August, 1920 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



49r> 



llic nocossary p(|iiipiii<'nt. LjisI somsoii T took np;ir 

 ly lour tons of liouoy. T liiivc every pio.sport of 

 (loin? well — thanks to tlie }?ood work the Hoots do 

 in their books. So you see I have a lot to thank 

 you for. Your influence is felt in a great many 

 homes in this country, far more than you suspect. 

 Yours very truly, 

 Dryden, Out., Feb. 12, 1920. C. NoRQATE. 



I'erliaps I might remark that these same 

 potatoes are beiuij' tested in my garden 

 here in Medina. Friend Norgate was so 

 kind as to send me a bushel of the jiotatoes 

 by express. They were phiuted May IHth. 

 ! I'lit the whole bushel of large or \er\ 

 large potatoes to a single eye, and there 

 is scarcely a missing hill in the whole 

 plot — perhaps an eighth or a tenth of an 

 acre. I believe it is about the handsomest 

 ]dot of potatoes 1 ever saw. At present 

 writing, July 13, they are just coming into 

 bloom, and there is oi'casionally a potato 

 the size of a hen's egg. So far these, like 

 the same potatoes I grew in Florida, seem 

 to have wonderful vigor, and there is no 

 trace as yet of any blight, fungus, nor any 

 tiling' of that sort. 1 may give a picture 

 of the plot later. It seems to be a well- 

 recog-nized fact just now that potato seed 

 from the exti-eme North is better, not only 

 lor Florida, but for most of the other 

 southern States. In fact, the greater part 

 of the potatoes planted in Florida come 

 from the State of Maine. So far, I be- 

 lieve the general verdict is that (in spite 

 of the expense of the long hauls) shipping 

 seed potatoes from the North, not only 

 pays well, but pays big. 



THE NEW ANNUAL SWEET CLOVER. 

 Our readers will, no doubt, be greatly 

 interested in the following from our good 

 friend Professor Hughes, who has the 

 credit of giving not only to the beekeeping 

 world, but to the agricultural world at 

 large, this new w (ttKh'tiul legume: 



Mr. A. I. Root: 



You will be interested in knowing that we, sent 

 out .somethinsT over 4.'>,000 .small samples of seed 

 of the annual white sweet clover this spring, and 

 that we had hundreds and thousands of requests for 

 larger quantities of this seed at almost any price; 

 which we might ask. We, of course, had no seed 

 for sale. When we made announcement regarding 

 this clover we stated that it did not originate here, 

 but that a few plants were discovered in one of 

 some 500 different seedings of the common bien- 

 nial white sweet clover. We stated that it was 

 our opinion that the original mutant from which 

 this clover has apparently all come occurred some- 

 where on wild land in the South and probably 

 somewhere in the State of Alabama. 



I am leaving .\mes this afternoon to go to Ala- 

 bama to inve.-tigate the. extent of the acreage of 

 this annual white sweet clover growing on waste 

 lands there. I have been in touch with two differ- 

 ent men in one community and have had samples of 

 plants sent me, which definitely establish the fact 

 that it is growing wild there. How extensive the 

 ucreaw may be 1 do not know. It may be that 



Six feet high in only 1011 days from the seed. 



there is a considerable acreage of it. The two men 

 who have written me are apparently the only men 

 there who appreciate tlic fact tliat they have the 

 annual white sweet clover, as well as the coiiiinon 

 biennial clover. 



Because of the veii-y general interest and great 

 demand for seed of this annual white sweet clover 

 an eflfort should be made to save every pound of 

 seed which we possibly can. It occurs to me that 

 the best way to do this would be to put a few reput- 

 able seedsmen in touch with the situation. I have 

 picked out ten seed companies in different parts of 

 the country to whom I am writing this letter, with 

 the hope that they may be able to send a man down 

 there and get as much of this seed harvested as 

 possible, being sure to keep it pure. You will 

 readily appreciate the fact that there are many 

 seedsmen who might take advantage of a situation 

 like this. I believe that the only practical way 

 for vou to get this .si'ed is to send a man down there. 



