630 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aua. 15. 



rough's clover-fields,'" as the -Star puts it. I do 

 not believe it does to allow one's soil to lie all 

 winter uncovered; so, consequently, stubbles of 

 all kinds are planted to this clover— some to 

 cut and cure, some for turning down, and some 

 for seed. I always save my own seed in the 

 haulm, having no thicishcr or huller. If the 

 cutting is done after the heads show no red, it 

 quickly dries and is put into small cocks. A 

 canvas is then spread, and in a very short time 

 the seed (haulms) are flayed out. Unlike oth- 

 er grains, the slightest touch makes the haulms 

 loosen. These are put into bags, and sown 

 down the wind any time you wish. I sow it 

 from Aug. 1 to Oct. 1, and rarely cover it, as it 

 comes upeasily after a rain. After digging early 

 potatoes I rake off the vines with a harrow, 

 and then sow clover seed, and do not cover. 

 When sowing turnip seed I mix them with 

 crimson-clover seed. For several years I 

 sowed kale and clover together; but this is not 

 wise, because in the spring the clover hides the 

 kale too much. 



lam now sowing clover among my tomato- 

 plants, egg-plants, corn, beans, and m^lon- 

 patch, and exoect the first rain to start the seed. 

 I am very much pleased with my last year's ex- 

 periment with crimson clover, in connection 

 with red clover and timothy. About the first 

 of September I sowed crimson clover, red clo- 

 ver, and timothy at the same time, on some 

 sugar-corn stubble. After taking off a splendid 

 crop of crimson-clover hay, I forgot that other 

 seeds had been sown with it, and was surprised 

 to see a showy second growth putting forth 

 about"a fortnight later. The red clover has 

 given me a good second crop, and will be al- 

 lowed to remain over. Its habit of growth is 

 much more beautiful than red clover, as it is 

 taller, and stands up straighter, and the 

 heads stand together more like wheat and tim- 

 othy. It is so pleasing to the eye that I have a 

 "woodman, spare that tree" feeling, and dislike 

 to turn it down before blooming. Indeed, I am 

 quite satisfied with its stubble, its roots, and its 

 shade — that mysterious agent which furnishes 

 the rich microbes of the soil to overcome the 

 poor ones. A little strip of my field corn had a 

 small piece of clover-stubble turned down 

 about May 20, and any one could tell where the 

 clover strip began and ended, almost on a dark 

 night. If you do not sow it before last "plow- 

 ing" of corn (good farmers don't murder their 

 corn with a plow if they own a cultivator), get 

 on a horse, ride down the rows, and sow it at any 

 time before Sept. 1st. It won't need any cover- 

 ing unless we have a drouth. Besides, the ex- 

 pense of the seed won't break you in case of 

 failure. 



I rarely sow more than .5 pounds per acre. 

 Another good way is to sow it on corn stubble, 

 and spread fresh manure over it. If the horses 

 have been fed on clover or timothy you 

 will catch a good stand" of these next spring. 



I have not tried it with buckwheat, because 

 the latter seems always to exhaust my lands. 

 As a bee crop, nothing equals it. I have fifty 

 colonies of bees, and they roar on it all the 

 time. It is useless to sow in the spring. Two 

 years ago I picked out some white heads, and 

 now have this Italian clover in two colors. 



In this day of low prices and close competi- 

 tion no farmer or horticulturist can afford to 

 go without it. How many ignorant men 

 in our land will purchase, this fall, worth- 

 less fertilizers to the extent of from about 

 five to ten dollars an acre, when fifty cents' 

 worth of clover seed would insure results 

 five or ten times as great! In the rural districts 

 of Maryland most of the mortgages are held by 

 guano merchants; and if the agricultural pa- 

 pers did not receive their " ads " they would 

 tell the farmers the truth about fertilizers, just 

 as our experiment stations are doing. Try 

 crimson clover, and see how much manure and 

 fertilizer you need. 



Wesley Heights. Washington, D. C. 



^ I ^ 



CRIMSON CLOVER ALIVE WITH BEES. 



STOCK PREFER IT TO THE RED. 



By W. W. Kulp. 



I had a little correspondence with Dr. Miller, 

 and I mentioned that we raised six acres of 

 crimson clover. He wished I would write 

 about it to some bee-journal. 



My father owns a dairy-farm four miles 

 south of where we live. On it was wheat-stub- 

 ble in which the grass failed to catch. It was 

 plowed during July, and harrowed ; then in 

 September, the first half, it was harrowed and 

 rolled until it was in first-class condition — fine, 

 and packed down. Remember that small seeds, 

 especially if sown during warm weather, re- 

 quire fine earth, and it must be packed down, 

 so moisture can continually come up from be- 

 low. The crimson-clover seed was then sown 

 with a seeder, and covered wjth a Breed weed- 

 er. It came up nicely; and where it was very 

 thick on the ground it grew much the best; but 

 there was a good stand all over the field. It is 

 river-bottom land, and in the adjoining field 

 was a large colony, or many colonies, of grass- 

 hoppers. They moved on the clover, and ate 

 off about 20 or more feet all along one side. 



It was as green as spring grass all winter; but 

 during cold spells in March it froze down, but 

 sprang up quickly in April; and by May 2.5 it 

 was a sea of crimson, beautiful to look upon. 



Now for the bee part of it. I have an apiary 

 of 40 colonies, now 55. About this time white 

 clover began to bloom, and the bees began to 

 store honey nicely. When fully out in bloom, 

 and a few days more, my father went to cut 

 about four acres of it. He found the whole 

 field alive with bees — so many that one horse 

 refused at first to go along it in the machine. 



