APUIT- 15, 1915 



319 



position tliat they occupy, but is just a 

 pose that tliey assumed for the occasion, tlie 

 reason being that I could not get them all 

 in the picture when the hives remained in 

 the position they regularly occupy. So I 

 moved them up together so that they could 

 have their pictures taken and all appear in 

 one family group. 



As to the coming season, I have decided 

 (that is, for the jiresent at least) that 1 will 

 increase from the three colonies to si.x, and 

 have been debating in my own mind from 

 which colony to rear queens for the in- 

 crease, and have about decided that they 

 shall be from the old queen. While it is 

 true that, at tlie time of writing this, the 



old queen has produced no surplus honey 

 for a period of two months, and that one of 

 her daug-hters has been doing good work 

 during all that time, the question still re- 

 mains in my own mind whether the mother 

 is not more apt to produce queens the equal 

 of this daughter than is the daughter to 

 produce queens of her own equal. I will 

 state, though, that I am still open to con- 

 viction; and if some of the wiseacres ca)i 

 eon\ance me that I have better chances of 

 obtaining queens of the desired quality 

 from the exceptional daughter than from 

 the mother, I am ready to change my con- 

 templated procedure. 



SWrET CLOVER ON PEATY S' 



Two Good Crops the M st Year 



AMP SOIL 



the Seed 



BY HENRY STEWART 



For a number of j'ears I have been pro- 

 ducing sweot clover mainly on peaty swamp 

 soil. Those familiar with this soil knoAV 

 that it is usually very deficient in potash, is 

 vcrj' loose, and ill adapted to raising other 

 crops; but we have here no soil on which 

 sweet clover does better. In February last, 

 Stewart & Hansen seeded fifteen acres to 

 white sweet clover. The soil was very loose 

 and ashj-, and some of it so deficient in 

 potash as to produce no corn without fei*- 

 tiliziug. This' seeding was done on oat 

 stubble by simply scattering fifteen pounds 

 of unhuUed seed per acre on the snow — no 

 inoculation, no fertilizei-s, nothing — only 

 scattering the seed. The stand was perfect. 

 Tlie soil on four acres of the fifteen was 

 extremely loose and ash}-. On this section 

 during the severe drouth in May and June 

 the plants suffered severely. The first cut- 

 ting was merely clipped to destroy the 

 weeds, and left on the ground. The rest, 

 when out July 13, was a heavy stand and 

 stood from twenty to thirty inches high. 

 When the second cutting was made, Sep- 

 tember 20, the plants on the loose section 

 had developed their roots and were thrifty, 

 and yielded a fair growth of choice hay. 

 On the rest of the field tliere was a growth 

 even larger than the first cutting; in fact, 

 it was too large. It was tlie mistake we 

 made with each cutting in letting the growth 

 get too large and begin to become woody. 

 The first cutting should have been made as 

 early as July 1. the second in August, and 

 the third in October, and we would have 

 secured a better quality of hay and a larger 

 tonnage. 



I have been seeding sweet clover with 



oats on this loose ashy soil for a number of 

 years. It does not always secure a perfect 

 stand, but it always produces much elegant 

 fall feed; and with a good stand and fa- 

 vorable weather conditions it frequently 

 affords a good cutting of hay. When the 

 roots are fully developed on this loose soil, 

 nothing will beat the rapidity of its growth. 

 Many fully developed stalks will attain a 

 height of ten feet. 



Our peaty loam ranges from two to six 

 feet deep with a clay subsoil; and, as is 

 always the case under peaty loam, this 

 subsoil is very rich in potash. I may be 

 wrong in my conclusions; but it is very 

 clear to me that the reason why sweet clover 

 can thrive and make such a w'onderful 

 gTowth on this peaty soil on which other 

 plants fail is owing to its deep root system. 

 While surface rooting plants are famishing 

 on this loose soil for want of nourishment 

 and moisture, sweet clover with its deep 

 roots is thriving on an abundant supply far 

 below the reach of the roots of other plants. 

 The root system of sweet clover is enormous. 

 There i)robably is no field-crop plant that 

 will send its roots so deep and so complete- 

 ly fill the ground with roots as will sweet 

 clover. This whole root system dies the 

 second year of the plant's life, and goes 

 back into decay. If it is true that this root 

 system is built up from potash secured 

 from the subsoil, and from nitrogen secur- 

 ed from the air, then the decay of these 

 roots must not only add nitrogen but must 

 also add potash and other mineral elements 

 as well, and will materially help the soil to 

 farm out and become better, as soil experts 



