ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



137 



was quite enthusiastic over it, and I 

 sowed some in different places. 



After three years I went away from 

 that country; and I never saw the 

 place until this fall, when I made a 

 visit out there. 



I sowed my sweet clover in different 

 places, some on high ground and some 

 on low ground. I put prairie blue 

 grass in the sloughs and for some 

 reason or other it caught the first 

 spring. It had a big crop of sweet 

 clover growing up in the prairie grass. 



I sowed other seed of sweet clover 

 around where there were weeds along 

 the road, on high ground; that soil out 

 there is full of lime. I thought sure 

 the sweet clover would grow on high 

 ground, and I watched it for two or 

 three years but there was no indica- 

 tion of its growing on high ground or 

 any place except on cultivated ground. 



On the prairie where it had been 

 burned off I used a disc pulverizer and 

 tracked it and got a splendid growth. 

 It stood 1% feet high and prairie grass 

 and sweet clover grew in as thick as 

 it cotild stand. 



This fall I was out there and drove 

 for several miles over the country, 

 looking to see if I could find some of 

 that old sweet clover. I found quite 

 a little of it growing. 



I knew the very identical spots 

 where I had sown it. It seemed to 

 grow in the wet, low places rather 

 than in the high. 



I thought this might be of interest 

 to you, in that it was so long ago. At 

 that time bee-keepers thought that the 

 farmers would in a few years take it 

 as a crop. Some said then it was good 

 for grass and others for feed; others 

 said it was good for stock; and others 

 said the stock would not eat it — so this 

 thing has been going on for thirty-one 

 years that I know of. 



Mr. Mosier — It seems to me that this 

 year the acreage of sweet clover will 

 be limited by the amount of seed there 

 is. I have never had so many inquiries 

 in regard to sweet clover, and inquiries 

 as to where the seed could be obtained. 



Men have written to me what 

 amount they were planning to sow. 



Mr. Masters of Jacksonville, Illinois, 

 is planning to put in 300 acres this 

 spring. 



Mr. Mahany of , Illinois, 



seeded 80 acres last fall and will put 

 about 150 to 160 acres in again this 

 spring. 



All over the state we get inquiries 

 about sweet clover, and statements of 

 the amounts they are planning to sow. 



Mr. Wheeler — How much to the acre 

 do you sow? 



Mr. Mosier — 12 to 15 lbs. to the acre. 

 Of course if we had a method by 

 which the germination could be in- 

 creased the amount could be lessened 

 a great deal, and 10 or even 8 lbs. per 

 acre would be an abundance. 



Mr. Schlader — Has anything been 

 said about the bee-keeper and sweet 

 clover? Is sweet clover any advantage 

 to the bee-keeper? I remember a year 

 or two ago I read an article by Dr. 

 Miller. He was talking about honey 

 and said it had never been his good 

 fortune to seel any honey that he knew 

 was sweet cloyer honey, as he depends 

 altogether on -white clover and alsike. 

 I depend on sweet clover. I don't have 

 much honey but what I do have is 

 sweet clover and I found it a splendid 

 honey crop. My crop in 1913 was an 

 average of 150 sections; one or two 

 colonies ran over 200 sections. This 

 year my average was 80 sections to a 

 colony. It was very dry this year in 

 October — and it is a "dry" town any- 

 way. The honey yield was not very 

 much. It is good honey, and if you 

 can get near any sweet clover growing 

 you can be sure of having some honey 

 every year, and I notice that some peo- 

 ple that depend on white clover alto- 

 gether are not certain of a crop — so I 

 think it is up to every bee-keeper to 

 boost sweet clover. 



Mr. Bodenschatz — Around my part 

 of the country we have a lot of sweet 

 clover. I live along the drainage canal. 

 We have lots of sweet clover. A good 

 many years the bees would make a 

 living on sweet clover, but this year 

 they did not work it at all. 



Last season they worked heavily on 

 it, but thig year they have not done 

 anything. There are years now when 

 they will not work on it. What is the 

 cause, I do not know. 



Pres. Kannenberg — I suppose they do 

 not have the nectar every year. 



Mr. Bruner — The reason is, perhaps, 

 that the sweet clover is not allowed to 

 grow wild and the young plants are 

 choked back by the present year's 

 growth; at any rate there is not so 

 large a crop one 5-ear as another; the 

 same as an orchard that is left to bear 

 its full, the next year it will not be so 

 fruitful. I would like to ask, how 



