1899.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 63 



or early in August, it will afl*()rd winter protection to the 

 soil and furnish a large growth l)efore late corn planting 

 time, it seems worthy of further trial. 



Value for Bees. 

 As is known to many, this clover furnishes an abundant 

 and long-continued supply of honey. For many weeks the 

 plants in our plots were daily visited by countless myriad 

 bees, and the rate of honey production of those kept near 

 by was very rapid. The honey is of good quality. 



High-priced Seed an Obstacle to the Use of Sweet Clover. 

 The high price at which the seed of this clover is at pres- 

 ent offered in our markets constitutes a great obstacle to its 

 use as a green manuring crop. Recognizing this fact, and 

 wishing to determine whether the seed might not be more 

 cheaply offered, our crop of this year was allowed to mature. 

 The sulphate of potash plot (two-fifteenths acre) gave a 

 product of 43.5 pounds and the nuiriate plot 46.5 pounds 

 of rather poorly cleaned seed. It is true that the season 

 was unfavorable to the ripening of the seed ; but the indica- 

 tion of this single experiment is that the species can not be 

 counted upon for a liberal seed product, and that, therefore, 

 the seed must remain high in price. 



NiTRAGiN, A Germ Fertilizer. 

 In connection with my report upon sweet clover, it has 

 been shown that in the early attempts to cultivate this crop 

 but partial success was obtained, because the germs of the 

 appropriate nodular bacteria (microscopic plants, which, 

 growing in nodules upon the roots, give the power of assim- 

 ilating the free nitrogen of the air) were not present in 

 suflScient numljers. It is there pointed out that, after three 

 years' culture of the sweet clover upon the same plots, these 

 bacteria so multiplied in the soil that complete success with 

 the clover followed. Similar results in the first attempts to 

 cultivate plants of the " pod" family (^Leguminosce) in local- 

 ities where they had not been before grown have many times 

 been observed ; and many times, also, has ultimate success 

 crowned the effort to produce the new plant, and for the 



