Sweet clover has been used as a honey plant and for forage and
green-manure for more than 2,000 years in the Mediterranean region,
although it has never been considered of much importance.
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.