1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



161 



here. I have now alfalfa and sweet clover 

 growing fairly well under the inlluence of 

 "cow-chips" (see page 1605), and the fertil- 

 izers used here for trucking. 



In answer to many inquiries about the 

 price of labor and chance of getting work, 

 etc., I would say good faithful and able-bod- 

 ied laborers get $1 50 per day, 10 hours. Ex- 

 pert carpenters get $3.00 for 8 hours; masons, 

 $4.00 for 8 hours; painters, $2.25 to $2 50. 

 Now, I want to tell you frankly that quite a 

 few northern people come down here and 

 get disappointed in regard to work and 

 wages. Many are too old to do a good day's 

 work; others have worked a little at the car- 

 penter business, etc. To get $8 00 for 8 hours 

 a man must be up to the times in his busi- 

 ness, and he must "make the work fly" for 

 the full eight hours. As a rule you can't do 

 anything down here until you have learned 

 how, and you must be bright enough to keep 

 your eyes open and see whether you are do- 

 ing as much as the people you are working 

 with who get the same pay. 



In regard to the locality for health, I think 

 it a splendid place to spend the winter, es- 

 pecially for invalids and old people. The 

 carpenter who builds our house said the 

 doctors told him three years ago, in the 

 North, that he could not live until spring, as 

 his lungs were so badly gone. He now works 

 right along, winter and summer. I think I 

 will close with a letter from our old friend 

 M. H. Hunt, one of the leading bee-keepers 

 of Michigan, whom most of the bee-keepers 

 know. 



Dear Mr. Boot;— I have just received Gleanings, 

 and find in it you are south for the winter, and, of 

 course, you have to garden a little. Myself, wife, and 

 daughter have been here a month. I too have a gar- 

 den, and it is lool?ing fine. I have in onions, beets, 

 turnips, radishes, lettuce, mustard, parsley, and cu- 

 cumbers, besides some flowers. I suffer while north 

 with stomach trouble, but I am always over it within 

 ten days after landing here. I can eat any thing here 

 without trouble afterward. I expect to remain south 

 until the first of May. I went home last year the lat- 

 ter part of March, and made a mistake by so doing. 



I have the use of a nice gasoline-launch and other 

 boats, and enjoy the boating and fishing very much. 

 I caught a fish last Saturday that weighed 18 pounds. 

 The town of Crystal River is seven miles from the 

 Gulf, which we visit two or three times a week. We 

 take the ladies along and have dinner on an island 

 where my friend Mr. Baum owns a house for the pur- 

 pose. I have been to Bradentown several times, and 

 think it about as nice as any town in the State. I 

 know a gardener half a mile out by the name of Her- 

 man Crandall He went there from npar our home in 

 Michigan. Four of my friends in Michigan will join 

 me here next Thursday, and on the 9th of next month 

 two more; and later on I expect more. 



It is a wonder to me that more people do not spend 

 the winters south. The beautiful sunshine and the 

 warmth, with the continual growth of vegetables, etc., 

 are very attractive to me— no more snow and icicles 

 for me as long as I am able to make the trip. If you 

 can get lime and put on your new ground it will 

 sweeten it, and stufl will grow much better. My gar- 

 den is an old mule-pen, and as rich as you could imag- 

 ine. M. H. Hunt. 



Crystal River, Fla., Dec. 30. 



My 26 Leghorn pullets that I raised last 

 winter (one fourth game, you remember), 

 are doing finely; and with eggs still at 35 

 cts, they pay their way very well. I shall 

 have a "chicken story" for the younger 

 readers of Gleanings soon. 



SWEET CLOVER FOR PASTURE; SOME IMPOR- 

 TANT TESTIJIONY IN REGARD 

 TO ITS VALUE. 



Professor Thorne, of our Ohio Experiment 

 Station, has called our attention to an ex- 

 ceedingly valuable article on sweet clover, 

 which is clipped from Wallace''s Farmer. 

 Perhaps I should explain that the Wallaces, 

 editors of the journal named, of Des Moines, 

 Iowa, are about as good authority on all the 

 clovers, perhaps, as any people living. Below 

 is the extract: 



Mr. Frank Coverdale, of Jackson Co., Iowa, has for 

 some time been advocating through the press and at 

 farmers' institutes the use of sweet clover {Melilotus 

 alha) as'a pasture grass. Many regard sweet clover 

 as a vile weed growing unsown by the roadside, and 

 we are often asked how to get rid of it. Therefore it 

 has surprised many farmers that any farmer should 

 advocate its cultivation. Mr. Coverdale, however, is 

 not the first one to advocate it. As much as twenty 

 years ago a farmer in Madison Co. was a stanch advo- 

 cate of this plant, using it both for meadow and pas- 

 ture. We once visited his farm and asked him if he 

 did not have difflculty in getting cattle to eat it. He 

 replied, " Not when they once become accustomed to 

 it." In order to find out what there is in this thing 

 we sent Mr. Coverdale the following questions : 



1. How many acres do you have in sweet clover? 



2. How long have you made a practice of pasturing 

 sweet clover? 



3. Do you have any trouble in getting your cattle to 

 eat sweet clover? 



4 When do you turn them on it in the spring? 



5. Will they eat it after it has grown up a foot to 

 eighteen inches? 



6. Will cattle which have not been on sweet clover, 

 and practically starved to it in the beginning, eat it? 



7. Is your sweet-clover pasture entirely swe«t clo- 

 ver, or do you grow other grasses with it? 



8 How long can you keep a field in sweet clover 

 when you follow the practice of pasturing it closely, 

 and not permitting it to bloom and seed? 



9. Where do you get sweet-clover seed? and how 

 much do you pay for it? 



10. How do you seed it to make a pasture? and how 

 much seed do you sow per acre? 



11. How many steers will a forty-acre sweet-clover 

 pasture carry through the grazing season? 



12. Are any of your neighbors sowing sweet clover 

 for pasture? 



In answering the above, Mr. Coverdale has some- 

 times grouped two or three questions together ; but 

 his answer gives a clear statement of his experience 

 as follows: 



1 and 2. I have pastured 35 acres for 4 years ; have 

 also sown small patches here and there in an experi- 

 mental way. This field was sown to timothy and 

 sweet clover except a little strip of alsike, which is 

 now nearly gone, and it is now a thick mass of sweet 

 clover and timothy with blue grass coming in. 



3 and 7. My cattle make no choice between this and 

 other grasses. All are eaten with equal relish, as 

 you will see from the photograph of my cattle in the 

 pasture, sent you herewith. Timothy grows with it. 

 also a little alsike and blue grass, and it is all eaten 

 together. 



4. I have always turned cattle on in the early spring, 

 as this clover is a week earlier than the other clovers. 



5 and 6. Cattle turned into a field of the clover a 

 foot high act as steers do that are brought from the 

 range and introduced to a trough of corn. At first 

 they will not eat it; but they soon catch on, and thrive 

 on it. My cattle never refuse to eat sweet clover. If 

 the plants become old and woody they will browse on 

 the tops or any part of it that remains green. 



8. If a field of sweet clover is pastured close to the 

 ground, three years will finish it. One man here 

 turned too many cows on a small plot of it, and it is 

 seriously injured; whereas it ought to grow better 

 year after year. I sold one man enough seed to seed 

 asm?ll field for hogs, and they have completely de- 

 stroyed it. He has simply put on too many hogs for 

 the pasture. Another man had a small hog-lot of old 

 plants started, and by the first of June it was eaten 

 out root and branch. 



9 I purchased my seed in Chicago at a cost of $9.00 

 per 100 lbs. I think it is found most generally in the 

 Southern States. 



