THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



to be well nigh independent of the drouth. 

 Such a crop we have in sweet-clover — at 

 least, it seems so from the reports of relia- 

 ble men. When we consider that it is of 

 real value, too, as a honey producer, it is 

 worth while for bee-keeping farmers to 

 consider the advisability of giving it a 

 fair trial. I have recently been looking 

 over the articles on this subject that ap- 

 peared in the October issue of the Busy 

 Bee, for 1897. This issue is a special 

 topic number, devoted to a consideration 

 of the characteristics of sweet clover. Of 

 'all the contributions I thought none seem- 

 ed more fair and reasonable than that of 

 that conservative bee-keeper, Mr. H. R. 

 Boardman, of East Townsend, Ohio. The 

 article appeared originally in Gleanings, 

 in 1894. Here is what Mr. Boardman 

 says: — 



I am surprised that any bee-keeper of 

 experience, who has had a rea.sonable 

 opportunity of fjbscrving, should report 

 sweet clover anything less than a first- 

 class honey-plant; and yet I am aware 

 that there are a few adverse reports com- 

 ing from very reliable .sources. 



I am quite sure — yes, I think I know 

 from my own experience and observatious 

 with this plant, extending through a pe- 

 riod of a dozen years or more — -that it is 

 unsurpassed, and equaled only by the 

 noted alfalfa; and these convictions are 

 supported by the opinions of .some of the 

 most practical and reliable bee-men of 

 my acquaintance. 



The last season was the first for several 

 years when white clover alone yielded me 

 any surplus, and this, too, with the fields 

 white with its bloom in every direction as 

 far as bees could fly; and yet I should not 

 be warranted in claiming that white clo- 

 ver was not a good honey-plant. It has 

 a world wide reputation that is unim- 

 peachable. If it were no more abundant 

 than its cousin it would hardly have gain- 

 ed this enviable reputation — certaiul)- 

 not in the last few years. 



I think it has been generally conceded 

 by practical bee-keepers that it will not 

 pay to plant for honey alone. This con- 

 clusion is undoubtedly a safe one. We 

 must, then, look for .some other value be- 

 sides that of honey, in order to recom- 

 mend sweet clover as a field crop. 



I once supposed, as most people do 

 now, that sweet clover was entirely worth- 

 less as a forage plant for stock — that noth- 

 ing would eat it; but I have demonstrat- 



ed to my own satisfaction that horses, cat- 

 tle and sheep, will not only learn to eat 

 it, but will thrive upon it, both as pas- 

 ture and dried as hay, and that hogs are 

 fond of it in the green state. I say, they 

 learn to eat it, because most stock have 

 to acquire a taste for it, not taking readi- 

 ly to it at first. I gave it a fair trial 

 last summer. My horses and family cow 

 fed upon it almost entirely during the 

 dry part of the season. They became fat 

 and sleek, without the help of grain or 

 other feed. Tlie milk and butter from 

 the cow showed no objectionable flavor. 

 The amount of feed furnished was some- 

 thing surpri.sing. It has a habit of con- 

 tinually throwing out or renewing its foli- 

 age and itsbloom; also, when cut or fed 

 back, it keeps it constantly fresh. After 

 gaining a growth of four or five feet in 

 height in dense masses in my pasture it 

 was fed down entirely, even the coarse 

 stalks, so that at the close of the season, 

 nothing was left. The seeding was. of 

 course, destroyed; but in my desire to put 

 to a severe test the feed value of the crop, 

 this was lost sight of. 



Sweet clover, like the alfalfa, sends its 

 great roots deep down into the hardest, 

 driest soils, thus enabling it to withstand 

 severe drouths as no other plant can. 

 This gives it great value as a fertilizer; 

 and growing as it does upon the hardest, 

 poorest soils, it recommends itself for re- 

 claiming soils too poor for raising other 

 crops. It has a habit of taking posses- 

 sion of vacant lots and roadsides, which 

 has cau.sed .some alarm with those miac- 

 cjuainted with its habits, fearing it would 

 spread over the fields and prove a pest. 

 I can assure you it will do no such thing. 

 In all my acquaintance with it I have 

 never seen it spread into cultivated or oc- 

 cupied fields to any extent. I have been 

 very reckless with the seed about my own 

 premises; and if there had been any dan- 

 ger in that direction I should have found 

 it out long ago. 



Some time during the latter part of last 

 summer I made a trip through a jiart of 

 the state where a severe drouth prevailed. 

 Tlie cattle and sheep looked gaunt and 

 hungry, and were roaming over pastures 

 that were dry, scorched and dead. Fire 

 had run over the farms here and there, 

 adding still further to the look of desola- 

 tion. ' In places the cows had been turn- 

 ed into the growing corn, the only green 

 forage in sight. I wondered again and 

 again how it was possible for the stock to 

 escape entire .starvation. A. field of sweet 

 clover, with its dark green foliage, would 

 have made a refreshing picture amidst 

 this desolation. It would have been more 



