638 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



and filled them with honey and are about ready to cap is the proper time 

 to put on your supers. The wax secreting bees will enter the super more 

 readily now than any other time. 



INSTRUCTIONS FOR SWEET CLOVER GROWING. 



FRANK COVERDALE, DELMAR. 



Sow sweet clover on ground well prepared, on a good mellow seed bed. 

 A sod field that has been plowed the previous fall is best of all. Spring 

 plowed sod is all right, and will answer nearly as well, but work into a 

 good seed-bed; and where the rainfall is sufficient, harrow the seed in 

 shallow. But in arid sections a drill is best, putting the seed sufficiently 

 deep to insure enough moisture to make sure of a good come-up. Sweet 

 clover sown on such ground will grow a heavy crop of nodules on its roots; 

 and by the end of second season this ground will be thoroughly inoculated, 

 and can be depended upon for all time to come for routine methods, as 

 these bacteria will live in. the soil for several years. A good stand of alba 

 is usually sure when sown on land that would grow 60 bushels of corn 

 per acre, and a nurse crop sown with it of barley, wheat, or early oats 

 seeded somewhat thinner than usual; and after the ground is inoculated 

 from growing previous fields, a fair cutting of excellent hay can be 

 mown in October after the grain has been harvested, making a crop of 

 small grain and a cutting of hay the same season. 



After the fields are inoculated by the actual growing of the sweet clover 

 on given fields, this method will be best of all. For pasture for cattle, seed 

 with timothy or any of the native grasses for best results, as the clover 

 causes the timothy to do much better, and is richer in carbohydrates, 

 and the sweet clover is much richer in protein; and if the season should 

 be so dry that the clover might be lost, other grasses might appear. No 

 other pasture is quite as good and safe for cattle to graze upon. 



For hog pasture, seed with oats on good ground. At first old hog lots 

 are ideal to plow and sow as above. Turn in the hogs as soon as the 

 oats will afford a bite, and let them have the field all summer till all is 

 frozen down. This pasture will be found to be superior to the swath 

 seeding generally recommended by our leading agricultural papers. Have 

 enough size in field so the hogs won't have to eat it too short. Those 

 sweet clover fields will furnish immense feed for two seasons; and if the 

 alba threatens to grow too tall, and to become woody, mow the field only 

 the second season from sowing. This will keep the clover succulent and 

 fresh. Mow with the guards turned very high, to prevent killing any of 

 the plants. Enough of it should be left to grow seed to reseed thor- 

 oughly the pasture. Keep the hogs well rung or they will dig up and eat 

 the roots toward fall of each year, or in throwouts in winter. 



HANDLING FOR HAY. 



After sweet clover has been growing on laud for two years, a field can 

 be seeded alone on clean ground not too foul with weeds, and almost 1% 

 tons of extra hay per acre may be cut in October; and it should in no 

 case be mown for hay until the crown sprouts have begun to show up on 



