The first authentic report of sweet clover in the United States was in 1739, when Gronovius stated in his Flora Virginica that it was collected by Clayton. Cutler reported its presence in New England as early as 1785, and Pursh in 1814 stated in his Flora Americæ Septentrionulis that it is found on the gravelly shores of rivers from Pennsylvania to Virginia. Elliott reported the presence of yellow biennial sweet clover in his Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and Georgia in 1824, and Beck found the species Melilotus leucantha[5] in the Northern States in 1833.
[5] Undoubtedly meaning Melilotus alba.
In 1856 Prof. Tutwiller, of Green Springs Academy, Ala., received a small quantity of white sweet-clover seed from the secretary to the United States consul in Chile. Part of this seed was planted by a young man named Stendwick on his father's plantation on the prairie limestone belt, where it flourished. This plantation later became the property of J. T. Collins who, realizing the value of this plant, sold seed to persons in many States. Not until recently has sweet clover been grown to any extent as a cultivated crop in this country.
While sweet clover is to be found growing in many countries and on all the continents of the world, it is native to temperate Europe and Asia as far east as Tibet. It is grown to a limited extent in England, while in the eastern part of Scotland a small quantity is considered valuable in hay on account of its agreeable odor. The famous Cruyere cheese of Switzerland owes its flavor to yellow sweet clover. In Germany it has given very good results when used as a green-manure, while in parts of Russian Poland and Austria-Hungary it is grown as a green-manure, pasturage, and hay crop on poor soils. This plant is used for forage and as a soil-improving crop in the central provinces of India, while sour clover, commonly referred to as Melilotus parviflora, is credited with furnishing 75 per cent of the feed for the cattle of King Island, Tasmania, which produce the best beef and butter sold on the Tasmania market.
Fig. 6.—Outline map of the United States, showing the localities where sweet clover is grown for forage or for green-manure. Each dot or circle indicates a county where 50 acres or more is grown under cultivation. The solid dots represent white or yellow sweet clover; the circles represent annual yellow sweet clover.
At the present time sweet clover is grown rather extensively as a field crop in the limestone regions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, in northern Illinois, and throughout the western North-Central and Mountain States ([fig. 6]): in fact, it is grown as a cultivated crop to some extent in nearly every State in the Union. Comparatively little sweet-clover seed is sown in the Atlantic Coast States, since there the soils are for the most part acid, and heavy applications of lime will be necessary before sweet clover can be grown successfully. It is questionable whether this plant will ever be of much importance in the South Atlantic States, as cowpeas, soy beans, and crimson clover will make a fair growth on those soils in their present condition. The acreage of sweet clover probably will increase in the New England States, where it should prove of value as pasturage and as a soil-improving crop on soils where red clover no longer can be grown. Sweet clover grows abundantly in the limestone regions of northwestern New York.