768 



GLEANINGS IN BEE OULTUBK 



J. F. Kight and his grandson, who is his assistant in the apiary. 



ested in my bees, and printed a little letter 

 as follows : 



Dear Mr. Root: — My papa has bees that he got 

 from you. Viola Kight. 



In a few days she received a letter in 

 reply that she has never forgotten. The 

 little gandson in the enclosed picture is a 

 descendant of the writer of the above letter. 

 He is my heljjer. If I light the smoker and 

 hand it to him he will do the rest. 



Southport, Ind., July 23. 



SWEET CLOVER, BOTH WHITE AND YELLOW 



BY FRANK COVERDALE 



I am still testing out both alfalfa and 

 the different varieties of sweet clover side 

 by side. The yellow biennial differs some- 

 what from Melilotus alba — more particu- 

 larlj' in that it will not grow a cutting 

 of hay the first year, and ripens too early 

 the second season. Those two points pre- 

 vent me from growing this species to any 

 great extent on our farms. The white 

 kind makes two long seasons of splendid 

 pasture, and will, during the same period, 

 produce three times as much hay. Alba 

 has this season, under test, made three 

 heavy cuttings of hay, while the yellow 

 gave only one cutting and but little seed. 

 Alba will (and has this year) give one 

 cutting and a heavy crop of seed; and, by 

 the way, we are hulling our seed to-day, 

 Sept. 25; and that .which was mown for 

 hay, and cut later for seed, made a splen- 



did yield of excellent seed, running out so 

 fast that 125 bushels was run out in three- 

 fourths of the day. Next week we shall 

 make hay from seed of alba that was sown 

 April 5, and pastured to the ground till 

 June 1, then cut back on account of rag- 

 weeds, and it is now ready for over one 

 ton of hay per acre. Yellow will not do 

 this; still, I will make more experiments 

 with this variety. I have not yet tried it 

 out at the last plowing of the corn. 



I have a strong hope that this clover will 

 prove to be of vital importance as a plow- 

 under crop in time to put the field to corn. 

 Our tall, slender-growing white kind is 

 far superior as a general farm crop ; and 

 it is very important that a right type of 

 it be gi'own upon the farm. This has been 

 our experience. I had inquiry for upward 

 of 2V2 carloads of sweet-clover seed during 

 the past year, and received only two small 

 inquiries for the yellow; so I am com- 

 pelled to believe that the demand must 

 be limited. Our seed germinates as well 

 as any other clover here; but still I have 

 noticed that seed harvested too green has 

 failed to come up as it should. We have 

 learned to let our seed ripen well before 

 cutting. 



I am now writing a series of articles 

 for the Dakota Farmer, and hope to put 

 the things of impoi'tance before the farm- 

 ing community. I am now making some 

 scientific investigations, and will set forth 

 the proofs. Alba is the greatest storer 

 of nitrogen in the soil of any clover that 



