June, 1920 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



365 



there is enoush of the seed to put on the market. 

 It looks as tho it will be a great pasture and hay 

 crop and great for lioney production, as it will pro- 

 duce pasture, hay, and honey in such a short time 

 after sown. The plants grew three to four feet in 

 height and grew thru the extreme drouth of August 

 when bluegrass and other pastures were barren and 

 burnt up." 



The sweet clover which perhaps has been grown 

 most e.xtensively in the past is the biennial white, 

 altho the biennial yellow is also used to a large 

 extent. This makes four different kinds of sweet 

 clover — biennial yellow, biennial white, annual yel- 

 low, and the new annual which Professor Hughes 

 discovered in 1916. 



The advantage of the annual may be readily un- 

 derstood, as it can be planted and grown as a crop 

 the same season. Tins would be of material advan- 

 tage to the one-year renter or to the man who is 

 short of hay, as it promises to be of great value as 

 a hay crop and also for pasture. There is not much 

 doubt but that it will take the place of the common 

 clovers as soon as there is a sufficient amount of 

 seed available for scneral farm use. 



The Maryland Experiment Station was well pleas- 

 ed with this clover and made the following report: 



" Planted about May 30. Grew to a height of 

 45 inches. Seeds were mature latter part of Aug- 

 ust. It seems to me that it will be possible for us 

 to use this clover as a green manure crop to good 

 advantage if we should plant the seed in the wheat 

 fields in the spring and plow it under in August 

 for green manure, and then plant the land to wheat. 

 Crop looks very promising." 



The Iowa Experiment Station has enough seed 

 on hand to furnish a small amount to as many as 

 150,000 farmers, and they wish to supply every 

 farmer who would like to try it. All that is neces- 

 sary to secure this is to send a stamped, self-ad- 

 dressed envelope along with the request for seed. 



Probably the best method for handling this seed 

 will be to sow it in a row in the garden, where it 

 can be given the best of care and observed to see 

 how it is suited to conditions and where seed can 

 be matured and harvested, as it ripens, for later 

 use. 



The following from a recent letter from 

 Prof. Hughes comes in nicely here: 



Dear 3lr. Root: — I very much appreciate having 

 your letter of the 20th. Evidently you must have 

 been making good progress with the new clover, as 

 I notice a statement in the reprint which you en- 

 close to the effect that approximately 1,000 people 

 had secured samples of seed from you. 



You will be interested in knowing that we have 

 had approximately 40,000 requests during the past 

 four or five weeks for samples of this seed. 



I am very much interested in your statement re- 

 garding the possible value of this crop for Florida 

 conditions. "We sent a few seeds to the Florida sta- 

 tion in the spring of 1918, but I do not believe we 

 ever had a report from them. The report from 

 Mississippi is very interesting. 



Very truly yours, 



H. D. Hughes, 

 Farm Crops Department. 



Ames. Iowa, April 28, 1920. 



Below are some valuable suggestions 

 clipped from the printe<l matter sent with 

 each little packet of seeds: 



To indicate the possibilities of a small sample of 

 seed such as we are sending you, let me tell you 

 that one Iowa man harvested about 400 pounds 

 of this seed in the fall of 1919. and all of this came 

 from a small sample of seed which we supplied him 

 in the spring of 1918, a sample only one-fourth as 

 large as we are supplying you. 



This seed has been scarified and has given a ger- 

 mination of 91 per cent. Before scarifying the 

 germination was 34 per cent. It is necessary to 

 scarify sweet clover seed in order to get a satis- 

 factory germination. Nearly every seed company 

 in the United States and many seed-growers and 

 farmers are now using the Ames Hulling and Scari- 

 fying Machine, perfected and given to the world 

 a few years ago by the Iowa Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station. 



Sweet clover will not make a satisfactory growth 

 unless the soil contains an abundance of lime and 

 the proper sweet clover bacteria. If the bacteria 

 are not present or if the soil is acid, it is not likely 

 that these plants will make a growth of over one 

 foot. With the presence of the bacteria and lime 

 there is no reason why they should not make a 

 growth of from 4 to 8 feet, depending upon tho 

 section of the country where grown. Insure the 

 presence of lime by working it into the surface soil 

 where you plant this seed. Get inoculated soil 

 from an alfalfa or a sweet clover field, or along the 

 roadside where sweet clover has been growiny vigor- 

 ously and work it into the surface soil where these 

 seeds are planted. We consider this of very great 

 importance. 



H. D. Hughes, 

 Chief of Farm Crops. 



Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station. 



The following is just at hand from our 

 Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station: 



We have grown the new annual sweet clover 

 two seasons, and think it Is likely to fill most ad- 

 mirably a heretofore vacant place among annual 

 legumes. If you will come down in midsummer, we 

 will have something to show you. 



C. G. Williams. 



Agronomist. 

 Wooster, O., May 7, 1920. 



"daily BREAD," 



For sometime back I have been paying 

 the barber 60 cents for cutting my hair 

 and trimming my whiskers, but a few days 

 ago when I handed him a dollar, he gave 

 me back only 20 cents. Next time I went 

 to another barber, but the price was just 

 the same. You all know about it. It is not 

 only the barber, but all things seem to be 

 still climbing in price, just the same, altho 

 some great and good authority has just 

 announced that we are " approaching " the 

 climax, and things will soon go back, at 

 least a little, to the old level. 



On page 23,5, April issue, I mentioned 

 that one of our grocers came down and 

 offered me $5.00 a bushel for new potatoes. 

 When it came that way, I didn't feel a 

 bit hurt," that is, " not so you would notice 

 it." Well, that was about the middle of 

 Februaiy, and this is close to the middle of 

 April, 60 days: and that precious little 

 wind-power electric, auto has can-ied one 

 and often two loads of potatoes up town 

 every day since. I have not even once been 

 able to give the grocers as many potatoes 

 as thev wanted. Yesterday I saw Bermuda 

 new potatoes quoted at $20.00 to $22.00 a 

 barrel. As a barrel usually contains about 

 11 peeks, the latter price would be $2.00 a 



