ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' " ASSOCIATION 



39 



lands alid regions where there is an 

 overflow, sweet clover requires no in- 

 oculation. 



Sweet clover requires the presence 

 of certain bacteria in the soil to pro- 

 duce satisfactory results. 



A member — This bacteria will live in 

 the dust of the road? 



Mr. Hosier — Yes, to a certain extent 

 this organism is distributed pretty 

 generally along the roadsides with the 

 mud carried on vehicles and as I said 

 before on bottom lands by floods. 



Along the roadsides sweet clover will 

 grow out in the field some little dis- 

 tance without inoculation; take a field 

 of 40 acres; it may be inoculated near 

 the road but not in the center. 



I want to say something a little 

 further in regard to the sweet clover 

 crop. The average farmer has been so 

 prejudiced against sweet clover that he 

 can't see very much in raising a crop 

 of s\yeet clover. This last fall, in Will 

 County, there was a man who thrashed 

 over thirteen bushels per acre of sweet 

 clover seed; another man I know of 

 thrashed 8% bushels. The man who 

 had 13 bushels per acre received $205, 

 selling it at 25 cents a pound — and that 

 is not all; early in the season he cut a 

 crop of hay, two tons to the acre, and 

 that hay is worth, he says, $12 per toil. 

 I don't know of any crop that will pro- 

 duce prices like that. 



I want to see sweet clover grown 

 so that the price of seed will be re- 

 duced to $5 a bushel, so that every 

 farmer or land owner can afford to buy 

 it and put it in his soil. 



In speaking further of the root de- 

 velopment of sweet clover, which takes 

 place largely during the first season 

 and is especially valuable as a sub- 

 soiler: Last fall on my own farm I 

 took a spade and went into the sweet 

 clover field and dug around a block of 

 soil probably 14 inches across, then I 

 got the spade under one side and pried 

 it up, and the roots of sweet clover 

 I pulled up went down some of them 

 30 inches, then thej'^ had broken off and 

 were nearly as large as a lead pencil; 

 they undoubtedly went down 2 feet 

 further; a plant that will loosen up 

 the soil to that depth is going to be 

 of great value to our soil. 



Pres. Baxter — You spoke of the re- 

 sults of some investigation of sweet 

 clover at the Illinois Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station — Have there been 



other experiments Conducted by Ex- 

 periment Stations? 



Mr. Mosier — Yes, with the same re- 

 sult. 



Mr. Stone — Last spring we sowed 

 sweet clover with our oats and red 

 clover also, and there is not a bit of 

 red clover left now and about half as 

 much sweet clover as would make a 

 good stand. We put two tons of lime- 

 stone on the soil to the acre and in- 

 oculated the soil; we don't like to plow 

 that sweet clover up until we get the 

 benefit of the lime. What would you 

 do about it? 



Mr. Mosier — I would leave it. 



Mr. Stone — Would you sow red clover 

 with it? 



Mr. Mosier — Well, if you want to get 

 a growth of something else it might 

 be well to sow red clover; I think you 

 will find it will spread out so that red 

 clover will not have a ghost of a 

 chance. I think they will grow up 

 thicker really than you expect them to. 



Mr. Stone — Would some of the seed 

 lie there and come up in the spring? 



Mr. Mosier — It might. In last year's 

 seeding on my own farm I had what 

 looked like only a partial stand; I had 

 several of my acquaintances at the 

 University come down and look at it 

 and they decided it would have to be 

 plowed up; that it would not make a 

 stand. 



I wanted to leave it if possible and 

 I left it and it came out and made a 

 splendid stand, and that is where I got 

 the 4.4 tons per acre on the low ground, 

 and on the high ground, 2.8; it aver- 

 aged 6.8 tons of growth per acre this 

 summer, and that on an area that 

 looked as though it would only be a 

 partial stand. 



Mr. Mosier (to Mr. Stone): I would 

 rather sow sweet clover in there than 

 red clover; you could sow it in there 

 this winter some time; it will come up 

 next spring; of course that will not 

 produce seed next spring. 



Mr. Stone — That which is in there 

 now will? 



Mr. Mosier — That which is in there 

 now will. 



Mr. Mosier — There is one thing I 

 didn't speak of in this paper in regard 

 to sweet clover, and that is, its ad- 

 vantage over alfalfa in that it does not 

 bloat animals when they eat it. 



Pres. Baxter — Is it not a better pas- 

 ture for hogs? 



