60 



February, 1915. 



American Vae Journal 



ground everywhere. While the arti- 

 chokes are troublesome weeds in the 

 fields, they are seldom sufficiently 

 abundant excepting on waste land to 

 be of importance as a honey plant. 



CROWNBEARD. 



There are several species of crown- 

 beard, some of which have white blos- 

 soms. The pictures show the com- 

 mon, yellow flowere 1 variety, of Iowa. 

 It grows in the borders of open woods 

 and other partially shaded situations. 

 The bees seek it very eagerly, ;ind a 

 great humming is in evidence about 

 this plant, when the bloom is at its 



height. The range of the different 

 species of crownbeard (verbesi/ia) is 

 said to be from Pennsylvania to the 

 Missouri river, and south to Texas. 

 Wherever present in sufficient abun- 

 dance, it is the source of a desirable 

 quality of honey. 



CONE FLOWER OR WILD GOLDEN GLOW 



The cone flowers (A'udbeckia) are 

 not often mentioned as honey plants, 

 yet the bees visit them freely and ap- 

 parently they are the source of some 

 nectar. In Iowa they are very com- 

 mon on low ground and grow 4 to 8 

 feet high. The stem has many branches 



and a single plant will often produce a 

 considerable number of the large yel- 

 low flowers. On wet lands these plants 

 are frequently present in such quantity 

 as to be an important source of bee 

 pasturage. 



Not all of the common yellow fall 

 flowers are included because of our 

 inability to get satisfactory photo- 

 graphs so that it will be necessary to 

 come back to them later. The next in- 

 stallment will deal with other fall 

 flowers, including asters, snakeroot, 

 etc. — Copyright 1915, by Frank C. Pel- 



LETT. 



Atlantic, Iowa. 



'^m: 



KIG. 7. -WILD SUNFLOWERS WITH OTHI'.R PLANTS BY THE ROADSIDE 



No. 2.— Sweet Clover 



BY I. G. hosier. 



Asr'ii itltural Department, t 'niversitv of Illinois 

 USES, PASTURE, HAY AND SEED. 



STOCK easily learn to like sweet 

 clover, especially when young and 

 tender. Permanent blue grass 

 pastures could profitably be seeded to 

 sweet clover since this crop will furnish 

 plant food for the blue grass and result 

 in growing more of the latter than 

 without the clover. Since it is a bien- 

 nial, in order to obtain the largest 

 amount of green pasture part of the 

 field should be seeded during two suc- 

 cessive years. After that no seeding 

 will be necessary. 



For temporary pastures sweet clover 

 should be seeded with some other crop 

 such as red, alsike clover or timothy, 

 to furnish pasture after the sweet 

 clover lias seeded the second year. But 

 little will be eaten after it blooms and 

 becomes woody. The pasture season 

 may be prolonged by clipping it with a 

 mower 5 or 6 inches high sometime 

 before blooming. This starts a new 

 succulent growth that will afford pas- 

 ture much longer. The value of sweet 



KiG. B— Crownbeard 



KIOo.-KLOWAND LKAF OK YELLOW CROWNBEARD 



