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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. SO, 



clover. Now is your time to speak of it as a honey-plant, 

 after which I desire to emphasize its value as a forage-plant. 



Mr. Finch — The honey from it does not seem to be of first 

 quality. People do not like it. I had some at the State con- 

 vention at Springfield, and no one seemed really to like its 

 flavor. 



Mr. Baldridge — Was the honey light in color ? 



Mr. Finch — It was a light amber. 



Mr. Baldridge — That could not have been from sweet 

 clover. 



President — Likes differ. We must go by the general 

 taste. I have generally considered it to be very good in flavor. 



Mr. York — I have samples that were produced a few miles 

 from this room, that were very fine. The honey is light in 

 color, but it has a sort of greenish tinge. 



E. R. Root — Samples have been sent us at various times; 

 and while we do not consider it quite equal to white clover, we 

 call it a fine honey. It is light in color, though perhaps not 

 quite so light as first quality of white clover. The honey that 

 has been sent to us has come from a good many different 

 localities, but all the samples seem to be very much alike. 



Mr. Schrier — The honey is a little strong, and slightly 

 yellowish, but good. 



Mr. Baldridge — It is barely possible that your bees may 

 have been working on other plants. That would account for 

 the strong flavor and the dark color that you speak of. In 

 my locality, nothing else is in bloom at the same time as sweet 

 clover. The honey is both white and of fine flavor. 



President — Let us now turn our attention to sweet clover 

 as a forage-plant. 



Mr. Baldridge — I have something on that subject, and I 

 should like to read it. Sweet clover is grown for hay, for 

 pasturage, and for enriching the soil. One farmer has 100 

 acres old enough to bloom the present year. In November, 



1895, one of my sweet-clover correspondents in the State of 

 Mississippi, a wide-awake and progressive farmer, wrote me 

 substantially as follows : 



SWEET CLOVER IN MISSISSIPPI. 



"My farm contains 1,500 acres of land, and is all under 

 fence; 300 acres are in pasture, 150 acres being seeded to 

 common red clover, and 100 acres to sweet clover, the latter 

 being of this season's growth. I think my sweet clover is 

 almost a perfect stand. It will be old enough to bloom in 



1896. I have at this time 150 tons of sweet clover hay, all 

 undercover, and of this season's growth. My stock, both 

 horses and cattle, seem to be very fond of the sweet clover 

 hay, for they eat it as readily as that from the red variety. I 

 do not grow the Alsike clover. I have never seen Alsike tried 

 but once in my locality, and that was a complete failure, but I 

 think I must give it another trial. 



" I have kept, this season, 55 head of stock on 50 acres 

 of sweet clover as pasturage, and besides I have cut and saved 

 from it 50 tons of hay. My stock had all the pasture from 

 the sweet clover they could eat, and they are now very sleek 

 and fat. The plant makes such a rapid growth that 

 the stock and mowing-machine could not keep it back. Of 

 course, if I were to go into the Held and cut the sweet clover 

 all down at once, I might then use it up, but I simply cut 

 small plats at a time, so as to let the stock graze all the time. 



"I always cut sweet clover for hay, the second year, be- 

 fore it blooms, and when it is from 20 to 24 inches high. I 

 do not think it would make as good hay after it blooms, as I 

 fear it would then be too hard and woody. After it blooms I 

 make no special use of the crop except to save it for seed. 



" Sweet clover starts to grow very early in the spring — 

 much earlier than red clover — and makes a very rapid growth. 

 In fact, it is one of the earliest and most rapid-growing plants 

 that I am acquainted with. 



" I keep about 100 head of pure-bred Poland-China hogs, 

 and I find that sweet clover is a good plant in early spring for 

 hogs to graze upon ; and that it is ready for them to use be- 

 fore anything else as pasture. 



" I bave also a large herd of thoroughbred Jersey cattle 

 of both sexes ; I graze them also on sweet clover. When 

 given access to it in early spring, they soon become fond of the 

 plant, and will then keep fat upon it. 



" My horses do not seem to like sweet clover the second 

 year until after it begins to bloom ; they then eat the plant 

 with great relish. But the first year's growth of sweet clover 

 is the finest grazing-plant to fatten stock of any kind, that I 

 ever saw, and especially late in the fall, when all other plants 

 are gone. The plant is so hardy that it takes several severe 

 freezes to kill it down. 



"I sow from 8 to 10 pounds of seed, with the hulls on, to 

 the acre. I prefer to sow the seed alone, or without a nurse- 

 crop, and to sow it early in the spring or the latter part of 



winter. If the land is free from grass and weeds, it makes no 

 difference with me about its being plowed or the seed har- 

 rowed in ; still, in many cases, it may be better or safer to 

 harrow and cover the seed lightly. It may be sown on oat or 

 wheat stubble, if so desired, and with good results. If I first 

 plow the land I then harrow so as to make it as smooth as 

 possible before I sow the seed. Early seeding is very desirable 

 so as to catch the spring rains. This insures the early germina- 

 tion of the seed, and, of course, a rapid early growth of the 

 plants. After the roots once secure a foothold, sweet clover 

 will then withstand almost any summer's drouth. 



"There is perhaps no plant grown that will enrich badly 

 worn soils more rapidly than sweet clover. The roots are 

 large, and they go down to a great depth. The roots die and 

 rot, as a rule, as soon as a crop of seed matures, and then the 

 soil becomes filled with a large amount of decayed vegetable 

 matter. If the land be then plowed, and seeded to grain, or 

 planted to corn, an increased yield will surely be the result. 

 The cultivation of corn will destroy any plants that may 

 spring up from the seed of the sweet clover left on the ground. 

 When young, the sweet clover plants are thus very easily de- 

 stroyed. But by sowing oats, barley, wheat or rye, the sweet 

 clover plants will not, of course, be disturbed, and after the 

 crop is removed the land will usually be found nicely re-seeded, 

 which, with me, is very desirable. But if the sweet clover be 

 no longer desired, the land may be plowed up and seeded 

 again to a grain crop. 



"The growing of a crop of sweet clover until a crop of 

 seed matures seems to have about the same effect upon the 

 soil as tile-drainage. The roots, being long, and of large size, 

 when they die and rot, leave a multitude of holes in the soil, 

 and these act as drains for the surplus water." 



Mr. Baldridge — We have a farmer near the Peck Broth- 

 ers, who makes a business of cutting sweet clover and feeding 

 it to his hogs. The road commissioner of that vicinity wanted 

 him to destroy it ; but instead of doing this he made a con- 

 tract to pasture the highways. He hired a boy, and put on 

 35 cows, and cleaned up four miles of road. The cows ate 

 the sweet clover, and the milk was of finest quality. The ven- 

 ture was a paying one all around. The milk paid well, and he 

 was also paid under contract to pasture down the "noxious! 

 weed." But he has not been able to renew his contract since 



Mr. Wheeler — I sowed sweet clover along where wild 

 grass grew. About half of it came up. A neighbor wanted 

 me to cut it down, as he thought it was a noxious weed. The 

 horses refused to touch the wild hay or grass, but would eat 

 the sweet clover. The clover I used for feed, and the grass, 

 cut at the same time, was used for bedding. The horses form- 

 erly ate the wild grass. 



Some discussion here followed, showing that sweet clover 

 sometimes fails to grow in nice, mellow fields ; but it seems to 

 thrive well on waste lands, roadsides, and railway embank- 

 ments. The question was asked why it did not grow in the 

 fields, and yet would seem to thrive along the roadsides. The 

 suggestion was made that the trampiug-in of the horses and 

 wagons along the roadsides caused the seed to be thoroughly 

 covered. 



Mr. Thompson — In my greenhouse I sowed some sweet 

 clover in a box. It did not grow at all. The next spring I 

 threw it out ; and later on I saw a great bunch of sweet clover 

 growing where I had thrown out the box of earth containing 

 the sweet-clover seed. I came to the conclusion that the seed 

 and the soil would have to be frozen before it will take root 

 and grow. 



Mr. Schrier — Sweet clover will not stand low ground. 

 [Continued next week.] 



Back Numbers. — We have on hand a few back 

 numbers of the Bee Journal for 1895, which we will mail to 

 any one wishing them at 15 copies for 20 cents. They will all 

 be different dates, but we have no complete sets for the year. 

 Just send us 20 cents in stamps or silver, and we'll send you 

 15 copies. No doubt there are many new subscribers who 

 will be glad to take advantage of this offer. All new sub- 

 scriptions now begin with Jan. 1, 1896. 

 < » » 



Xlie Alsike Clover l,eaflet consists of 2 pages, 

 with illustrations, showing the value of Alsike clover, and 

 telling how to grow it. This Leaflet is just the thing to hand 

 to every farmer in your neighborhood. Send to the Bee Jour- 

 nal office for a quantity of them, and see that they are dis- 

 tributed where they will do the most good. Prices, postpaid, 

 are as follows : 50 for 25 cents ; 100 for 40 cents ; or 200 

 for 70 cents. 



