Feb. 22, 1906 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



161 



=\ 



Southern 

 * 33eebom -f 



Conducted by Louis H. Scholl. New Braunfels, Tex. 



Sweet Clover (Melilotus alba). 



For years I have been interested in the matter of grow- 

 ing sweet clover as a forage crop for bees. In many places 

 of the South there are dearths of honey, and long ones, 

 sometimes, and in some localities, between the spring and 

 fall flows, which are very serious, the bees sometimes starv- 

 ing during such dearths unless feeding is resorted to. There 

 are serious objections to having to feed at these times, too, 

 as unnecessary brood-rearing results, besides using up a 

 large quantity of food. A good many different methods 

 have been tried, but all are a great deal of trouble. If 

 enough stores are left in the hive after the spring flows to 

 last the bees through the dearth, it is all used up in breed- 

 ing, and before the dearth is over the stores are gone. A 

 practice that has worked quite well has been to save this 

 amount of stores in combs away from the bees. That is, to 

 keep combs of sealed honey from the spring flows stored 

 away in the honey-house. These combs are then given one 

 at a time at intervals during the dearth as needed. But this 

 takes an immense amount of labor, and trouble from the 

 •wax-moth to the stored combs is a serious one in our warm 



climates. Then, it is 

 often a hard matter 

 to give combs at the 

 right time without 

 stirring up robbing. 



After visiting some 

 of these localities, 

 , and consulting with 

 j bee-keepers there, I 

 have come to the con- 

 clusion that it is very 

 probable that this 

 trouble of tiding the 

 bees over these 

 dearths can be accom- 

 plished by planting 

 suitable forage crops 

 for them, that will 

 come into bloom and 

 yield nectar during 

 the time when noth- 

 ing else does. To 

 take this matter up 

 properly it was, of 

 course, necessary to 

 find when the spring 

 season closes and the 

 dearth begins, the 

 length of the dearth, 

 and the opening of 

 the fall season. This 

 differs somewhat in 

 different sections, 

 and in different 

 States of the South, 

 also depending very 

 largely upon the ex- 

 isting flora. For an 

 average, however, I 

 believe we would not 

 go amiss very far if 

 we take the following 

 dates : 



The spring flows or 

 season closes about 

 June 1. Then the 

 severer period for the 

 bees sets in, and there 

 is absolutely nothing for them to do. This lasts, in the cot- 

 ton-growing belt, until cotton begins to yield nectar— about 

 July IS to Aug. 1. From then on to frost cotton yields, 

 sometimes giving a good surplus. Fall flowers also yield, 

 especially if sufficient rains have prevailed. 



WHITE SWEET CLOVER. 



It will be seen from the foregoing that there is a period 

 of about two months of absolute idleness, and this during 

 the warmest part of the season when bees could be most 

 active. The bees do not realize the danger of starvation 

 ahead of them, and keep on breeding and use up all the 

 stores long before the dearth is over and cotton begins to 

 yield. 



In my calculations I found also that the blooming period 

 of sweet clover just covered the above gap. It begins 

 blooming about June 1 in most localities, a little earlier in 

 others and more protected situations, and depending also 

 upon the season and weather conditions. Yellow sweet 

 clover (M. officinalis) is said to be earlier than the white 

 variety, and I also got this information from M. A. Gill, of 

 Colorado, while visiting his apiaries, where I saw it in full 

 bloom. Either variety, however, would cover the period of 

 the dearth, as the melilotus blooms until frost in favorable 

 seasons, while it is in bloom during June, July and August 

 in others. 



Sweet clover grows well after it has a start, and waste- 

 places, even in the poorest soils, could be planted to such 

 forage crops for bees, 

 especially since there 

 are thousands upon 

 thousands of acres of 

 just such waste land 

 in our Southern 

 States. Our fence- 

 rows would be worth 

 thousands of dollars 

 to us if sweet clover 

 grew w h e r e rank 

 weeds of no use what- 

 ever to us grow now. 

 Besides, this would 

 create a yield of nec- 

 tar just at a time 

 when it would be 

 most valuable, and 

 when nothing else is 

 in bloom. 



Some people seem 

 to fear it as a noxious 

 weed, hard to kill out 

 of a field, and that it 

 spreads rapidly. This, 

 however, I find not 

 the case with all the 

 plots planted at our 

 Apiary Experimental 

 fields. A single plow- 

 ing killed it just as 

 easily as any of the 

 weeds that grew with 

 it, and there is little 

 danger of it spread- 

 ing out of bounds. 

 In fact, I could not 



get it to spread fast enough for me. The plant grows well 

 in most of our black land sections, and has been tried at 

 several places. I have seen it grow luxuriantly on dry, 

 doby hills, too. 



Sweet clover honey is good, quite light in color, and of 

 very good flavor. The bees work busily on the bloom from 

 early till late. 



This matter should be taken up and studied by our 

 Southern beekeepers. Our annual yield could be greatly 

 increased. 



Swebt CtovER as Forage for Stock. 



It has often been repeated that stock and cattle disliked 

 sweet clover, and that it was a worthless weed and not worth 

 anvthing as a forage crop. In this the people were evi- 

 dently mistaken or they "didn't know," for I have seen 

 animals eat it quite readily, both in pasture and as hay. 

 The following by J. A. Green, in Gleanings, is so well to 

 the point that I give it here ; he seems to be criticising Prof. 

 A. J. Cook for this same reason : 



" Prof. Cook's remarks on sweet clover, page 1121, should perhaps 

 teach me to have a little ebarlty. In my own experience, those who 

 have talked that way have generally been lacking in the faculty of 

 observation, and I have usually been able to show them that they were 

 mistaken. For instance, a cousin once came to visit us. The talk 

 turned upon sweet clover, and she said: ' But it is such a perfectly 

 worthless thing. Nothing will eat it.' I at once invited her out to 

 tbe barn, where her horse was eating sweet clover hay with a very 

 evident relish. He had never had any before, but he ate it greedily; 

 and after he was hitched up to go away he paid his respects to a 



YELLOW SWEET CLOVER. 



