130 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



YiG, 3. — Buckwheat sowed in November. Photographed after only 30 days. 



Cut No. 3 is explained by the two letters 

 below. I found the bees on the blossoms 

 the first time on Christmas. 



Mr. A. I. Boot: — I am a beekeeper In a small 

 way. I have 40 stands for comb honey. I take 

 Gleanings, and like it much. I read very care- 

 fully your experiments in Florida. I am trying to 

 propagate buckwheat that will stand sun and wind, 

 and not blast. I have seed from the third selection, 

 and think it quite an improvement. I should like to 

 send you some seed for you to plant in Florida; and 

 if it produces a good crop, I should want you to 

 send the seed to me for next year's planting, and 

 would send you some more seed ground here. In 

 that way I could get two selections in one year. 



Nelson, Pa. FReD H. Selph. 



Later. — I sent you the buckwheat yesterday by 

 mail. I would drill it about three inches apart, and 

 use some fertilizer. I find that 3-8-10 fertilizer is 

 about the thing for buckwheat. The buckwheat I 

 sent is all from one stalk, 1113 kernels. 



Fred H. Selph. 



umes, as well as rye, bar- 

 ley, etc., have been grown 

 as a winter cover crop, and 

 then plowed under in the 

 spring, in order, by green 

 manuring, to introduce ni- 

 trogen into the soil, aid the 

 activity of useful soil bac- 

 teria, and improve the tex- 

 ture, humus content, and 

 general condition of the 

 soil. Then potatoes, corn, 

 sugar-beets, and other crops 

 have been grown on the 

 test plots to find out how 

 much the fertility of the 

 soil has been improved by 

 this treatment. 



The resulting increase in 



fertility has been most 



gratifying. Land on which 



common vetch had been 



plowed under gave an increased yield of 18.7 per 



cent; burr clover, 30.4 per cent; and Canadian peas, 



43.4 per cent. 



But when sweet clover was grown and plowed 

 under, the yield of the test crops following showed 

 an actual average increase of 64.8 per cent. 



This is nearly half as great again an increase of 

 yield as it has been possible to obtain by plowing 

 under cover crops of rye or barley, and applying 

 also 1902 pounds of nitrate of soda or 1188 pounds 

 of dried blood per acre. 



SWEET CLOVER IN CALIFORNIA; SOMETHING 



ABOUT THE WAY IN WHICH IT IS 



BRINGING UP BARREN SOIL. 



I am sending your herewith an article clipped 

 from the Redlands Daily Facts under date of Sept. 

 28, that seems to me to contain so many valuable 

 things about sweet clover that it should have as 

 wide a circulation as possible. There seems to be 

 no limit to the possibilities of this plant in building 

 up and rejuvenating old soil. Indeed, it is surely 

 becoming known as a factor in the welfare of future 

 generations. 



Redlands, Cal., Oct. 20. P. C. ChadwiCK. 



A DESPISED WEED PROVES PEBCIOUS BOON TO 

 FARMERS. 



The story of how this unappreciated native 

 "weed" has been found to increase the yield of sub- 

 sequent crops, following its incorporation into the 

 soil, to a greater extent than any other legume ever 

 tested in California, is told by W. M. Mertz, super- 

 intendent of cultivations of the Citrus Experiment 

 Station of the University of California at Riverside, 

 in a circular on " Melilotus Indica as a Green- 

 manure Crop in Southern California," just publish- 

 ed by the University of California, and obtainable 

 free by writing to the College of Agriculture at the 

 University. 



Here is related the story of how for many years 

 past the University of California has been testing a 

 wide variety of " cover crops " at Riverside and 

 elsewhere. Various clovers, vetches, and other leg- 



FiG. 4. — Our Royal grapefruit tree close to the 

 dining-room door. " Short-cut from producer to con- 

 sumer." 



