228 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL^ 



April 10, 1902 



K*iJ^*V>4J*J*s*tJ*J< 



Convention Proceedings. 



The Chicago Convention. 



Report of the Semi-Annual Convention of the 



Chicago Bee-Keepers' Association, Held 



Dec. 5, 1901. 



BY A SHORTHAND REPORTER. 



iContinued from page 214.) 



SWEET CLOVER AS A FORAGE CROP. 



Dr. Miller— I doubt the advisability of our spending mucli 

 more time in diseussiug this matter, but a closely related item 

 I think we might discuss with profit. I thinlc we are pretty 

 well settled, whatever may be the character of sweet clover 

 honey, that wherever it is introduced, wherever it is known, 

 there is no one wishes it away, and all of us would like to have 

 a little more sweet clover grown where we are. But there 

 seems to be somewhat of a difliculty in having its qualities as 

 a forage crop known, and if we can do something to further 

 that, we will do more good than talking about the honey that 

 comes from it. I would like to learn something as to what it 

 is worth as a forage plant. If some one here has tried it and 

 knows whether cattle, horses or anything of that kind will 

 eat it, they may be a help to us. There is a great deal of con- 

 tradictory testimony about it. One man says that when 

 alfalfa and sweet clover are in the field— one at one side and 

 the other on the other side— when cattle are turned into it 

 they invariablv go to the sweet clover side. Other say that 

 sweet clover willnot be eaten by stock at all, and I think they 

 are right. I think both sides are right; the thing is that 

 stock of any kind must learn to eat it. They must acquire a 

 taste for it. I have been trying for years to get a crop of 

 sweet clover hav and have failed. When I have gotten it into 

 my barn, and l' have considerable of it, I find that in the 

 barn it will be eaten greedily by the horsi'S and such stock as 

 have learned to eat it. The grown plant is not eaten. This 

 year I had sweet clover growing and 1 was afraid there 

 wouldn't be enough left for seed, it was eaten up so close, and 

 just the stump left. When stock learns to eat it in my local- 

 ity—everything goes by localities— they eat it readily. Is 

 there any one here wha has ever succeeded in having a wagon- 

 load— one-half ton of sweet clover hay— that he has taken into 

 his barn '.' 



Pres. York— I think we can sum up the honey question 

 by saying when asked which is the best honey, "The best 

 honey is my honey.'' Now go on to the question of sweet 

 clover as a forage plant. Who has had experience with grow- 

 ing it for that purpose ? 



Dr. Miller— Will you ask how many have ever sown sweet 

 clover seed ? 



Eleven indicated they had. 



Mr. Dadant— We tried sowing sweet clover. We have 

 never harvested a wagon-load of it because we always thought 

 it made too coarse feed. Sweet clover grows from the seed, 

 blossoms, and dies. During the first year it grows about a 

 foot high, the second year the stem becomes so large and hard 

 that 1 doubt if the cattle would eat it even it harvested. We 

 have harvested some with other hay and always had the 

 stalks left even though the stock would eat the tops. In sow- 

 ing sweet clover, at least in our locality, as the Doctor says, if 

 we sow sweet clover and let it come up and grow, I don't care 

 how rank and thick, and turn the cattle on it, in three years 

 it is entirely destroyed and there is nothing left, which shows 

 that thi-y will eat it. It grows the first year from seed, and if 

 stock is turned upon it they will eat every bit of it, and leave 

 no chance for the second year ; and during the second year, 

 if you turn stock upon it before it blossoms, they will turn in 

 and damage it to such an extent that it will grow very little. 

 One partv, a friend in Canada, we advised to try sweet clover 

 for his be"es. He came at the time of the World's Fair and 

 told us he was making a success of sweet clover in this way. 

 There grass grows very late. The thaw takes place the last 

 of April or beginning of May and there is no grass. The sweet 

 clover that has taken root "the season before, in the course of 

 two weeks grows a foot high; they then mow it, and have 

 an increased quantity of milk. Now after a while they feed it 

 to their stock, but they have never let it ripen and get into 

 hay. 



Dr. Miller— How fully have you tried making it into hay '? 



Mr. Dadant— We haven't tried at all. We grew about an 

 acre of sweet clover for the bees, and when we found it was a 

 very rich piece of ground— the sweet clover grew Q'/z feet 

 high— we let the bees work on it. You all know how tough it 

 becomes if you cut it for hay, and the bees would not have any 

 chance. When we turned the cattle into that pasture it took 

 two or three years before it was all destroyed. There was 

 some blue grass that took root in the same pasture, and there 

 isn't a bit of it in that place, nothing but clover. Since that 

 there isn't a stem of it. Of course, it will grow in corners 

 around Chicago because there are no cattle running at large, . 

 but I do believe if there were they would destroy it. Y'ou see 

 it along railroad tracks and waste places where cattle can't 

 runupoliit. Put in pastures you wouldn't lind it would last 

 very long, because if there very long the cattle would eat it, I 

 think, more readily than blue-grass. 



Mr. Dutnall— I live here in Chicago and I keep my cows 

 on the road, and they never touch sweet clover. 



Mr. Dadant— Not even the first year's growth '? 



Mr. Dutnall— No. 



Mr. Dadant— I would like to ask Dr. Miller if the yellow 

 sweet clover wouldn't made a better forage plant than the 

 white ? 



Dr. Miller— I don't know. 



Mr. Green— There is a little herd of cows herded where I 

 live ; I have had a good many sad moments watching them eat 

 the sweet clover down to the ground ; the second year's growth, 



too. , 



Dr. Miller— That proves the point that they must learn to 

 eat it. Keep those same cattle upon it long enough and they 

 will learn to eat it. Do you know that Texas cattle will not 

 eat corn ? They must learn to eat it. So cattle must learn to 

 eat alfalfa; they wouldn't eat it at first sight. Now as to the 

 matter of hav. Mr. Dadant says that they haven't used 

 it for hay because it is too coarse. The cattle will not eat the 

 stems of red clover, but you may cut sweet clover when it has 

 no more stem than red clover. 



Dr. Dadant— What of the bees, then ? 

 Dr. Miller— Take the first year, and cut it, the bees will 

 not get it, and you may take as your Canadian friend did— the 

 first year's growth they cut. 



Mr. Dadant— No, the second. 



Dr. Miller— Cut that, and cut it several times. Doesn't it 

 make up- afterwards '.' 



Mr.' Dadant— They use it as green feed. 

 Dr. Miller— They use it as green feed for some time and 

 it is so early in the season they cannot very well ripen it, and 

 so could you in Hamilton County; you could cut, and ripen, 

 and make hay of it. 



Mr, Dadant— What of the blossom then '? 

 Dr. Miller— It would blossom just a little latter, and if in 

 the white clover season it will be worth as much again by cut- 

 ting, instead of losing. To my certain knowledge you can 

 get a good crop of hay from it the first year. 1 have had it 

 grow three feet the first year. 



Mr. Josephson— I watched a patch of sweet clover closely 

 the past summer, and I saw in the early spring when the cat- 

 tle had plenty of grass to feed on they wouldn't touch it. The 

 dry season came and they ate the sweet clover just as well as 

 other grass. 



A Member— That is my experience. 



Mr. Chapman— I got half a ton of hay into the barn. I 

 have not had the experience myself, but within a few miles 

 of the courthouse I can relate the actual experience of the 

 Normal Park Improvement Association. They employed a 

 team, bought a mowing machine, and cut down all the sweet 

 clover that grew in the vacant lots around our premises, and 

 the man who did the cutting got permission to store that hay 

 for his team. Altogether, he must have harvested about five 

 tons, mixed sweet clover hay. It contained other weeds and 

 some tall grass which natually grows on our vacant property. 

 He is now cleaning the sidewalks of snow with a snow-plow 

 with the same team. I asked him how they eat the hay, and 

 he says fine. That was sweet clover that was headed to 

 blosso'm the first of .Tulv. It was cut from .July 1st to lOih ; 

 it lav there in the lots and he employed some small boys to 

 hand-rake the hay, and he also raked it with the hay-rake, 

 and he gathered it up after three or four weeks ; some even 

 rained on, but his team is eating all of it. They expected of 

 course to destroy the sweet clover. I was one who helped. 

 Thev cut it off as low as they could, but in a vacant lot they 

 had "to hold the mower bar up pretty high. The result was 

 that the sweet clover branched out close to the ground, long 

 limbs some places four or five feet long, and then stood up and 

 blossomed well, and that made the late crop of honey for my 

 bees, and I was very glad to get it. There wasn't as much 



