SEMPTEMBER 15, 1912 



that the books are all gone but two or three 

 hundred; and at the rate they are now 

 called for they will all be gone before we 

 can get another edition printed. What do 

 you suppose is the reason? Simj^ly this: 

 The whole wide world is just waking up 

 to the fact that the plant that many of 

 us stupidly called a "noxious weed" has 

 proved to be not only a valuable legume, 

 but possibly the most valuable, all things 

 considered, not even excepting alfalfa. The 

 particular reason why it was called a 

 noxious weed is because it is somewhat 

 bitter in taste, with a peculiar odor. Domes- 

 tic animals have to acquire the habit before 

 they recognize it as a great nourishing 

 food. Another thing, we have been blun- 

 dering in the dark in our attempts to grow 

 it as we gTow other clovers. The recent 

 discovery that it wants lime, and must have 

 it, to produce the best results, has given 

 it a great boom. We have been buying 

 and selling the seed by the carload; but 

 at the present time, Sept. 1, we are running 

 short of a supply again. 



A few days ago I visited Mr. H. T. 

 Lane, of Twinsburg, 0. Friend Lane is 

 a sweet-clover crank. In fact, he told me 

 he had invested over $150 in hard cash 

 during the last year for sweet-clover seed. 

 He has been sowing it in different ways, 

 and in different fields of something near 

 20 acres, although he has not secured a 

 real good stand on much more than half 

 that area. For instance, where it grew 

 with tremendous luxuriance when sown 

 with a field of barley on a low mucky 

 soil, on a high gravelly hill it did not 

 seem to do much if any thing unless he 

 used either lime or a dressing of stable 

 manure. A load or two of stable manure 

 on a dry hilly knoll gave a luxuriant 

 growth — some of it seven to eight and even 

 nine feet high. Well, a good dressing of 

 lime did almost as well as the stable 

 manure. But when you have both lime and 

 stable manure, then you have the ideal con- 

 ditions for a stand of sweet clover. Where 

 neither lime nor stable manure was used 

 in many spots of ground there was no 

 sweet clover, and almost nothing else for 

 that matter, except a few stunted weeds. 

 Mr. Lane agreed with me that he has been 

 using too heavy a seeding. For instance, 

 friend Wing, one of our best authorities, 

 recommends 20 lbs. to the acre. Now, if 

 every seed should gi'ow, or even half of 

 them, and the ground was limed or 

 manured, 5 lbs. would be ample; and if 

 you could have a stand of sweet clover 

 with one stalk on every square foot, and 

 soil that suits the legume, this one plant 

 would probably give us more seed and 



607 



feed than any heavier seeding. See what 

 is said elsewhere about transplanting alfal- 

 fa, page 568, Sept. 1. 



Mr. Lane has toward a hundred colonies 

 of bees; therefore the 20 acres of sweet 

 clover do not make much of a show for 

 each colony, although it keeps them rais- 

 ing brood, and helps to fill up with winter 

 stores. As yet he has not got very much 

 back for his investment of $150. He said 

 he had fed out a small stack of sweet clover 

 mixed with some other grasses, and he 

 added that his horses and cattle eat it with 

 avidity, but he could not as yet decide how 

 much it is worth for hay compared with 

 other clovers. As he has quite a crop of 

 sweet-clover seed to harvest, he will get 

 some money for that, aside from the honey 

 and the feed for his cattle. Perhaps I 

 might add that friend Lane is in the great 

 sugar belt of Northeastern Ohio. He has 

 some of the finest maple trees I ever saw 

 anywhere ; and as he has toward a thousand 

 sap-buckets he must have 500 or more 

 sugar maples in his camp. He has a story 

 to tell in regard to one of his finest and 

 largest maple trees. It is a good match for 

 my colony of Italians that gathered a bar- 

 rel of honey during one summer. Well, 

 this maple tree was tapped on three sides, 

 each side having a six-gallon pail. Du- 

 ring his best sugar day, in one of his best 

 seasons, that tree filled all three of those 

 six-gallon pails in one day. Now, if the 

 sap continued to run all night, as it often 

 does, that tree must have given a barrel of 

 nice sap in 24 hours. I asked him if he 

 had any syrup or sugar left. He said it 

 was all sold at a good price. You see this 

 great grove of maples is also a valuable ad- 

 junct to the bees. The trees must furnish a 

 large amount of honey and pollen when in 

 full bloom. His good mother, who still 

 keeps house for him, is 83 years old; and 

 she told me she was still reading my de- 

 partment in Gleanings, and expected to 

 continue to read it with interest as long as 

 we both live. I believe she still keeps 

 house for her son without any assistance 

 from any of the younger folks; and she 

 is certainly very bright and active for a 

 woman of her age. 



PLANTING BASSWOOD TREES FOR HONEY, ETC. 



In a late issue of your magazine I note what 

 you say about your great yield of basswood. Hav- 

 ing in mind a few acres of land which I could 

 purchase, I beg leave to ask a few questions. 



Would you consider soil lying on the western 

 side of a low ridge or mountain a suitable place 

 for basswood? The soil is of a sandy nature, and, 

 I would say, below the average in fertility. 



Do you mean to say in your editorial that bass- 

 wood trees must be 40 years old before they yield 

 nectar? At what age do they begin to blossom and 

 yield? Do you know of any government bulletins 

 on basswood trees ? 



Henrietta, Pa., Aug. 10. V. ROSS Nicodemus. 



