41 



when you were putting it into another hive? 



MR. NICHOLS. I would divide about even. 



MR. COPELAND. Perhaps you can give us some in- 

 formation in regard to alsike. 



MR. NICHOLS. In regard to clover, I will say that we 

 had an old, worn-out piece of land that was worth worse 

 than nothing to us, because we had to put a cow into it and 

 we had the trouble of putting her out there in the morning 

 and then going and geting her in the evening, and we could 

 have kept her in the yard, which would have been just as 

 valuable. We plowed that land and gave it a good, thor- 

 ough cultivation and then started it to clover. We used 

 sweet colver there, and in the first place we put oh a good 

 application of lime and used chemicals, basic slag, nitrate of 

 soda and potash. When this clover was growing, the best 

 part of the plot, in the low land, was 6 feet and 5 inches 

 tall. It affored a good cover crop for the l^nd, and, as most 

 of you know, it takes its nitrogen from the air, and it 

 brought the land up very quickly. Now, we let it grow un- 

 til it was nearly through blossoming. It begins to blossom 

 early and lasts a long while if it is allowed to stand until 

 the bees get through working it. So we had a double crop 

 — used it as a cover crop and got the honey too. In regard 

 to other kinds, I don't know how it would work. I thiuk 

 that if it were to be used for feed, the farmer would proba- 

 bly cut it before it blossomed. 



MR. WINSOR OF RHODE ISLAND. What do you 

 mean by sweet clover ? Is it a different variety from alsike ? 



MR. NICHOLS. Well, I see Professor Brooks here in 

 the audience, who is one of the best informed men in the 

 country, and he will no doubt be glad to answer that. 



PROFESSOR BROOKS. The sweet clover is really not 

 a clover at all. It is closely related to alfalfa. It is not so 

 valuable for silage or hay as the true clover, although there 

 are many who say it is not very difficult to teach stock to 

 eat it. It has, however, a strong, pungent odor which, at 

 first at least, repels the animals; they don't like it. As Mr. 

 Nichols has said, it grows to be six feet tall; it is thick 

 stemmed and pretty woody when matured. It is a valuable 

 plant for soil improvement or for a cover crop, for renovat- 

 ing comparatively unfertile soil, and a very valuable crop 



