1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



369 



THE BEE-MARKET IN BENNEKOM, HOLLAND. 



I am sending some views which maybe in- 

 teresting to the readers of Gleanings. They 

 are characteristic of the conservative Dutch 

 bee-keepers earnestly looking through their 

 old straw hives exhibited at the bee-market 

 in Bennckom, and of the country in general. 



Arnhem, Holland. 



ALSIKE HEADS THE LIST OF CLOVERS. 



Reported that it is Unsatisfactory as a 

 Hay Crop, and Injurious to Animals. 



BY J. L. BYER. 



Of all the nectar-secreting plants that are 

 cultivated, there is no question that alsike 

 heads the list. While we often see the val- 

 ue of this plant extolled in the journals, near- 

 ly always its value as a hay-producer is men- 

 tioned as an inducement to get farmers to 

 grow this prince of clovers. Living in a lo- 

 cality where alsike is grown almost exclu- 

 sively for its seed, naturally we often won- 

 der why it is not more recommended in this 

 line as a money-producer for the farmers. 

 Just here it is mteresting to note that, in a 

 locality where this clover has been grown 

 for over thirty years, to attempt to persuade 

 a farmer to grow alsike for hay would be to 

 meet with very poor encouragement, as it is 

 not liked for that purpose by the great ma- 

 jority of farmers. While a good many like 

 a small percentage of this clover along with 

 the red clover and timothy, yet they want 

 the percentage quite small if they can control 

 the matter. As a matter of fact, they can 

 not do that, as the clover has been grown 

 so long that most of the fields are seeded 

 down in good shape, and as a rule all the 

 meadows have a good percentage of alsike 

 mixed in without any of the seed being 



s own . As 

 most people 

 know, t n e 

 seed will lie 

 dormant in 

 the ground 

 for years, and 

 then spring 

 up when con- 

 d i t i o n s are 

 favorable. 



As to the 

 objections to 

 the clover for 

 hay, fancied 

 or otherwise, 

 the farmers 

 claim that it 

 is bitter; and 

 whetherthere 

 is any thing 

 in this detri- 

 mental to 

 stock or not, 

 a taste of the 

 clover will 

 prove that it 

 certainly is 

 bitter. For 

 pasture it is decidedly objected to, as the 

 claim is made that it poisons stock, caus- 

 ing a species of scrofula with running 

 sores over the animal affected. Naturally a 

 champion of the clover, I am bound to admit 

 that I have seen a number of these cases, of 

 which a few ended fatally, and in each case 

 the veterinarian diognosed the case as "al- 

 sike poisoning." A strange feature of this 

 complaint is that it is conceded that white- 

 nosed horses are more susceptible to this 

 poisoning than are other animals without 

 this facial mark; and while I have been dis- 

 posed to ridicule this assertion, yet I was 

 surprised a few days ago to see in so good 

 an authority as the Farmer's Advocate, where 

 a correspondent asked if there was any 

 thing in the idea, an admission, in effect, 

 that this was the generally accepted view. 

 However, if there is much in these adverse 

 opinions as to the value of alsike as a forage- 

 plant, the value of the seed crop is enough 

 to counterbalance these objections, and 

 more, if the acreage continued to be grown 

 each year is a fair criterion. 



.\s a money-making farm crop it certainly 

 heads the list for our locality, and this is the 

 case in many sections of Ontario at the pres- 

 ent time, which is a fortunate thing for the 

 bee-keepers, as it is the only source in many 

 places that we have for honey in any quan- 

 tity. My grandfather, an enthusiastic bee- 

 keeper, was one of the pioneers in the bus- 

 iness of alsike-growing for seed; and at 

 first, getting it for the honey alone, he had 

 the satisfaction of seeing hundreds of acres 

 grown near him each year for quite a long 

 time before he died. The price of the seed 

 has not been much under $5.00 a bushel for 

 many years, and for the past three seasons 

 it has run from $7.00 to $9.00 and even high- 

 er. The yield varies from three to ten 



