330 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



]VIar. 1 



SWEET 



CLOVER AS A 

 AGE PLANT. 



FOR- 



Tlie Expei'ieiiee of a Farmer who 

 Grows it for his Stock; His Cat- 

 tle Avill Take it in Preference to 

 Other Clovers. 



BY W. T. DAVISON. 



It is a common thing to hear peo- 

 ple say that nothing will eat ^weet 

 clover. Such people are either draw- 

 ing on their imagination or their 

 experience is limited. Now, I do 

 not say that stock will eat sweet clo- 

 ver when there is plenty of grass, 

 but my calves did that very thing 

 this summer, and kept it eaten down 

 all fall. To try sweet clover fur- 

 ther as a forage-plant I turned my 

 calves into a ten-acre held of sweet 

 clover with two acres of English clo- 

 ver on one side of the field. I fully 

 believe they liked the sweet clover 

 as well as the English. 



There is no use for any one to 

 say that nothing will eat sweet clo- 

 ver, for I have seen my calves eating ^.-^^^ 4 

 it; and when I turned them into that 

 ten-acre field they quit coming up 

 for their feed. It is now Nov. 19. My sweet 

 clover is still green, and we have had freez- 

 ing weather here. The ground had been 

 frozen hard. 



There are three times in a year when 

 sweet clover is a good forage-plant — early 

 spring, before grass comes on; midsummer 

 after grass dries up, and late fall. I am not 

 sowing sweet clover alone for bees, but am 



-TAKINU THE (JUILT OFF THE SECTIONS. 

 See the two preceding pages. 



FIG. 



5. —MANIPULATION OF TUE UETHElilNGTON 

 CLOSED-END FRAMES. 



sowing for both bees and stock; and I can 

 say from experience that they both do well 

 on it. After this I expect to sow my thin- 

 nest land to sweet clover, as I believe it to 

 be a great land-builder. 



There is one thing more that I wish to 

 mention about sweet clover. I fully believe 

 that the Imrk on second-year's sweet clover 

 will make the best of ropes. 



Velpen, Ind., Nov. 19. 



[The following, which 

 tells how sweet clover 

 behaves in Montour Co., 

 Pa., from the Americfin 

 Agricnltnrist, is along 

 the same line:] 



I have been reading several 

 articles in Amerirun Agricul- 

 fitfint on the value of sweet 

 clover, MeHlofiis alba. Some 

 writers say it is not eaten by 

 stock. Others say it makes 

 jiood hay when cut and stored 

 in layers between layers of 

 other hay. We have it grow- 

 ing in every by-place along 

 the roadside, on stone piles 

 and in cultivated fields. It 

 will grow where no other 

 plant can live. On poor bar- 

 ren land it grows 3 to 6 feet 

 high. 



I selected one stalk having 

 18 branches measuring 4 to 8 

 teet long, grown from a sin- 

 gle seed. The root of this 

 stalk was 3 feet 4 inches long 

 \\ ith large nodules. It starts 

 ii) grow in the spring earlier 

 I han any of the other forage 

 plants. By April 10 to 15 it is 

 from 4 to 8 inches high, and 

 eaten with relish by cattle 

 and colts. Our cattle eat it 

 all summer; but when allowed 

 to grow it soon becomes 

 woody. The cattle then eat 



STANDING 



