242 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



April 21, 



a plant serving for fodder, mcUlot (Trifolium officinalis). This 

 settles that the yellow sweet clover was early used for forage. 

 As Prof. Cook suggests, it is probably an annual. But if it 

 furnishes a good flow of nectar It may be used to advantage ; 

 for the white is known to be a biennial, taking the second 

 year to flower, and after it matures its seed the entire plant 

 dies. To have sweet clover for the bees the next season we 

 have only to sow the seed of the yellow in the fall that the 

 white dies, or early the next spring, and if it Is an annual it 

 will flower early in June here In Chicago ; a full month before 

 the white comes into bloom. Or bee-men may have a bloom 

 of the white sweet clover every year by sowing its seed every 

 year, and not without. D. S. Heffron, M. A. 



Cook Co., III. 



cows EAT SWEET CLOVEK IN FRANKLIN CO., MO. 



It is Strange indeed to see how widely men's experiences 

 differ in the same pursuit, with the same thing. Some say 

 that their stock can be educated to eat sweet clover. Mr. 

 Lighton, on page 72 declares emphatically, " But I do know 

 they simply will not eat sweet clover in any form." 



Prof. Cook, a bright light who has dispelled the gloom 

 from the tield of bee-culture to a great measure, and has 

 illuminated the way, also speaks depreciatively of sweet clover 

 as a forage plant. I have 55 colonies of bees, and have had 

 sweet clover growing on my farm for four years. My experi- 

 ence is that my stock, especially cows, eat it in any form — 

 green or dry. I was somewhat surprised a few weeks after 

 turning a fine Durham milk cow into a pasture where I had 

 grown sweet clover, to find she had eaten the dry stems down 

 to six inches of the ground. She did this in January, when 

 the straw or stems were perfectly dry and apparently void of 

 nutrition. 



In making the above statement I don't want it inferred 

 that I am casting any reflections on the statement of Mr. 

 LightOD. I believe he has spoken truly his experience, but 

 altogether the adverse to what I have experienced here in 

 Missouri. A. B. Bates. 



Franklin Co., Mo., Feb. 7. 



stock will not eat sweet clover in salt lake CO., UTAH 



There seems to be considerable discussion pro and con in 

 regard to the merits of sweet clover as a fodder and honey- 

 plant. Under favorable conditions it is an excellent honey- 

 producer, but as a fodder-plant, if it has any advo- 

 cates in Utah, I do not know it. In June, when it is 

 young and tender, when one would thiuk stock would relish 

 it, they won't touch it as long as they can get other feed. I 

 have fed it with lucern and other clovers and grasses, and 

 they invariably pick out and eat the other feed. If we do not 

 give them other feed they will pick off a few tender buds and 

 leaves, but under no condition except sheer starvation will 

 they eat the stems. But in August and September, where the 

 stock is allowed to roam among it at will, they appear to eat 

 considerable of it; but some people tell us that even then it is 

 because they have nothing better. 



Be that as it may, w e find that it causes a profusion of 

 bloom and honey, small shoots not over six inches high being 

 covered with blossoms, and under favorable conditions the 

 bees work on it till frost. But in Utah, to try to make a fod- 

 der plant of sweet clover, it would not be worth the cutting 

 and hauling. 



Of course, Utah has her lucern or alfalfa, which, we 

 think, is the best fodder and honey plant on earth. I have 

 known nine tons to be cut from one acre in one season, and 

 nearly all living animals will eat it — even pigs and chickens 

 will thrive on it if fed green ; and under favorable conditions 

 we think it is one of the finest honey-plants grown. But, like 

 sweet clover and other honey-plants, it is not much good as a 

 honey-plant in a rainy, wet climate. Sometimes we have an 

 abundance of honey from sweet clover, lucern, and Rocky 

 Mountain honey-plant ; at other times little or none. It is 

 not because there is no nectar in the blossoms — it is because 

 the rain washes it out. E. S. LovEsy. 



Salt Lake Co., Utah. 



STOCK EAT SWEET CLOVER IN WELD CO., COLO. 



They are all having a drive at the sweet clover question, 

 and yet I think they have not got the right end of some of the 

 points. As to the question whether stock will eat it and - 

 thrive on it, I have seen enough to know that both horses and 

 cattle do, and do it readily. It is simply one of those things 

 that they not like when first tasted, but of which they grow 

 fond with use. 



In South Africa, when they wish to fatten a steer, I have 

 heard they feed on sweet potatoes, and nothing else, and the 

 beast won't start on them for about two days, and after hav- 



ing them for a time will eat them by preference over anything 

 else. 



Right across the road from me there is a large field, part 

 hay land, part rough, with Cottonwood and willows; in this 

 there is a quantity of sweet clover. I saw 70 head of cows, 

 young steers and calves turned in there after the cleaner parts 

 v/ere cut last fall, when there was plenty of uncut hay and 

 after grass, and saw the whole bunch eat the sweet clover 

 chiefly and voluntarily the moment they were put in. Some 

 were half Texans from the southern pari of Colorado or New 

 Mexico, some were natives. 



The seedling sweet clover is very small in the early sea- 

 son, but grows quite heavy in the autumn, but does not flower, 

 and stays soft, and gave in this case great pasture, and the 

 stock flourisht. I think it would make a fair crop of hay cut 

 late in the fall, and the next season it would certainly cut an 

 early crop of hay, and flower well afterwards for the bees, 

 and if the land was then cultivated it would be got rid of 

 pretty effectually. Walter A. Varian. 



Weld Co., Colo. 



STOCK EAT SWEET CLOVER IN CUWING CO., NEBB. 



For the benefit of the American Bee Journal readers I 

 will give my experience in regard to stock eating sweet clover. 

 I have on my 160-acre farm about an acre of sandy land 

 where I never succeeded in getting a satisfactory crop. So 

 about six years ago I concluded I would have a crop of sweet 

 clover there, but my experience told me that it would be a 

 very difficult matter to get a catch by sowing the seed there, 

 but I had a small patch, probably two or three rods, which 

 stood very thick with one-year-old plants five or six Inches 

 high in the first part of May. A part of these — probably 

 about 200 plants in all — were dug up and transplanted on 

 that sandhill. They stood quite far apart, but they grew and 

 bloomed that same year. In the fall, when the seeds were 

 ripe, I scattered them all over J ho ground. The succeeding 

 summer that hill presented a beautiful green spot; the clover 

 grew over a foot high, but did not bloom until the year after, 

 about the first of .fuly. It bloomed the whole summer, and to 

 my surprise the bees workt on it for two weeks after we had 

 the first frost. 



As I wanted a new pasture, ten acres adjoining this hill 

 was sown to timothy, orchard grass, and blue grass. The 

 sweet clover patch being almost in the center was fenced in 

 with the rest. I really did not think at the time that my cows 

 would eat the clover — it tasted very bitter. The cows were 

 not put in the pasture until May of last year. The tame grass 

 was then six to eight inches high, "but-it did not take long be- 

 fore they had found my sweet clover, and they kept it eaten 

 down so low the whole seasoji that only a spray of flowers 

 here and there could be seen. The pasture was not over- 

 stockt, as six head of cattle was all that had access to the 10- 

 acre lot. 



I now concluded to sow more sweet clover, so 200 pounds 

 was ordered, and 150 pounds was sown last October on 10 

 acres of wheat-stubble, and nothing more done to it. The bal- 

 ance of 50 pounds will be sown on the same 10 acres the com- 

 ing fall. This is necessary in order to make it bloom every 

 year. 



You will get a catch of sweet clover best on very poor, 

 solid ground, but it will grow equally well or better on good 

 ground, providing that the weeds are cut often the first year. 

 If left to grow they will kill the sweet clover. As It starts 

 very slow, it is necessary to sow in the fall so the seeds can be 

 softened during the winter and start to grow early in the 

 spring. A zero spell will not kill the plants just coming out of 

 the ground, if the ground is covered with stubbleor other rub- 

 bish and dead weeds. Should the ground be clear or loose, 

 the young plants will heave out and die. 



Sweet clover transplants very well, and I have gotten 

 such a high opinion of its merits, that if there was no other 

 way of getting a few acres of it started, I would transplant 

 one-year-old plants about 10 feet apart each way, which 

 would only take a little over 400 plants to the acre. The 

 year after I would plant 400 more between the others, and 

 keep clean around each plant two or three months after they 

 were planted. That would give them a sure start, and a 

 growth of clover that would surprise all beholders. 



If any one doubts that stock will eat sweet clover in pref- 

 erence to the best tame grass, he may call at my place in May 

 or June, or any time while it is green, and 1 will convince him 

 to his entire satisfaction that at least my stock is very fond 



of it. J. F. ROSENFIELD. 



Cuming Co., Nebr. 



IS SWEET CLOVER A NOXIOUS WEED ? 



This question has been up quite often the past few years 



