those annual summer fodder and soil-improv-ing plants already well known and proven here. Hubam i» not frostresistant, and tho seed is sown in the spring. It will not grow in acid soil, and precautions must be taken to see that tho ground is sweet, a drossing of lime being applied where necessary. The chief value of Hubam is as a summer fodder, and a quick soil improver. It builds up soil fertility in a short period, and fits in the rotation between two winter grain crops, renewing the ground after the first and putting it in good heart for the second.

A .report recfently issued by tlie Bowa .Experiment Station gives a yield for 1920 of 1.52 tons per acre of Hubam, following small grain with only .5 of a ton for the biennial sweet clover; and in 1921 of 2.7 tons for Hubam, 1.85 for the biennial white sweet clover, 1.56 for tho biennial yellow sweet clover and .95 of a ton for medium red clover. A comparison of the root growth in 1921 showed a nroduction of 1,6641b5. for Hubam. as compared with 1,4511b5. for the biennial white sweet, with 411bs. of nitrogen contained in the roots of each clover. Two cuttings of hay can be secured in America if Hubam is sown alone on a prepared seed bed early in April. The first crop of hay in this case can be cut early in July, leaving a stubble of 4 to C inches. The second cutting is made some time in September.