632 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15. 



are not acquainted with it. A few seeds sown 

 in a box or pot, and cared for at almost any 

 season, makes a pretty ornament. 

 Dover, Delaware, Aug. 5. 



ALFALFA AND CRIMSON CLOVER. 



A SUCCESS IN NORTHEKN ILLINOIS ; CRIMSON 

 CLOVER STANDS WINTER FREEZINGS AS WELL 

 AS OTHER CLOVERS EXCEPT SWEET AND AL- 

 SIKE; as GOOD A HONEY-PLANT AS ALSIKE. 



By M. M. Baldridge. 



I mall you to-day a small bunch of alfalfa, 

 grown in this neighborhood, and taken from, 

 the crop to-day. If you will measure the 

 plants I think you will find them to be from 

 two feet to nearly three feet in length. These 

 plants are from the second crop grown this sea- 

 son. The first crop was cut for hay about five 

 weeks ago ; since which time we have had and 

 are still having a pretty severe drouth. The 

 plants are now, as you will see, in full bloom, and 

 some of the blossoms have gone to seed. I find 

 more or less bees at work on the bloom, but by 

 no means as many as upon the same-sized plat 

 of sweet clover. This sample of alfalfa is taken 

 from a plat planted at least ten years ago. The 

 plat to-day is many times larger than when 

 first planted. The plants each year have been 

 permitted to mature one crop of seed, and to 

 remain upon the ground where grown. This 

 is not the proper way to do ; still, the size of 

 the plat has thereby been extended in every di- 

 rection. 



From what I have seen here for at least ten 

 years, lam satisfied that alfalfa is as hardy and 

 permanent in Northern Illinois as any known 

 plant that grows here. On proper soil, alfalfa 

 will do as well here as a farm crop as it will in 

 Colorado, Arizona, Utah, or the Pacific States; 

 the only difference being, that I can see, that 

 we can not get as many crops in a season ; still, 

 we can secure three crops of hay or one crop of 

 hay and one of seed. Any soil here that has a 

 loose subsoil, as gravel, sand, or loam, will do 

 for alfalfa, and there are thousands of acres of 

 just such land in almost every county in North- 

 ern Illinois. 



CRIMSON CLOVER. . 



I sowed a small plat to crimson clover Aug. 

 20, 1894. The ground was broken up and the 

 seed raked in. The seed came up quickly, and 

 the plants were about eight inches tall when 

 winter set in. During the entire winter the 

 plants remained green in color. The spring 

 was exceedingly bad for the clover family; but 

 the crimson stood the alternate freezings and 

 thawings fully as well as any other clover ex- 

 cept alsike and sweet. Some of the crimson 

 plants died ; still there were plenty left for a 

 good stand. The plants grew to about one foot 

 in height, and when in bloom the blossoms 

 were very handsome, and much admired by all 



who saw them. The plants were in bloom 

 nearly a month ; but I regret to state that I 

 neglected to keep the date when the plants be- 

 gan and when they ceased to bloom. I permit- 

 ted the blossoms to mature seed, which they 

 did about the middle of June. It was my pur- 

 pose to gather the seed, and with it seed down a 

 larger plat ; but a heavy storm of rain came on 

 near the middle of July, and shattered the seed 

 off. I then concluded to break up this plat and 

 let the seed make another stand. On examina- 

 tion I found the seed had already germinated, 

 and that it was unnecessary to disturb the soil. 

 To-day the plants are about one inch high ; but 

 unless we get rain soon they may not survive 

 much longer. 



While this clover was in bloom the bees were 

 very busy upon it. From what I have seen, I 

 believe crimson clover is about as good a plant 

 for honey as alsike, and that it will pay honey- 

 producers to encourage their neighbors, who 

 are farmers, to try a few acres of it. If they 

 should succeed in growing a crop of hay or seed, 

 in 1896, they will then need no further encour- 

 agement. It is my experience that farmers, as 

 a class, are exceedingly slow in regard to trying 

 new plants, and hence they need more or less 

 encouragement ; and yet this should surprise 

 no one, for it is a well-known fact that not one 

 farmer in 25, possibly 50, subscribes for or reads 

 an agricultural periodical. 



St. Charles, Ills., Aug. 5. 



[Well done, friends. I hardly expected to get 

 such favorable reports from localities so widely 

 scattered. 1 am very glad indeed to hear friend 

 Goldsborough come right out square about this 

 matter of purchasing fertilizers indiscriminate- 

 ly, especially when so many of our experiment 

 stations keep insisting that it does not pay; and 

 I am exceedingly glad to find its value empha- 

 sized as a clover-plant. Friend Kulp's experi- 

 ment of having the clover cut right in bloom, 

 and a corresponding cessation of the honey -flow, 

 would seem to be very conclusive. Surely it 

 will not be a diiificult matter to plant an apiary 

 now, or very soon, within a range of a hundred 

 acres of crimson clover. We all know what 

 success it has met with in Delaware and vicini- 

 ty. But our good friend Baldridge tells us that, 

 away out in Illinois, it promises to succeed at 

 least tolerably if it does not generally. And I 

 am glad to hear such a report from alfalfa. 

 Only yesterday a man called and asked me to 

 go over to Chatham, ten miles away. He said 

 ihere is a little patch of alfalfa over there that 

 has given three good cuttings ali'eady this sea- 

 son. It is now Aug. 13. The seed was bought 

 at our store. The soil around Chatham is heavy 

 clay. 



In regard to sowing crimson clover during 

 the latter part of August, I am afraid it will 

 not be a very safe experiment in our locality, 

 judging from last season. We should remem- 

 ber, however, that last winter— perhaps I should 

 say, rather, last March and April— was the 

 most severe on any kind of vegetation wintered 

 over outdoors, of any season for years past; 

 aud may be that, with an average winter, crim- 

 son clover, with proper attention, will get 

 through all right, even when sown in August 

 and September. We need a lot of facts from 

 experience, right along in this line. Who can 

 furnish them? — A. I. R.] 



