ILLINOIS STATE -BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



41 



A member — Where the soil shows no 

 acidity lime Is not necessary. 



Mr. Hosier — We use the blue litmus 

 test. The blue litmus test will indi- 

 cate if there is acid present in the 

 soil. The hydro -chloric acid test will 

 indicate whether there is limestone 

 present in the soil. 



There ought to be limestone in the 

 -soil for sweet clover to grow — 

 and alfalfa. Sweet clover will grow on 

 soil that is too acid for red clover pro- 

 vided there is limestone down in the 

 subsoil a short distance; With sweet 

 clover, if it can get its roots down into 

 the limestone even if the surface soil 

 is acid it is going to survive. 



A member — ^What about the soil that 

 is overflown by river fed by springs 

 that come from the hillside? 



Mr. Mosier — The chances are sweet 

 clover will not grow; there are excep- 

 tions. In southern Illinois the bottom 

 land would be so sour sweet clover 

 vt'ould not grow; in central and north- 

 ern Illinois that is not true. The over- 

 flow lands have as a rule much more 

 limestone in them and have plenty of 

 germs necessary for the growth of 

 sweet clover. 



Mr. Bo\fen — I saw a field put in this 

 fall, of alfalfa; they inoculated first; 

 I made a test of the soil and found no 

 acid there and took it for granted lime 

 was not necessary; the result is they 

 have a very fine stand of alfalfa. 



Mr Mosier — Alfalfa has been thought 

 a crop that was diflScult to start; a few 

 years ago the Experiment Station 

 would recommend that the ground be 

 plowed up in the spring and kept cul- 

 tivated until August and then seed al- 

 falfa, putting limestone on and inocu- 

 lation in' the meantime. Now we are 

 finding out that alfalfa will start on 

 oats and wheat more readily when 

 seeded in the spring than red clover 

 and just as readily as sweet clover. 



I saw this fall at least 100 acres of 

 alfalfa that was started in the oats for 

 last spring, and every field that. I saw 

 was a splendid stand; I saw other 

 fields that were started later in the 

 fall that were much poorer than those 

 that were seeded with oats in the 

 spring. 



On my own farm this past spring I 

 seeded a small area in alfalfa with the 

 idea of just carrying it on as an experi- 

 ment; seeded it in oats and the oats 

 yielded 58 bushels to the acre, and I 



have not seen a finer stand of alfalfa 

 anywhere than this, and in spite of the 

 fact that w'e had a deficiency of 8.3 of 

 rainfall from March until September. 



Mr. C. S. Bennett — Would that be all 

 right in the states of Colorado or Kan- 

 sas? 



Mr. Mosier — Anywhere, it seems to 

 me, where there are drouth conditions; 

 sweet clover would stand the drouth; 

 alfalfa in the western states is more 

 desirable than sweet clover; they can 

 make more money out of alfalfa in the 

 western states than sweet clover. In 

 parts of Kansas they are using a great 

 deal of sweet clover. 



Pres. Baxter — In the uplands of 

 Kansas where alfalfa does not grow so 

 readily they are beginning to use sweet 

 clover, profitably. 



Mr. Mosier — I certainly have enjoyed 

 this meeting here and I hope you have 

 gotten something out of my paper. 



Mr. Stone — Didn't you say, Mr. 

 President, your cows did not like al- 

 falfa? 



Pres. Baxter — Yes; they will eat 

 sweet clover; I have had sweet clover 

 on my place for over thirty-five years 

 and they have been brought up with 

 it. I have tried to spread it as much 

 as I could. I am a member of the city 

 council and have been for 30 years, and 

 they have been accusing me of spread- 

 ing sweet clover. 



Mr. Bennett — I have a number of 

 horses I fed sweet clover — one horse 

 died; I don't know whether sweet clo- 

 ver killed it or not. 



Pres. Baxter — I have a cousin who 

 fed his horses alfalfa and he lost two 

 of them last week. 



Mr. Stone — There is more danger 

 from alfalfa than from sweet clover. 

 That has been our experience. 



Mr. Mosier — A horse will over -eat. 



Mr. Stone — One extremely dry year 

 when we cut a lot of sweet clover we 

 gave it to some of our. cattle, steers, 

 and they grew right along and did as 

 well as on a blue grass pasture. 



Pres. Baxter — Another thing about 

 sweet clover, that is for hay — you can 

 cut it and let it lie on the ground a 

 couple of days, then rake it up and 

 leave it there and, no matter how hard 

 it rains, you can take off the top and 

 when you are ready to take in the rest 

 of it it will be green down to the bot- 

 tom, while w^ith alfalfa you could not 

 do that — the rain will go to the bottom 



