ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



139 



at all, it seemed to be a natural process 

 of some sort. 



Mr. France — One other point I would 

 like to bring up in behalf of sweet 

 clover: Up in our state the farmers 

 own the land to the middle of the high- 

 way, and it is a strict understanding 

 that you can go into the highway with 

 a manure gatherer, and the farmer will 

 say to you, you can take the sweet 

 clover belonging to your own farm but 

 don't come over into mine because I 

 want it myself. 



Mr. Kindig — I trust you will allow me 

 to express my appreciation of this ex- 

 cellent paper. 



I was just thinking as Prof. Mosier 

 was reading — I wish that every farmer 

 in Illinois and Indiana who is not al- 

 ready in the alfalfa game might have 

 this paper on the phonograph and have 

 a recital about once a week. 



In regard to sweet clover growing on 

 limestone soil, I have noticed in lime- 

 stone formation on southern Illinois 

 soil that in the hilltops, where the soil 

 has been quite badly drained, those 

 hilltops do not produce sweet clover. 



I take it that without any testing of 

 the soil one cannot depend on lime- 

 stone soil as being a soil which is not 

 acid, but rather these hilltops have be- 

 come too sour. 



In regard to testing for the acidity of 

 the soil with litmus paper, it has been 

 my observation that litmus paper in 

 the hands of some farmers has not 

 been treated properly to make a proper 

 test of the soil. 



I have seen a case or two, where, 

 with various things on the fingers of 

 the farmer, a contrary reaction was 

 gotten in the soil test, simply because 

 the litmus paper became contaminated 

 with the fingers of the farmer used in 

 handling it — so from that standpoint 

 it seems to be the hydro-chloride acid 

 is the best and is ntiore reliable. 



I do not know whether you Illinois 

 people have a law against clover as a 

 weed upon the public highway. 



There is going to be some action be- 

 fore the legislature of Indiana this com- 

 ing winter to take sweet clover from 

 the list of condemned plants, and I 

 certainly hope there will be enough 

 pressure brought to bear on the legis- 

 latures that sweet clover may be put 

 on the list of desirable plants, the yel- 

 low sweet clover as well as the white. 



Lots of people in the vicinity of In- 



dianapolis got their honey crop from 

 sweet clover. 



Sweet clover gives quites a continu- 

 ous honey flow for a long length of 

 time, which, I think every bee-keeper 

 will agree with me, is quite a valuable 

 asset in most any locality. 



Mr. Schlader — If any one will look 

 over any bee-keepers' journal they will 

 find that bee-keepers have been hand- 

 ling sweet clover for quite a while. 



Mr. Hawkins — I recently read of two 

 farmers in Wisconsin that attempted 

 to get a growth of sweet clover. They 

 both called, on their County Agricultural 

 expert for information as to bow to go 

 about it. 



Both planted it on the same day, in 

 the same manner, and carried out the 

 whole work exactly alike. The one 

 farmer on the one side of the road got 

 a good stand; the farmer on the other 

 side got such a poor stand he was thor- 

 oughly disgusted with it. 



In trying to trace out the cause, the 

 County expert brought out the fact 

 that Professor Mosier has emphasized 

 tonight as to the value of limestone. 

 This county expert figured that during 

 the season of planting the prevailing 

 wind in that particular place had been 

 from such a direction as to blow all 

 the dust and stone from the highway 

 onto one man's field, while the other 

 man got practically none, and, because 

 neither field was treated with lime- 

 stone, the man that $^ot the application 

 in this form got a fairly good stand a 

 few rods from the road; tlxat sounds 

 like a fairy story but it is a fact. 



In speaking about sweet clover being 

 a honey plant, I think it depends on 

 the amount of moisture that is avail- 

 able. In my home town there is a 

 gravel pit of 140 acres, dug out by 

 steam shovels. It was left for ten or 

 fifteen years, and we planted sweet 

 clover in there; the place was never 

 dry, and there was a yield every year 

 without fail, no matter how dry a year 

 it was — until this year; but it was not 

 a failure this . year on account of 

 drouth, nor foul brood, either, but be- 

 cause they went to work in that gravel 

 pit with a dredge and they dug a big 

 ditch and drained the water off to 

 level, from twelve to fourteen feet of 

 what it was before. 



The plants did not have a good sup- 

 ply of water and did not live well. 



I should like to see Prof. Mosier 

 given a vote of thanks, and, if it is 



