CLOVER. 



89 



CLOVER. 



believe every one tires of these after a time, 

 while clover stands almost alone, as the 

 great staple for every-clay use, with our 

 " bread and butter." 



CULTIVATION, AND SOWING THE SEED. 



The cultivation is so much like that of red 

 clover that what applies to one will do for 

 the other. The seed of alsike is much small- 

 er and less quantity is required ; the general 

 rule being four pounds to the acre. As it 

 blossoms only the second year, or very spar- 

 ingly the first, with ordinary cultivation it 

 can be sown almost any time, and, in fact, 

 it is often sown on wheat on the snow in 

 March. In this way we can see just how 

 evenly we are getting it on the ground. The 

 farmers near us who furnish the finest seed 

 say they have the best success with that 

 sown with oats in the spring. Although al- 

 sike will produce some honey with almost 

 any cultivation, it is important to have the 

 ground nicely prepared, if we wish to get 

 large yields of either hay or honey. On 

 good mellow ground, finely pulverized, we 

 may get a growth of 3 ft. in height, and a 

 prolusion of highly colored blossoms that 

 will astonish one who has never seen such a 

 sight; especially when the field is roaring 

 with the hum of busy Italians. Such heavy 

 growth being liable to lodge badly during 

 wet weather, it may be well to sow a sprink- 

 ling of timothy seed with it. When put in 

 early, good soil sometimes produces consid- 

 erable bloom the first season, but not much 

 is to be expected until the second year, when 

 it is at its height. It will continue to yield 

 years afterward to a greater or less extent, 

 for it seems to cling to the soil. It may be 

 sowai in the spring on fall wheat; but where 

 timothy has been sown with the wheat in 

 the fall previous, it is apt, on some soils, to 

 choke out the alsike. Apparently, even one 

 sowing will go a long way. 



SAVING THE HAY. 



Raised for hay and honey, without any 

 reference to saving the seed, it gi\ es at least 

 two good crops every season; in this case it 

 is cut when in full bloom. In our locality it 

 usually blooms the last of June, and some- 

 times furnishes considerable honey before 

 the w^hite clover is out. The hay is admitted 

 by all to be equal to any of the grasses or 

 clovers in use, while pasturage, after the 

 clover is cut, is most excellent for all kinds 

 of stock. 



Its value for milch cows is shown by the 

 following, taken from Gleanings in Bee Cul- 

 ture, Vol. XIII., page IBl : 



AS A FOHAGE-PLANT 



it has no superior, producing- a large flow of very 

 rich milk. June 15th, when I shut the stock out of 

 the iilsike, I allowed them to run in a field of red 

 clover that was just coming into blossom, and at the 

 end of the third day the five cows had shrunk their 

 milk to the amount of 9 quarts to the milking. 

 Then, in Octobei', to test it further for feed, as there 

 was quite a growth of leaves on the ground i again 

 allowed the cows in the field. You may imagine my 

 surprise when I found, at the end of a week, they 

 had made a gain of 10 quarts to the milking. 

 Millington, Mich. M. D. York. 



SAVING THE SEED. 



The seed is ahvays saved from the first 

 crop of blossoms, and it should be allowed 

 to stand about two weeks longer than when 

 cut for hay. If you wish to get a good price 

 for your seed, it must be very nicely cleaned. 

 It is thrashed out with a clover-huller, made 

 expressly for clover seed, and then cleaned 

 with a fanning -mill with appropriate sieves. 

 Timothy seed is very nearly the same 

 size, making it difticult to remove it all, 

 unless by a fanuing-mill having the proper 

 blast arrangement. As the alsike weighs 

 60 lbs. to the bushel, and timothy only 45, 

 there is no great difficulty in doing it effec- 

 tually. 



We need scarcely add, that whoever raises 

 seed for sale should exercise the most scru- 

 pulous care to avoid sending out foul seeds 

 of any kind ; and where Canada thistles or 

 weeds of that class prevail, we would, under 

 no circumstances, think of raising seed to be 

 sent all over the land. If they are in your 

 neighborhood, raise hay and honey, and let 

 seed be furnished by some one who is differ- 

 ently situated. 



PROFIT OF THE CROP. 



The seed has for a number of years sold 

 for from $5.50 to $8.00 per bushel, and the 

 average yield of seed is about four bushels 

 per acre, 60 lbs. being reckoned as a bushel. 

 It retails for 15 to 18 cents per pound. See 

 Clover. 



The following, taken from Tlie Farmier, 

 of St. Paul, Minn., not only shows what 

 profit may be realized in raising alsike, but 

 is another proof of its value as a hay crop. 

 The reader will observe that the writer is in 

 no way interested in bees. 



WILL IT PAY FARMERS TO RAISE ALSIKE WITHOUT 

 ANY REFERENCE TO BEE-KEEPING AT ALL? 



About 30 years ago I bought my first alsike-clo- 

 ver seed, and sowed it alone on the south side of a_^ 

 hill. The season was dry, and it grew only about a 

 foot high; and as it was said the first crop produced 

 the seed, I cut it for seed and felt disappointed at 

 getting so little that I was ready to pronounce it a 

 humbug-, and plowed it up the same fall. Some 

 years afterward I saw a bushel of seed at the Dane 



