554 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



September, 1921 



proved out in North Dakota, Ohio, and Ala- 

 bama. In and around Ncwbern there is 

 nothing but the new Plubam clover. Bee- 

 keepers there assure nie that it produces a 

 large amount of fine honey. Its quality, if 

 I am any judge, is equal to that of any hon- 

 ey produced in the United States. More 

 and more, bees are being moved into the 

 sweet clover regions of Alabama, Ohio, and 

 Michigan. At De Graff, Ohio, where there 

 are 500 acres of this clover, we have just 

 placed a carload of bees. It is perfectly 

 wonderful, says our man in charge, to see 

 how those bees are going after blossoms of 

 this clover. 



There is a feeling among the beekeepers 

 where Hubam is growing that it is a better 

 honey plant than the biennial because it 

 grows so much faster- 



I visited one breeder of bees in Alabama 

 who told me he had a quantity of seed that 

 he thought was biennial sweet clover. We 

 went over the fields in his vicinity and 

 found a large amount of what / called an- 

 nual sweet clover growing wild- I said to 

 him, "If you have the annual clover seed 

 (and it looks as if you had) it is worth ten 

 times the liiennial melilotus." 



Hiiljiim clover is cut with an ordinary grain binder. 



Galvanized sheet metal is folded around the machine 



in such a way as to catch any loose seed that rattles 



out during the operation of binding. 



You may imagine he became interested — 

 just a little gold mine in his locality, and he 

 did not know it! I would give you his 

 name, but he is not sure that he has the an- 

 nual, and neither am I. But you may rest 

 assured he will investigate. He was going 

 to sell his seed for approximately $2,000; 

 but when the fact crossed his mind that the 

 seed was actually worth ten times that 

 amount, or $20,000, his eyes began to shine, 

 and he spoke with a smile, "If you can find 

 another gold mine under me I hope you will 

 come often-" 



While Hubam can be grown from seed 

 sown broadcast it is much better to plant it 

 in rows where it can be cultivated like corn. 

 When sown this way it takes only about 

 three pounds of seed to the acre. If sown 

 broadcast it would take three or four times 

 that amount of seed, and Hubam is at pres- 

 ent too fxpensivc for that, 



The smile that would not come off because he was 



one of the men who produced $990 worth per acre 



of Hubam clover seed near Newbern, Alabama. 



The question will be asked where this 

 seed can be grown- It will thrive wherever 

 the ordinary white clover or white or yel- 

 low sweet clover now grows, and that means 

 practically all over the North and West. 



While it will grow where there is no lime, 

 it will do far better where there is at least 

 some lime in the soil. 



Now, just a word about Prof. Hughes. He 

 might have made himself a millionaire- In 

 the course of the next 10 or 20 years he 

 will have added millions and millions to 

 the wealth of the land and to the farmer. 

 After he made his great discovery of the 

 annual sweet clover he could have sold the 

 seed at a dollar a seed; and as the price 

 came down he could have kept ahead and 

 made himself more than a millionaire. In- 

 stead of this, however, he gave the seed and 

 his discovery to the world. Modest, almost 

 to a fault, he is the last man to sing his own 

 praises. I tried to secure from him some 

 data about his lifework, but not much did 

 I get from him- He was free to tell me 

 everything about this new sweet clover. 



A Hubaui clover field near Newbern, Alabama, after 

 the binder had cut the crop. 



