82 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



above for any of the bees that wish to fly out. 

 Right here I will add that I am not sure but 

 that, if we should have entrances to all of our 

 hives near or at the top, as well as large en- 

 trances at the bottom, we should be the better 

 able to control or prevent swarming. We will 

 now go to another hive where 1 am trying to 

 prevent the swarming fever." 

 Bristol, Vt. 



SWEET CLOVER AS A FORAGE AND HONEY 

 PLANT. 



A VALUABI.R ARTICLE. 



By H. R. Boardman. 



I am surprised that any bee-keeper of experi- 

 ence, who has had a reasonable opportunity of 

 observing, should report sweet clover any thing 

 less than a first-class honey-plant; and yet I 

 am aware that there are a few adverse reports 

 coming from very reliable sources. 



I am quite sure— yes, I think I know from my 

 own experience and observations with this 

 plant, extending through a period 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 sur- 

 plus, 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 claim- 

 ing that white clover was not a good honey- 

 plant. It has a world-wide reputation that is 

 unimpeachable. If it were no more abundant 

 than its cousin it would hardly have gained 

 this enviable reputation — certainly 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 conclusion is un- 

 doubtedly a safe one. We must, then, look for 

 some other value besides that of honey, in order 

 to recommend sweet clover as a field crop. 



AS A FORAGE PLANT. 



I once supposed, as most people do now, that 

 sweet clover was entirely worthless as a forage- 

 plant for stock — that nothing would eat it; but 

 I have demonstrated to my own entire satisfac- 

 tion that horses, cattle, and sheep, will not only 

 learn to eat it, but will thrive upon it, both as 

 pasture 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 ac([uire a 

 taste for it, not taking n^adily to it at first. I 

 gave it a fair trial for pasture 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. The milk and butter 

 from the cow showed no objectionable flavor. 



The amount of feed furnished was something 

 surprising. It has a habit of continually 

 throwing out or renewing its foliage and its 

 bloom; 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, dryest 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 

 liardest. poorest soils, it recommends itself for 

 reclaiming soils too poor for raising other crops. 

 It has a habit of taking possession of vacantlots 

 and roadsides, which has caused some alarm 

 with those unacquainted with its habits, fear- 

 ing 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 occupied fields 

 to any extent. I have been very reckless with 

 the seed about my own premises; and if there 

 had been any danger in this direction I should 

 have found it out long ago. 



Some time during the latter part of last sum- 

 mer I made a trip through a part of the State 

 where a severe drouth was prevailing. The 

 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 farther to 

 the look of desolation. In places the cows had 

 been turned into the growing corn, the only 

 green forage in sight. I wondered again and 

 again how it was possible for the stock to es- 

 cape 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 than a picture. It 

 would have supplied a place where it would 

 have been most heartily welcome and appre- 

 ciated in this trying emergency. I think it 

 will recommend itself and come to be appre- 

 ciated soon in such times of severe drouth. It 

 makes a slender growth the first year. It is 

 this crop that is the most valuable for hay, and 

 cutting it will not interfere with the second 

 year's growth. The second year it grows 

 coarser; blossoms, seeds, and dies root and 

 branch. If cut for hay in the second year it 

 should be cut just as it is beginning to bloom. 

 A second crop may be cut late in the season. 

 It should be well dried, and it requires good 

 weather to do it in. If cut for seed it maybe 

 thrashed and hulled with a machine like red 

 clover, or the seed may be sown without hull- 

 ing. 



Now, don't be induced, by the bright picture 



