218 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



prayers, and listens to our troubles and gives 

 us relief, and relief in a way that will bene- 

 fit and bless our fellow-men and not do 

 them harm. 



I have recently been reading in the papers 

 the contest we are having in Ohio in regard 

 to the liquor business. I have been amazed 

 to see the way in which the daily papers 

 treat the,matter. I have such papers from 

 different parts of our nation in our Southern 

 home, and I am interested in noting the 

 way in which they make reports. A great 

 part of them seem to report the progress of 

 temperance and intemperance as they would 

 report the progress of the different political 

 parties. Let us look at it a minute. The 

 Anti-saloon League, in which I am and al- 

 ways will be interested, works for the good 

 of humanity in spending its money and its 

 means in benefiting and lending a helping 

 hand to children and mothers, and all who 

 need that kind of help. The competing 

 parties in the contest are the liquor men, 

 who have no interest at stake except the in- 

 terest of making money — nothing to urge in 

 the way of an uplift to humanity. The 

 strongest argument they can bring to bear 

 is that, if the liquor traffic is outlawed, hun- 

 dreds and perhaps thousands will be thrown 

 out of employment — that is, employment 

 in the breweries and the distilleries. In 

 view of all this I am positively amazed to 

 think that so many counties in Ohio have, 

 after having tried prohibition for a term of 

 two or three years, gone back and voted the 

 county "wet." It seems incredible that it 

 can be a fair and honest vote. It could not 

 be if the wives and mothers had a hand in 

 deciding the matter. May God grant that 

 they will soon have a hand. What for? 

 That " whosoever drinketh of the water that 

 I shall give him shall never thirst." 



The Chicago Advance recently had an ed- 

 itorial in regard to melancholia*, and they 

 seemed to treat it as one of the unprevent- 

 able and incurable diseases. I was surpris- 

 ed that they did not suggest that the one 

 afflicted with melancholia should get busy 

 (to use the slang expression) in working for 

 humanity and spreading the Gospel of Je- 

 sus Christ in furnishing to humanity its 

 living water that always refreshes and bene- 

 fits and that does no harm. They ended 

 their editorial by recommending that the 

 best relief for melancholia is to get busy 

 and keep busy, and this I can most hearti- 

 ly endorse. The past winter has been one 

 of the busiest I ever passed in my life. Dur- 

 ing the past few days it seemed as though I 

 had not a single minute, and sometimes 

 hardly a second, to spare or to waste. 



* My good friend, it is ain to Indulge in melan- 

 cholia — a grievous sin. It is an Insult to the great 

 loving Fatlier who gave you a human life to live. 

 lie who drinks of that " life-giving fountain '" men- 

 tioned in our text will find himself too bvisy in 

 passing it on to a famishing and thirsting world to 

 have time tor such thoughts. It is the outcome of 

 selfish indolence. I know, for I have been there. 

 Say, "Get thee behind me, Satan," and then "get 

 busy." Melancholia is the "stepping-stone'' to 

 the terrible " suicide mania." 



SWEET CLOVER, AN UP-TO-DATE REPORT. 



A field of forty acres on our Kentucky farm has 

 been sown to sweet clover, the past season being 

 the second after sowing. During the blossoming 

 period, which lasted from the middle of June until 

 the middle of August, the field was covered with 

 honeybees. 



Sweet clover Is a legume. Practically the same 

 bacteria live on its roots that live on the plant- 

 roots of alfalfa^jJSgrae people will say alfalfa is so 

 much better tfiftfT^weet clover, why not plant it? 

 How do they know 11 they have never planted sweet 

 clover? We first used sweet clover as an inocula- 

 tor for alfalfa. The oacteria developed much faster 

 in the soil sov n to sweet clover, than that sown to 

 alfalfa. 1 have noticed that the plants of sweet 

 clover do not depend on artificial inoculation or 

 fertilization as does the alfalfa-plant. Another ad- 

 vantage is that seeding may be later. The seeding 

 of sweet clover may occur with us any time after 

 the first of October up until the first of December. 

 We have the entire season for the maturing of 

 other crops before having to remove them for pre- 

 paring the land for seeding. 



MAKING SWEET CLOVER GROW. 



On land where the following crops are grown— 

 corn, tobacco, potatoes, or tomatoes — all that is re- 

 quired In preparing the soil for seeding is a deep 

 disking with a sharp disk harrow, and a complete 

 working with the float or plank drag. This levels 

 and firms the soil without making It too compact: 

 and when the seed is sown and lightly harrowed in 

 with a sharp-toothed drag harrow that leaves small 

 ridges and furrows, the soil crumbles around the 

 small plants during the winter and early spring, 

 which starts them off before other vegetation has 

 made its appearance. 



To sow as a soil-restorer, on old fields that are 

 badly gullied, there is no preparation required. 

 The seed is sown broadcast, about 25 pounds per 

 acre, any time during the fall, winter, or spring. 



The seed of sweet clover should be sown thinly 

 on old and tired fields, then the stalks will be large 

 and branching, bearing much seed and quickly re- 

 seeding the field. The brushy stalks may be cut 

 and placed In the small washes, which they stop 

 by catching the silt and small trash that would 

 otherwise be washed away and lost. 



A description of the sweet-clover roots will show 

 that they are a high-class fertilizer. Unlike the 

 roots of other leguminous plants, those of sweet 

 clover are somewhat fleshy and not fibrous. Dur- 

 ing the first year the roots reach far into the ground 

 and draw up from considerable depth an abun- 

 dance of plant-food, which they store up for the 

 second year's growth. On the death of the plant, 

 at the close of the second year, the fleshy roots de- 

 cay more rapidly than the fibrous roots, and their 

 nitrogen. becomes more readily available for other 

 crops. 



PREPARES THE LAND FOR ALFALFA. 



We think sweet clover is one of the finest things 

 in use to prepare the land for alfalfa. Sow to sweet 

 clover for one year: break the land, turning under 

 the young growth the second spring about the first 

 of May, and cultivate until ready to seed to alfalfa. 

 The germs of bacteria will increase rapidly, and 

 the soil will be filled so full that the alfalfa-plants 

 will grow right off and make two or more cuttings 

 the first year after sowing in the early fall. Asa 

 soiling crop. It Is right up to the front. Combined 

 with bluegrass. it makes one of the finest pastures 

 known to stockmen. Unlike alfalfa, It improves 

 by being pastured; yet again, like alfalfa, the stock 

 have to become accustomed to it before they will 

 eat It with a relish. But when once they have 

 learned to eat It they prefer it to all other grasses. 



As a pasture for hogs, the chief difficulty lies in 

 the fact that the hogs want the roots as well as the 

 tops. They eat the grass readily from the first, 

 seeming to like its peculiar flavor, and are also 

 fond of the hay, eating it more readily than that of 

 red clover. One of its many good qualities is that 

 cattle may be fed exclusively on sweet clover, and 

 under the conditions most favorable to bloating 

 without any danger from this trouble. The prin- 

 ciple which gives it its bitter taste efTectively pre- 

 vents the fermentation that results in bloating. 



I believe that every farmer who owns hill land 

 not suitable for alfalfa should give sweet clover a 

 trial. Then, after a few years, when sweet clover 

 has made good, alfalfa will be the next in order.— 

 Farm and Firemle. J. W. Griffin. 



