1218 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15 



SWEET CLOVER IN THE SAN LUIS VALLEY, 

 COLORADO. 



The pasture problem (for pigs) has been solved. 

 Sweet clover, the common roadside and ditchside 

 pest, makes a fine hogr-pasture. W^hen it is small and 

 innocent, hos^s like it. As it g-ets older, like some 

 folks its nature gets tough and bitter, and nothing 

 likes it. Therefore, plant it for your hogs ; and as 

 soon as it is six inches high, cut it down with a mow- 

 er close to the ground. It will keep more hogs to the 

 acre than any thing else; grows anywhere, in rocks, 

 swamps, wet ground, dry ground, alkali ground, cin- 

 ders, or any thing, and is the greatest ground-enrich- 

 er of all the legumes.— C. A. Lyman in The Breedei-s' 

 Gazette. 



The above is still another item for people 

 (if there are any) who insist that sweet clo- 

 ver is a noxious weed. 



SWEET CLOVER FOR PIGS — MORE ABOUT IT. 



We clip the following from the Kansas 

 Farmer of Aug. 23: 



I should like information on sweet clover. Will it 

 do well if sown in .*^eptember in Oklahoma? Where 

 can I get the seed? My land will not raise alfalfa, 

 and I desire to get a good plant for hog pasture. 



Woodward Co., Oklahoma. Wm. Queen. 



Sweet clover can be sown in the same manner as al- 

 falfa, about the last week in August or the first week 

 in September, and the seed-bed should be prepared as 

 you would prepare a seed-bed for alfalfa, Dy thor- 

 oughly di^king wheat or oats ground which is com- 

 paratively free from weeds. The disking should be 

 done as soon after hai've.st as possible, and the land 

 disked or harrowed at frequent intervals, or after 

 each rain, to conserve soil moisture and to prepare a 

 mellow, firm seed-beed. 



Many farmers who have not been successful with 

 alfalfa have grown sweet clover for hog pasture, 

 keeping the clover clipped off so that it does not be- 

 come hard and woody, with the exception of one crop 

 each year, which is allowed to grow up and seed to 

 furnish plants for the next year's crop. When grown 

 in this manner sweet clover has proven fairly satis- 

 factory; but it should never be grown for hog pasture 

 where alfalfa does well. Any reliable seed-house in 

 Kansas or Oklahoma can furnish you sweet-clover 

 seed. G. E. Call. 



There is another point that comes in with 

 the above; and that is, wherever you can 

 get a catch of sweet clover you are all right 

 for alfalfa after the sweet clover, because 

 sweet clover is the very best agency in the 

 world for bringing in the nitrogen bacteria 

 to prepare the land for the successful grow- 

 ing of alfalfa. 



Temperance. 



ARE WE READY FOR ANOTHER "DECLARA- 

 TION OF independence" — INDEPEND- 

 ENCE FROM THE RUM POWER? 



The following is an extract from quite a 

 lengthy personal letter. Jt is nothing new, 

 however, and it is nothing but what might 

 have happened almost anywhere near your 

 home or mine. Read, and see what you 

 think of it: 



A man 19 years old, of a fine family, from Missouri, 

 came here to work in the coal-mines. He got drunk 

 (in a saloon, of course), and they kicked him out and 

 he, drunk like, wanted to whip some one; so along 

 comes the bouncer bar-tender, a bully— a kind of prize- 

 fighter or sparring-master. He knocked the boy down, 

 but he got up and wanted more, so that bully knocked 

 him down and got straddle of him with his knees and 

 went to mauling him to death. By this time a crowd 

 gathered and cheered the murderer on. with the poor 

 boy begging for God's sake for them to take him off. 



But one of the licks broke the boy's neck, so the bully 

 left him. The boy was put in one cell and the mur- 

 derer in the one adjoining (nothing between but ttiC 

 grating). The murderer slept all night as soundly as 

 an innocent babe. Next morning, as they were re- 

 moving the body he looked through the bars and 

 laughed and joked with the men. He thinks it a huae 

 joke. 



From what experience I have had with 

 saloon-keepers, not only in Ohio but in oth- 

 er States where I have traveled, the above 

 incident is only a fair illustration of what 

 has been going on and would still be going 

 on were it not for the fact that our whole 

 nation seems to be just now waking up and 

 getting ready for a declaration of independ- 

 ence from the rum power and the power of 

 the open saloon. May God hasten the day 

 when they may be swept from every .State 

 in the Union, and, better still, from off the 

 face of the earth. 



"BLUE eyes"— A SECOND EDITION. 



More than thirty years ago there appeared 

 in Gleanings, and also in the earlier edi- 

 tions of the ABC book, a picture entitled 

 "Novice and Bine Eyes." Well, on the 30th 

 day of August a kind Providence sent to 

 Rootville a second edition of Blue Eyes. 

 We can not exactly label it an "enlarged and 

 improved" edition, for at the present writing 

 the new comer is only nine days old. Nov- 

 ice has not yet had the privilege of taking 

 her on his knee as he did the Blue Eyes of 

 olden time in the picture, but the grand- 

 mother succeeded in getting her to give us 

 several of her bewitching smiles, indicating 

 that she was at least happy to be placed 

 where the great Father saw tit to drop her. 

 One of the axioms laid down by father 

 Lang.stroth, if 1 am correct, is that, in order 

 to have a colony of bees flourish, there should 

 be a constant accession of young bees; and 

 it seems to me this rule is a pretty good one 

 for any business house or established indus- 

 try. As the older ones (like your humble 

 servant) get out of the harness, there should 

 be younger members coming along. Here 

 at Rootville, Ernest was the first to come on 

 the stage (and, soon after, Mr. Calvert, his 

 brother-in-law, and still later Mr. A. L. 

 Boyden), just as 1 needed a little relief from 

 the cares of this journal. Twenty years 

 later Huber came along, and now there are 

 several grandchildren tall enough to pass 

 for men, even if they are young in years. 

 But among all the grandchildren till this 

 last one, there has been only one girl. Miss 

 Mildred Calvert. For some time past I have 

 been rather uneasy because of the prepon- 

 derance of boys in the Root hive. I di(i not 

 say drones, mind you— God forbid there 

 should ever be any drones in our family. 

 (Queens, of coui'se, are always O. K. ) So 

 you can realize how we all thanked God, 

 especially myself, when this second edition 

 of Blue Eyes, little Helen Maude Boyden, 

 came along to bear Mildred company; and 

 just now we ought to be a very happy f-imi- 

 ly praising God for what he has done for us, 

 especially in answering our prayers. 



