GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



winter if buried in sand. 

 You will be pleased with it. 



The upper picture 

 sliows one of the rad- 

 ish plants with its 

 great bunch of foliage. 

 The picture just below 

 is the plant after I 

 had pulled off a great 

 armful of leaves. This 

 radish, top and all, 

 after being jjuUed up, 

 weighed 13 lbs. The 

 little holes in one side 

 show where a hen and 

 chickens picked into it. 

 Well, the poultry will 

 eat this gTeat radish, 

 top and all, every par- 

 ticle, if thrown out to 

 them. The large mid- 

 ribs in the leaves, also 

 shown in the cut, have 

 to be cut up in short 

 lengths, as does the 

 collard. Where you 

 have many of them, 

 and a great flock of 

 chickens, you will need 

 a cutting-box or vege- 

 table-slicer. You may 

 recall what I said a 

 year ago — whenever 

 you set a hen, sow,_ 

 some radish seed; and 



when the chickens are old enough to eat 

 " greens " the radish will be up just right. 

 I think this radish is going to be a nice 

 thing for poultry-keepers. 



I notice by another catalog that this great 

 root is good for table use when cooked as 

 we cook turnips, and I think this may be 

 true; but T did not have an opportunity to 

 try it after reading the notice. I did notice, 

 however, that slices from the great root are 

 remarkably sweet — more so than the com- 

 mon small radishes. 



Since writing the above I find the follow- 

 ing in the catalog of the Greenwald Seed 

 Co., Lincoln, Neb. 



SAKURAJIMA. 



A Japanese radish of immense size. Some single 

 specimens of this variety weigh as much as 15 

 pounds. In shape it is oval, with cream-colored skin 

 and pure white flesh. Roots are cooked like turnips, 

 but no strong taste accompanies them, such as is 

 frequently present with cooked turnips. The plants 

 should be thinned out to from 12 to 15 inches apart 

 in the rows, so as to admit of full development; 

 must be sown in May; takes whole season to develop 

 roots. 



No. 3. — Upper pi 

 removed as in the cut 

 partly below ground. 



SWBIST CLOVER AOAIN. 



An account of an experiment with sweet clover 

 will disclose its valuable features. On the farm 

 adjoining ours there appeared one year a heavy 



Lture .sliows the plant before a part of the leaves were 

 below, to show how the root grows partly above and 



growth of sweet clover covering about six acres. 

 The owner of the farm saw no value in it, and 

 offered it to us in exchange for a load of timothy 

 from the field. We accepted the offer, and prepared 

 to harvest it. The seeds had formed on at least 

 two-thirds of the plants, and some of the stalks were 

 as large as a man's finger, and over six feet in 

 height. Nevertheless we cut it, drew it into a yard, 

 and made two large stacks of it. Every pleasant 

 day during the winter, cows, young cattle, and 

 colts were allowed access to it, as much for the 

 exercise, perhaps, as for the eating of it. Greatly 

 to our surprise they evidenced unusual desire for it, 

 eating it in preference to hay of better quality. They 

 would nose around the bottom of the stack seeking 

 the weeds; they would chew on the large woody 

 stalks until an observer would think the yard was 

 used as a dump ground for refuse rope material, as 

 there were strings of fiber four to six feet in length 

 lying around. All of the stock looked well, hair was 

 shiny and sleek, and the colts were as lively as 

 colts could be. The cows, too, continued to give 

 good messes. Every bit of the two stacks was con- 

 sumed. 



The next spring the manure from the stock which 

 had eaten the sweet clover, and the manure from 

 where the stacks had stood was applied to a meadow 

 that had a poor growth of timothy thereon. The 

 grass started, and along with it appeared numerous 

 tiny sweet-clover plants. These plants soon out- 

 grew the timothy, and covered the ground, all from 

 the seed which the manure contained. When haying 

 was begun, that field was one of the first to be cut ; 

 and when it was cut, -when about half in bloom, 

 what a field of hay that was — one sea of green, and 



