442 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



seems to have little to do with the success of this 

 phmt. Perhaps the rankest growth has been on 

 yellow clay, or subsoil thrown up, where nothing- 

 else cai-ed to grow; but possibly the very fact that 

 no other vegetation grew there gave the raelilot a 

 better chance. I have, however, seen nearly as 

 good growth on bottom land, with rich soil. I 

 reasoned that, as the volunteer patches had no 

 care from year to year, simply the seed dropping 

 on the ground through the fall and winter, if I im- 

 itated this, success was certain. So, when a light 

 snow was on the ground I sowed some 30 acres, in- 

 cluding ground in almost every condition. Some 

 of it was pasture, some sod which was not pastured ; 

 some, ground which had been in other crops, some 

 very rich, some so poor that it was as bare of veg- 

 etation as the middle of the road. In this poor, 

 bare ground, occasionally a seed gi-ew, perhaps a rod 

 apart; but what did grow was strong and vigorous. 

 On a bank of yellow clay, thrown out in digging a 

 cellar, was a pretty good catch, and some seed came 

 on ground which had been cultivated, especially on 

 the low ground, adjoining the flgwort. 1 do not 

 know that a single seed grew among the grass, 

 either pastured or not. This seems strange to me, 

 for I have seen it growing well in grass where self- 

 sown, and I can not sec why, in all these acres, none 

 came. I have done nothing since with any that did 

 come, and it has held its own, and in some places 

 has increased to five patches, perhaps, in all, cover- 

 ing an acre or more. Some that was covered light- 

 ly with a hoe in the fall did pretty well. Mr. Knoi., 

 1 think, recommended sowing with a drill. 1 be- 

 lieve it would be an impx'ovement. Where it is 

 self-sown, only a few out of thousands of seeds 

 grow; and if covered, more might grow. I had 

 better success sowing on the roadside. Of course, 

 it could not grow in the middle of the road, but on 

 the edge, just at the line of demarcation between 

 the road and the grass, it did Avell. In general, 

 what fell among the grass never came; but there 

 was one place where it grew well for a long dis- 

 tance right in thick grass. The only way 1 can ac- 

 count for its growing just at the edge of the road is, 

 that at that point the wheels in a muddy time would 

 imbed the seed in the ground, but not run over it 

 enough afterward to prevent its growing. The 

 place where it grew in the grass was one where 

 wagons were sometimes driven, especially in a 

 muddy time, but never traveled enough to kill the 

 grass. 



One spring I had a piece of ground nicely pre- 

 pared, and sown with oats. After the oats were 

 dragged in, melilot was sown, and I can not tell now 

 whether it was brushed in or not. It came up well, 

 making a very nice, even stand, but pretty thick on 

 the ground, if it should stool out any. The next 

 spring I looked with eager interest, almost before 

 it was time tor it to start, but could find very few 

 stalks starting. Later I could find but few, and 

 their roots seemed coming out of the ground. By 

 the time it should have shown big stalks, not a sign 

 of one was to be seen on the ground; and although 

 the ground has since been untouched, not one 

 plant has appeared, the ground lieing well covered 

 with clover and grass, which came up of itself. 

 Was it because the ground was so nice and mellow, 

 that the frost heaved out all the melilot? If we 

 had a drill that would plant in hard ground or sod, 

 would it be a success? C. C. Miller, 340—236. 



Marengo, 111., May 20, 1886. 



Friend Millt-r, we are very much indebted 

 to you t'ortlie facts you have ji;iven. I did 

 not know before that anybody had ever 

 started out on so extensive a scale as 20 

 acres of any one single plant, for honey 

 alone. Your experience in tigwort is about 

 like my own, only mine didn't all die the 

 third year. The plants got rusty and sickly, 

 and sort o' dwindled away. A new planta- 

 tion, now in its second year, is looking 

 beautifully. I agree with you, that it is 

 very difiicult indeed to tell how much honey 

 we get from a certain plant. I have some- 

 times thought I should like to find a locality 

 where thei'e was absolutely no yield of honey 

 at all ; then I would have an acre of flgwort 

 for. say, four or five colonies of bees. If 

 these bees gathered honey, and filled sections 

 while the figwort was in bloom, and gave 

 nothing as soon as it was out of bloom, we 

 could tell something altout it. Our efforts 

 to cultivate sweet clover were also a good 

 deal like yours, although one patch on poor 

 ground showed, the second year, during the 

 months of May and June, such a beautiful 

 stand that farmers came to see it for some 

 distance around, and it was a good deal 

 talked of as a forage plant. 



There is something funny about this 

 whole matter of nature and art. Plants 

 that have been cultivated for years, like 

 wheat, oats, corn, etc., behave correctly, and 

 almost invariably thrive under artificial 

 treatment ; but plants that have always 

 been wild, some way don't seem to take 

 kindly to artificial methods; in fact, they 

 die under the best of care; while if let 

 alone they thrive wonderfully. If we close- 

 ly look into the matter, we' may, perhaps, 

 find some little trifling thing that upsets the 

 whole experiment. Just now I am a good 

 deal puzzled about my poultry. A hen that 

 has the range of our whole 18 acres made a 

 nest on the ground, under a lumber-pile, 

 and she hatched every egg but one ; and 

 more than that, she went oft with her eight 

 chickens, without a bit of care from any- 

 body. When they were four or five days old 

 she was discovered off by herself, with every 

 chick as bright and brisk as a cricket. They 

 didn't have any corn meal nor cracked 

 wheat, nor bread and milk, and yet they 

 seemed to be good for a half-mile tramp, 

 chasing their mother. Well, in my nice 

 poultry-yard with all its modern appliances, 

 I get only two or three chickens from a set- 

 ting—sometimes not a chick. Last season I 

 feared my Brahma rooster was bad, and so I 

 bought a higher-priced one ; but it does not 

 make any difference. Old Dame Nature 

 beats me all to pieces. The fowls that have 

 the run of our whole 18 acres board them- 

 selves, lay eggs, and raise chickens ; ex- 

 pense, ; "income, a good lot of eggs every 

 day. Your expression, " depth of ignorance 

 and bad management," some way seems to 

 fit me tiptop. Well, I think I know where 

 the truth is. If we try hard enough we can 

 assist nature ; but if we don't look out, we 

 shall be only stumbling-blocks. May God 

 give us wisdom in our work with honey- 

 bees, honey-plants, poultry, stock, and all 

 these other wonderful and necessary gifts 

 to his children ! 



