300 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



duct seem affected by the near presence of the rape. I am not sure that 

 we gained any special advantage from the rape. If we did it was not per- 

 ceptible. The weather for nearly all the time was very cool. I do not 

 believe it will pay to sow rape specially for honey. If it is sown for 

 pasture as recommended in England and Ontario, there will be but little 

 bloom, and so, even in favorable years, the beekeeper would receive but 

 small advantage. If grown for seed there would be a profusion of bloom, 

 and in favorable seasons the honey product would be, without doubt, 

 greatly augmented. It is certainly wise for the apiarist to encourage and 

 even urge the planting in his neighborhood of any and every useful honey 

 plant like rape, alsike, clover, buckwheat, etc. Often from unfavorable 

 weather they will not afford nectar, but often they will bridge the whole 

 distance between failure and success. 



SWEET CLOVER. 



Beekeepers have long known that sweet clover, Melilotus alba, though 

 often failing to secrete nectar, is one of our first honey plants. It not 

 only yields in favorable seasons very abundantly, but the honey from it 

 is very white and excellent. This plant is known as Melilot, Sweet Clover, 

 White Melilotus, and Bokhara Clover. While one or two authorities, 

 Prof. Thorne of Ohio and Prof. Tracy of Mississippi, have stated that it 

 possesses value as a forage plant, the consensus of opinion throughout the 

 country is that this luxuriant plant possesses little value to feed either 

 green or as hay. It has been sown in many parts of the country, by bee- 

 keepers and others, in waste places, along roadsides, etc., and in such loca- 

 tions has frequently added decidedly to the honey product. It is a 

 beautiful plant with a very sweet perfume and may well replace rag-weed, 

 May-weed, smart- weed, etc., along our highways. We sowed several acres 

 to this plant this spring, six on sand and three on clay. The drouth 

 came on and the catch on the sand was a total failure. On the clay it was 

 only partially successful, but is spreading and we think will produce a 

 fairly good crop. Our purpose is to see if it may not be a valuable silage 

 crop. It surely produces abundantly. If it will be appetizing as silage 

 so as to possess value to the farmer, then from its double value, as a silage 

 plant and a most excellent honey plant, it may well be grown by the bee- 

 keeping farmer, and may be urged concientiously by the apiarist upon his 

 neighbor farmer. This plant, like nearly all the clovers, is a biennial, and 

 so we must wait until next year to complete our experiment, when we 

 hope to prove that Melilotus is valuable for silage. 



Our conclusions thus far are that special planting for honey will never 

 pay. Unless we can find a plant that will always secrete nectar, and as 

 seasons of honey failure occur in all countries, we conclude that no such 

 exists, we certainly can not afford the expense and labor. I think our 

 experiments warrant this conclusion. That it may, and often has, paid 

 well to scatter seeds of sweet clover in waste places, there is no possible 

 doubt. The first year's growth, and the second until after bloom, are very 

 handsome. After bloom, the dry, ugly stocks may be cut, when the under 

 growth from the seeds of the present season will make a pleasing border 

 to the road. Cleome may also be planted in all waste places. This has been 

 done with excellent results in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It is a very 

 handsome plant, and like sweet clover is easily subdued if no longer wanted. 

 In case this is desired, the seeds should be planted early in August aud 

 September, else they will not germinate well the following season. 



