AMERICAN HONEY PLANTS 251 



Seed is obtained only the second year, and if the first growth of that year 

 is permitted to seed, the plants will die when cut, so that only the one crop 

 can be obtained. 



The seed ripens so iregularly that it is not always easy to tell just 

 when it should be cut in order to save the largest amount of seed. At 

 best, much of it will shatter off and be lost, since the first to ripen will 

 be ready while there is still a large amount of bloom. The most seed will 

 be secured by cutting when about three-fourths of the seed pods have 

 turned brown. If cut sooner there will be too many blossoms and imma- 

 ture seeds; if cut later too much of the ripe seed will shatter in the har- 

 vesting. Usually enough seeds shatter off to reseed the land. Some grow- 

 ers have been able to continue the same land in sweet clover for fifteen or 

 twenty years by sowing two years in succession to begin with. After the 

 first year a crop of seed will ripen every year. 



It is something of a problem to harvest the seed without losing a 

 large portion of it. The writer has cut a small field with an ordinary 

 mower when the plants were wet with dew, and immediately raked it 

 into windrows. This method is hardly to be advised where the seed is to 

 be hauled to a threshing machine, since more of the seed will be wasted 

 than where it is bound into bundles. This small field was threshed by 

 hand with forks. A large sheet of canvas was laid on the ground and the 

 sweet clover carefully lifted on it, after it was fully dried. By beating 

 with the forks the seed was readily separated from the stalks. 



The ordinary grain binder is generally used for this purpose. Where 

 much seed is to be harvested, it is necessary to provide some special pans 

 to catch the seed that shatter off. Corn binders have been used in some 

 cases. 



When threshed with a grain separator, the straw is broken up so 

 much that it makes a fair forage for wintering cattle or horses. They 

 will not eat it readily when threshed by hand, since the straw is not broken 

 up to any extent and the dry stalks are too coarse otherwise. 



Those interested in this subject will do well to write to the U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture for Farmer's Bulletins which deal with different 

 phases of the culture of sweet clover. They give in much greater detail 

 information that space will not permit here. 



SWEET FENNEL (Foeniculum vulgare). 



The cultivated fennel from Europe has become naturalized in some 

 places along the Atlantic Coast in Maryland and Virginia and other East- 

 ern States. It is often cultivated in gardens in many localities. Lovell lists 

 it as the source of a light amber honey. 



SUMAC (RHUS). 



There are about one hundred and twenty species of rhus found in 

 Asia, South America and North America. There are fourteen species com- 

 mon to North America. The red or scarlet sumac, shown in Figure 133 

 (Rhus glabra) is most common, being found from Nev/ England west to 

 Saskatchewan.. Colorado and Arizona, and south to Florida and Louisiana. 



