1%9 



(H.KANlXGS IN IJEE CULTURE. 



1-^9 



retuiiieJ per acre will exceed ihat o1 any other 

 crop. 



Twelve or fifteen years ago, in this immediate 

 vicinity a few farmers began adding one quart of 

 alsike-clover seed, for each acre to be sown, to 

 the mixture of red-clover and timothy seed. This 

 practice proved so satisfactory that it has been 

 adopted by all the farmers throughout this sec- 

 tion of Michigan, where hay is one of the most 

 important crops. 



The practice usually followed is to take four 

 quarts each of red-clover and timothy seed, and 

 one cjuart of alsike-clover seed; mix them togeth- 

 er, and sow with a nurse crop of wheat, rye, oats, 

 or barley, in the spring; then run a smoothing- 

 harrow over the ground. 



The quart of alsike-clover seed thus sown to 

 the acre with the red clover and timothy will 

 show with the red clover; and in wet places, 

 where the red clover will not live, it will grow if 

 the ground is not covered with water for several 

 weeks at a time. After the first year the timothy 

 makes tlie crop which is cut for two or more suc- 

 ceeding years, and the alsike clover will grow all 

 this time, filling the bottom and improving the 

 quality of the hay. 



This amount does not impair the selling value 

 of timothy hay, as it is not dusty or black, like 

 the ordinary red clover Timothy hay, which 

 would pass as No. 1 without it, will pass as No. 

 1 with it if no larger quantities of seed than I 

 have stated are sown to the acre. 



One year taken with another, this is the most 

 profitable plan for growing alsike clover. By 

 sowing this amount of seed the average yield of 

 hay per acie will be increased at least 25 per cent, 

 as it will grow in low and wet places, and where 

 the timothy is thin. It will last in the ground 

 as long las the timothy, improving the value of 

 the hay as feed, and furnish pasture for the bees, 

 thus increasing the amount of money returned 

 by the crop, and improving the mechanical con- 

 dition of the soil. 



Those who are trying to encourage its culture 

 in their neighborhood should recommend this 

 plan, especially if they are furnishing the seed, 

 and they will be justified in recommending it, be- 

 cause it is not the theory or experience of only 

 one man, but the practice of thousands of practi- 

 cal farmers One experiment will convince any 

 good farmer of its value, and the future crops 

 will be taken care of by them after that. 



Where alsike clover is generally grown, its 

 value to bee-keepers can hardly be overestimated. 

 It blooms fully one week earlier than the white 

 clover, and lasts as long. Being grown upon 

 cultivated soil it yields more nectar than the 

 white clover grown by the roadsides and in the 

 pastures; and in years of severe drouth, like 1908, 

 where the white clover is undoubtedly injured to 

 an extent that it will not produce a crop of hon- 

 ey the following year, the alsike clover in the old 

 meadows will come through in good condition 

 and produce its usual crop. 



Flint, Michigan. 



[We have been and are making it a practice to 

 furnish alsike-clover seed free where it is to be 

 sown in cultivated soil within '^ mile of our 

 apiaries. For all distances more remote, and 

 within one mile, we furnish it at half the market 

 price. By pursuing this policy we have greatly 



increased the acreage of this valuable forage-plant 

 for bees; and as the years go on this acieage on 

 cultivated land will be increased by the self-sow- 

 ing that is bound to take place along the roads 

 and fences. 



We find that there are fields in our locality 

 where there has been no sowing of alsike for the 

 last ten years; yet the plants from constant self- 

 sowing are scattered all over. It comes up in 

 timothy fields and pastures, and it is this self- 

 sowing that justifies the policy of furnishing seed 

 free and at half price for a few years until alsike 

 is as abundant as white clover. 



A comparatively poor locality can in this way 

 be made a very good one. The local farmers 

 come to see the value of the plant from their own 

 standpoint; and in time, without encouragement, 

 put it in with their timothy. 



If we can get farmers educated to doing this, 

 our location east of the Mississippi will become 

 immensely more profitable and certain; for it is a 

 well-known fact that some seasons, when white 

 clover fails, alsike makes up for the deficiency. 

 When both alsike and white clover yield, the 

 season is called a "hummer." — Ed.] 



SHIPPING HONEY SIGHT DRAFT 

 WITH BILL OF LADING AT- 

 TACHED. 



BY LOUIS SCHOLL. 



An interesting editorial that, on p. 72. While 

 sending honey in carloads, c. o. d , may be far 

 from satisfactory, it should not discourage the 

 shipper who sends out his honey in small lots 

 from doing so. F"rom an experience of many 

 years in shipping honey in less than carload lots 

 we have made it a custom to make all shipments 

 sight draft, bill of lading attached, subject to ex- 

 amination. We have found that this is the ofi/y 

 absolutely safe way for us. Consequently we 

 have made it our m/e from this season on to do 

 business in this and no other way, with very few 

 exceptions. We have had to do this because we 

 have been disappointed a few times, not so much 

 by people whom we did not know, but by several 

 whom we trusted as old-time friends. In the 

 last two seasons' shipments we lost only two ac- 

 counts for honey, and both from old friends and 

 bee-keepers, just because we trusted them with 

 open shipments. 



It is an easy matter to guard yourself against 

 the loss of your honey shipments by the c. o. d. 

 way. We write out all of our bills of lading 

 and sight drafts, ship our honey, sign the bills, 

 and bring them to the bank. If the honey is re- 

 fused for some reason, which is seldom, the bills 

 are returned by the banks; and using the bills of 

 lading leturned, the refused honey is reshipped 

 to another point, generally near the place where 

 it wns refused. This saves having the honey re- 

 turned, and we do not lose ownership of it until 

 the honey has been paid for at the bank, which 

 must ibe donelbefore the shipper's order bill of 

 lading can be obtained. 



New Braunfels, Texas. 



[For small shipments the C. O D. plan is all 

 rjght. — Ed.] 



