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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



March 17, 



maintain that the National Bee-Keepers' Union, or any other 

 Union, as far as that is concerned, cannot do anything unless 

 he has been attackt under color of law. Then it is their duty ; 

 otherwise, not. 



Mr. Stone — I do not believe that it is any of our business 

 to interfere unless it is a State law, and then I would like to 

 see the Union go in and contest that law, and see whether it 

 could stand, to make sweet clover a noxious weed. I wouldn't 

 care if it cost $.5 to every member of the Association, as far 

 as I was concerned. 



A Member — Sweet clover has been grown in our county 

 (Kendall) for 25 years. It vpas sowed there on the streets 

 and on the roads by a man for his bees. And from that day 

 to this I believe that the farmers in the neighborhood have 

 been fighting it, and I believe they arer fighting it stronger to- 

 day than ever before. The people for miles around my town 

 believe that sweet clover is equal to Canada thistle. Nothing 

 that has ever been written or said seems to affect it. 



Mr. Karch — There has been something said about sweet 

 clover which I do not agree with. It doesn't act the same in our 

 locality — Will county. I remember in my boyhood days it was 

 very seldom we saw a plant anywhere. I remember seeing 

 the first one in our garden ; it was there for a curiosity. The 

 roads in our locality now are covered in some places, and you 

 can notice the difference, year by year, where it extends 

 further and further. I won't allow sweet clover to grow on 

 my farm any more, not much more than I would Canada this- 

 tle. I bate to have anything spread on my farm which is not 

 under my control. The highway commissioners are very care- 

 ful in cutting sweet clover on the roadsides, and you ought to 

 see what a beautiful blossom there is ; the bees as much as 

 two weeks ago were working on that sweet clover on the 

 roads. It is in fine blossom to-day, and I don't believe there 

 is any more killing sweet clover by cutting than there is by 

 pulling the bloom off with a rake. 



Pres. Miller — Localities differ. I have a little place of 

 about 40 acres. I sowed over I think about 25 acres with 

 sweet clover, sowed it on grass and everything as it was, 

 simply scattering the seed over the ground. That was per- 

 haps 15 years ago. I tried to encourage its growth all I knew 

 how during that time. This year perhaps on that 20 or 25 

 acres there may have been half an acre of sweet clover. So 

 you see it doesn't spread so very fast on my place. I have had 

 it die out entirely where I sowed it and tried to keep it — just 

 gave it the same treatment that I would red clover, had a 

 stand come up and have every appearance of being good, ex- 

 cept a rather weak growth, yet next spring there wasn't a 

 plant of it there, not one. Yet it flourishes on the roadside. 



Mr. Whitcomb — Three or four years ago I noticed all over 

 the northern part of this State, when the pastures were en- 

 tirely gone, that the farmers were maintaining their stock on 

 the swuet clover on the roadsides. And during those dry 

 years out about Grand Island. Nebr., had it not been for the 

 sweet clover growing on the roadside poor people would have 

 had to sell their cows. Isu't a plant that is so hardy val- 

 uable ? Isn't it of some value to cultivate as a forage-plant 

 and as a bee-plant ? Ought we not to turn in and foster it, 

 and take care of it, and sow it, and put it in a position where 

 it would be of some value? Anything else that came up the 

 farmer community would take hold of and be using as a for- 

 age-plant. Something Is going to grow along the roadsides, 

 in Illinois and Nebraska, and everywhere there is fertile land 

 in a prairie country. If it is not sweet clover it will be rag- 

 weed or sunflowers. A patch of sweet clover along the road 

 looks a great deal nicer to me than a patch of wild sunflowers. 

 People will pass through sunflowers week after week and 

 never say a word about it, but if they strike a patch of sweet 

 clover they are horrified. Ignorance and superstition are two 

 of the worst evils this country has to deal with. And I have 

 traveled over long stretches of your Illinois country, where if 

 you went a foot your clothing was covered with the pollen 

 from the rag-weed ; and it is a villainous weed. 



Mr. Baxter — Poisoning the air with its pollen. 



Mr. Whitcomb — You sow a little sweet clover there and 

 the whole country is horrified. The nature of sweet clover is 

 not such that it will encroach upon your cultivated laud. It 

 may encroach on your pasture a little bit. If it does, you 

 have one of the best pasture plants you ever saw. Let a little 

 patch of sweet clover appear out in your pasture, and you 

 drop your work and go and pull it up and carry it away ! 

 Why? Simply because you have not studied the nature of 

 sweet clover, and don't understand that you are destroying 

 one of the most valuable plants that ever grew on your farm, 

 and one that will furnish you pasturage before anything else 

 comes up, and after everything else has been killed by frost. 



Mr. Baxter — The Dadants have been growing it for about 

 years; and, as a pasture plant, there is one objection to it. 



The cattle eat it so close to the ground that it dies out through 

 the winter, very often ! 



Mr. Baldrldge — Mr. Karch says it is so dilificult to get rid 

 of. I gathered seed this year from perhaps two acres of 

 ground, and I doubt very much whether you can find a soli- 

 tary root alive to-day where I cut. In fact, I have a stand- 

 ing proposition where I live, that if they will let the seed get 

 iu the dough state, or cut it in full bloom, that there won't be 

 one solitary root alive the next spring. I will give a dollar 

 apiece for every root that will be alive. 



Pres. Miller — Would they be alive if they were not cut? 



Mr Baldrldge — No, but the seed would drop. If you want 

 to get rid of it, you cut it at that stage and you get rid of both 

 seed and root. It is the easiest plant in the world to destroy 

 if you once really understand its habits. 



Mr. Karch — I will say that our stock in Will county must 

 be educated to the use of sweet clover as a fodder. I have 

 failed to see any cattle in our neighborhood ever touch any 

 sweet clover, consequently they never kill it by eating it close. 

 That is my experience. 



Mr. Green — Sweet clover is no new thing with us. Thirty 

 years or more ago at least there was a patch of it in our gar- 

 den, and for at least 10 years it didn't get 10 feet away from 

 that spot. Within the last 15 years, and especially within 

 the last 8 or 10, it has grown very rapidly, and spreads all 

 through the highways and waste lands of the neighborhood, 

 and the highway commissioners in most of the townships cut 

 it down very religiously ; but I am not at all alarmed. I 

 would just as leave they would do it as not, and perhaps a. 

 little rather, because they do not understand the nature of 

 the plant, and they either cut it down at such a time that it 

 grows up and makes late pasturage for the bees, or they cut 

 it so that it gives the young plant a chance to grow. So they, 

 are not getting rid of it. Within the last year or two I have 

 noticed it encroaching considerably upon hay or pasture land, 

 but of course it does not stand cultivation. In regard to stock 

 eating it, I have a horse that has never been educated to eat 

 sweet clover at all, but if she can get out of the gate at all, 

 she will attack that clover the first thing. 



Mr. Schrier — I can remember about six years ago a family 

 came from Michigan, sowed some sweet clover seed, and it 

 spread out in the road, and I think it spread from our town 

 clear down to Cairo, and all the cattle come from town and 

 keep it down from spring till fall. The roads are well sup- 

 plied with the sweet clover. My stock had no chance to get 

 at it, so I can't speak for my stock. They don't get out in 

 the road, and Inside cultivated land I have none there. On 

 meadow it will grow a little so long as it is not cultivated. S» 

 I think sweet clover Is a good thing for honey, altho I would 

 call it a nuisance on the highway, the way you see it in some 

 places, as high as a horse where it is not cut down, and it 

 looks ugly. But if the stock are around they will keep it down. 



Mr. Thompson — I have a neighbor who has pastured two 

 cows with the sweet clover on the roadside all summer long. 

 The pastures were dry, and If he hadn't had that sweet clover 

 they would have starved, or else he would have had to sell 

 them. With regard to the benefits to bee-keepers I know this : 

 In Kane county for the last two or three years it has been so 

 dry that if we had not had an abundance of sweet clover our 

 bees would have starved. 



Pres. Miller — I am very anxious that the highway com- 

 missioners shall cut it down on the roadside. It is an objec- 

 tionable plant, because it grows tall and strong for the road- 

 side. It is worse than most plants in that way. Before it 

 gets to that hight cut it down, so that it will not leave a very 

 objectionable stubble, which will be still disagreeable after it 

 is cut down, but cut it down before it blossoms, and then you 

 have it out of the way, and I feel very certain it will blossom 

 afterwards just when I want it to. With me its blossoms are 

 worthless during the blooming of while clover, because there 

 is so much white clover I don't care for it. But if it can be 

 cut down and bloom a little later then it is of value as a 

 honey-plant. 



Mr. Whitcomb — I can agree with Mr. Karch's statement, 

 that stock won't touch it. Stock must be cultivated to it, in 

 general. There may be an exceptional case when a cow or 

 horse getting it for the first time will eat it. Texas cattle, I 

 am told, must be educated to eat corn. Moreover, cattle must 

 be educated to eat alfalfa. 



Mr. Cooley — Can sweet clover be grown for forage and 

 also for the blossom for the bees ? 



Pres. Miller — Yes, and no. Cut it before the first blossom 

 shows, and it will give you a crop of forage, and will not in- 

 terfere in the least with it as a honey-plant. 



Mr. Whitcomb — In cutting for forage it is necessary to be 

 careful not to cut it low. You must not cut it as low as tim- 



