JUNE 1, 1913 



395 



that sweet clover would not mature seed the first 

 year of growth. 



With the compliments of the season to yourself 

 and sweet clover, may you both " live long and 

 prosper." 



Taft, Fla., Dec. 13. I. A. Woelby. 



My friend, we are exceedingljf obliged 

 to .you; but I can hardly understand how it 

 is that on soil so near by, and so similar, 

 we liave had so many failures. When I first 

 came here T made a little piece of ground 

 very rich, and planted the alfalfa and sweet 

 clover side by side. The alfalfa came up 

 and grew quite rank; but the sweet clover, 

 although it did come up grew only a few 

 inches high and never amounted to any 

 thing. Since that, I and my neighbors 

 around here have tried sweet clover year 

 after year, and we have not been able to 

 get a stand even after the seed germinates. 

 A neighbor of mine tried liming the soil 

 very heavily, but with no better results. 



The writer of the above letter enclosed 

 the following newspaper clipping in regard 

 to sweet clover in Kansas: 



The discovery has lately been made that a plant 

 which grows in and around Kansas City with the 

 rankness of a weed can be turned into vast wealth. 

 The plant is sweet clover, which, heretofore, hag 

 been classified -with scores of volunteer plants as fit 

 for no good purpose. On vacant lots, in parkings, 

 in back yards, this plant grows luxuriously in Kan- 

 sas City, and perhaps is the most familiar of volun- 

 teer vegetation. Lately stockmen have discovered 

 that it is " pra&tically as good as alfalfa " as a food 

 for stock ; that it is drouth proof, and resists ex- 

 treme cold; and ranchmen and farmers in western 

 Kansas are beginning to plant it and reap great 

 profits from it. They are paying $10 a bushel for 

 the seed in western Kansas now. 



Recently E. G. Finnup, of Garden City. Kan., 

 thrashed nine hundred bushels of the seed, and ie 

 getting from $8 to |10 a blushel for it. 



Mr. Finnup recently said that sweet clover is just 

 as good as alfalfa for live stock; that it makes an 

 earlier pasture and a later pasture than alfalfa, and 

 does not bloat the cattle. It stands the dry weather 

 and the colder weather better than alfalfa ; and 

 where there is ground that is worn out it is the 

 best and cheapest known fertilizer to renew the soil. 

 The best results, Mr. Finnup said, came from fall 

 sowing. 



The Kansas State Agricultural College grew four 

 or five acres of sweet clover this year on the poor- 

 est land on the college farm, and it yielded three 

 tons to the acre. This was as large a yield as that 

 made by alfalfa grown on better soil. The agricul- 

 tural college endorses the statement that sweet clover 

 is more indigenous to Kansas soil than alfalfa, and 

 that it is one of the best of fertilizers. The college 

 is encouraging its growth in western Kansas. 



It is said that the principal objection to sweet 

 clover as a food for stock is that it has a bitter 

 taste ; but when cattle cultivate a taste for it they 

 begin to relish it. In planting, the preparation of 

 the ground is similar to that for alfalfa. About forty 

 pounds to the acre is the amount usually sown. 



The plant is an annual, or, in part, a biennial 

 - — -it may start one year and seed the second, when 

 it dies. In waste places it seeds itself, and the plant 

 is renewed from year to year. 



Many agricultural journals are discussing the 

 newly discovered sweet clover, and take the position 



that a new contribution has been made to agricul- 

 ture. 



Some of these journals say that experiments have 

 shown that there are objections to sweet clover as a 

 hog pasture. The roots of the plant appear to be 

 especially palatable to hogs, and their tendency is 

 to " root up " the sweet clover. Ringing helps con- 

 siderably in obviating this trouble. 



Many of the experts are encouraged to believe 

 that very soon this plant, which heretofore has been 

 scorned as a weed, may develop into a source of 

 great farm wealth in Kansas and States where for- 

 age crops are of big value. — Kansas City Star. 



THAT LUTHER BURBANkC?) "SOCIETY." 



We clii5 the following from the Rural 

 N ew-Y orker : 



The Luther Burbank Society is still working on 

 that devoted band of " 100 life members." Nearly 

 every day we hear from people who have been solic- 

 ited. The thing that nearly lands these friends is the 

 thought that they are fo be associated through life 

 with such people as Helen Gould and others of the 

 rich and great. There is a list of notables who have 

 already enlisted for life under the Burbank banner. 

 One of our people saw the name of John Wana- 

 maker in this list, so he wrote for further informa- 

 tion. This is what he received in reply: 



I regret to say tliat I do not know any thing- about the I.n- 

 ther Burbank Society in ciuestion, except what is printed, and 

 that I was elected an Ilonnrary Life Member, which did not 

 reiiuire any dues to be paid, and therefore I have not jiaid 

 any. Very truly. John Wanamaker. 



It is a good chance that all the other life members 

 e.\cept Mr. Luther Burbank would tell much the 

 same story. Our only comment is that it seems a 

 shame that public men will permit their reputations 

 to be cut up and used as '" sucker bait." These in- 

 vitations are going to a class of people who really 

 think they can help their business materially by as- 

 sociating as "life members" with these great men I 



IS IT TRUE THAT A " CLUCKING HEN " IS 

 JUST RIGHT FOR THE TABLE ? 



Tlie San Francisco Examiner has an arti- 

 cle to this effect. The writer says a cluck- 

 ing hen is always fat — in fact, that she 

 weighs a pound more than at any other 

 time, because she puts on flesh to prepare 

 for the long siege of sitting. It has also 

 been suggested that she will not lay any 

 more egg's for perhaps two or three weeks. 

 Now, I somewhat question whether the above 

 is true;' and I wish our poultry friends 

 would give their opinion in regard to the 

 matter. My experience seems to have been 

 that a clucking hen is generally a pretty 

 good layer. If she is broken up promptly 

 she will soon be laying ag-ain, and so on. 

 I have two Rhode Island Reds in my Flor- 

 ida home that commenced to lay when the 

 chicks were about three weeks old. One of 

 them never sat at all. I gave her a lot of 

 chicks from the incubator the very morning 

 she began to cluck. She took excellent care 

 of her chicks, and before they Avere quite 

 three weeks old she would excuse ( ?) herself 

 and go off and lay in a stolen nest. Si^n 

 did this for quite a spell, still taking excel- 



