CLOVER CULTURE. 125 



It follows, therefore, that everything which favors the 

 increase of bumble-bees is of advantage to the clover grower,, 

 and it need not be said that their nests should be protected 

 instead of ruthlessly destroyed. It will also be seen, in view 

 of what has been said as to the ability of the honey bee te 

 fertilize red and mammoth clovers while gathering pollen if 

 not honey, that it will inure to the advantage of every farmer 

 to keep a few hives of bees, always selecting the Italians, a? 

 larger and the more industrious. In fact, while we have 

 seen the Italians and their crosses working on mammoth 

 clover year after year, we have very rarely seen the native or 

 black bee engaged in this useful work. It would be well 

 worth all the cost involved, if the Department of Agriculture 

 were to import some of the giant Asiatic bees for the purpose 

 of securing, by means of a cross on our native bees, a variety 

 with sufficient weight of body and length of tongue to enable 

 it to perform the office of the bumble-bee in fertilizing the 

 red and mammoth clovers. If the produce of these could be 

 again crossed with the stingless bee of South America, the 

 result would be what might well be called the ''granger's 

 bee," or the "clover grower's delight." 



VAs stated in Chapter III, the mammoth clover is too late 

 in maturing to furnish both a hay and a seed crop. The 

 seed, must, therefore, be taken from the first crop, as it is. 

 usually termed. It is desirable, however, to use some method 

 of getting rid of the lower twelve inches of the stalk on 

 account of the great bulk of the crop. Where it is possible,, 

 this should be pastured off. The stock may be allowed free 

 range of the field up to June 10th, in the latitude of central 

 Iowa, in ordinary seasons. It is better to let the crop be well 

 started and then put on enough stock to eat it down closety. 

 This will not only reduce the amount of haulm to be handled, 

 but also thicken up the stand by favoring branching. Some 

 farmers practice mowing about the 10th of June. This, 

 however, requires to be done with a good deal of sound judg- 

 ment, as sometimes the growth is so rank by this time that 

 there is danger, if rain should follow immediately, of the cut 

 clover smothering out the plant, or at least allowing the 

 weeds to get the advantage of the clover. 



Clover should be cut for seed with a reaper of some kind,, 

 when ripe, that is, when all the heads are turned brown or 

 black. The most convenient implement is the old-fashioned 

 self-raker. When this is not available some farmers use the 

 ordinary binder, removing the apparatus for binding the 

 sheaf and substituting the flax attachment. The cost for the 

 lax attachment is about five dollars. This is said to throw 



