CLOVER. 



93 



CLOVER. 



vuiiversal, while tlie yellow is seen only in 

 occasional patches. The former is larger, 

 stronger, and more thrifty than tlie yellow. 

 The latter seems to be almost exactly the 

 same thing, only that it is smaller, and the 

 flowers yellow; but it has this distinct ad- 

 vantage, that it blooms two or three weeks 

 earlier than the white variety. 



QUALITY OF SAV^EET-CLOVER HONEY. 



We have tasted a number of samples that 

 came from localities where nothing but 

 sweet clover is grown. While the color 

 is of a slightly greenish cast, and the body 

 good, the flavor is only fair. We should 

 hardly consider it equal to ordinary white 

 clover or alfalfa, yet a little of it in any 

 honey improves the flavor. This flavor is 

 due to an attribute known as cumarin, ex- 

 tracted from the sweet- clover plant, and used 

 as a substitute for vanilla. Hence, when a 

 small quantity of pure sweet-clover honey 

 is put into other honey it gives a vanilla 

 taste so highly prized by many. 



Sweet clover is quite an important honey- 

 plant in Utah. One of our subscribers, Mr. 

 J. C. Swaner, has had considerable experi- 

 ence with this plant. In Gleanings in Bee 

 Culture for Jan. 1, Vol. XVII., he writes : 



Sweet clover grows here along- the water-courses, 

 moist waste places, the roadsides, and in neglected 

 fields. It g-rows from six inches to as many feet in 

 height, according to the location, and is covered' with 

 an abundance of hloom from top to bottom, yield- 

 ing' in most seasons an abimdance of nectar, which, 

 after lieing gathered and stored, ])roduces honey of 

 the very best quality and color. It does not gener- 

 ally bloom the first year; but in the second it com- 

 mences about the first of July, and keeps up a con- 

 tinual bloom until killed by frost furnishing bees 

 with pastui'age, generally from the middle of July 

 until the latter pai-t of August. 



Sweet clover is sometimes used for pasturage, and 

 also for making hay, if cut when young-, but it is 

 a long way behind alfalfa for that purpose. Though 

 it is sometimes relished by stock, very few would 

 sow it for feeding. When eaten while green it is in a 

 measui'e a cause of lioven, or bloat, in cows. If you 

 wish good milk or butter you had better not feed it 

 to milch cows, as it imparts a very disag-reeable taste. 

 Eaten off by stock it soon recovers, producing an 

 abundance of bloom for the bees. 



As sweet clover is a biennial it is not a very hard 

 weed to ei-adicate, and seldom troubles cultivated 

 fields, though it does sometimes seed a field; and 

 if such field is planted to grain the following sea- 

 son, it will come up, and is cut off only with the 

 reaper. Next season, if the same field be neglected, 

 it will quite likely be covered with sweet clover, and 

 that, too, sometimes as high as your head. But where 

 a field is cultivated as it should be for two seasons, 

 the clover entirely disappears. Tlie plant requires a 

 little moisture in the soil the first year; but after 

 that it will grow without. I consider it, for my part, 

 a great deal l)etter to see a roadside lined with it 

 than with sunflowers, etc. 



Now, to sum up, sweet clover yields our main honey 

 crop in this locality. It is our best honey; and I may 

 say without boasting, it compares favorably with 

 tlie finest grades known. 



Salt Lake City, Utah. J. C. Swaneu. 



SWEET CLOVER IN COLORADO. 



It is remarkable that sweet clover can be 

 made to grow where nothing else will take 

 root. We have seen it on the alkali lands of 

 Colorado and California— lauds where noth- 

 ing could exist, except, perhaps, a kind of 

 alkali weed that is absolutely useless to 

 either man or beast; and yet we hear how 

 sweet clover is regarded as a noxious weed 

 by State legislatures and township trustees. 

 Even in Ohio, mayors are ordered to cut 

 down along municipal roadsides all weeds, 

 including sweet clover, and yet there is noth- 

 ing so good as a soil-binder for loose lands 

 as sweet clover. We should not be surprised 

 if it were worth millions of dollars to rail- 

 road companies to prevent the washing away 

 of embankments, for that is where it does 

 best, on hard yellow clay or other soil wiiere 

 nothing else can grow and take root. 



There are big dtimps near Cleveland where 

 refuse, cinders, and slag of every sort aie 

 thrown; but we have noticed how sweet 

 clover seems to find its way along the edges 

 of these dumps, and it seems to be creeping 

 all over, making the waste land productive 

 of at least some good. 



SWEET CLOVER FOR INOCULATING SOIL. 



It has been clearly demonstrated by exper- 

 iments conducted in several States that 

 sweet clover is excellent for preparing soil 

 which requires inoculating with bacteria 

 before it will grow satisfactorily some of 

 the well-known clovers, notably alfalfa, 

 wiiich frequently refuses to grow unless 

 this is done. 



The following letter by a practical farmer 

 in the Bural New-Ywl-er explains just how 

 this is accomplislied : 



INOCULATION B^OR ALFALFA. 



At present I have about 15 acres of alfalfa, all of 

 it seeded the first time, part inoculated when seeded. 

 I have used soil from an old alfalfa-field, and that 

 where sweet clover grows along the roadside, as it 

 does everywhere in this locality when permitted, 

 and I have thought I obtained the best results from 

 the use of sweet-clover soil. I have seen sweet 

 clover five or six feet in height growing along the 

 road on the hardest kiiid ot subsoil two or three 

 feet below the surface soil. I believe the bacteria 

 on such sweet clover to be more vigorous as a 

 nitrogen-gatherer than that obtained from alfalfa 

 as it is usually grown. The proper time to apply 

 the soil to th3 intended alfalfa-field is after the 

 gi'ound is plowed and leveled, before the seed is 

 sown. I unierstand a bright sunshine will kill the 

 bacteria. It should be sown on a cloud.v day, and 



