1492 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



the valleys, bringing destruction and carry- 

 ing away the fertility of the soil to an extent 

 that is becoming to be alarming in some sec- 

 tions. 



At present it is estimated that only about 

 twenty per cent of forest lands are under the 

 control of the government. The rest of it 

 belongs to private capital that looks not to 

 future gains but to immediate returns, no 

 matter what the cost and hardship that may 

 be entailed upon future generations. 



But no timber in the world has been cut 

 more ruthlessly than that which is used. in 

 hive and section making; namely, white pine 

 and basswood. At the present time hive- 

 makers have to depend upon the odds and 

 ends that they can find in the markets that 

 are too short or too knotty to be used for 

 building purposes; but by cutting around 

 the knots they are enabled to make a fairly 

 good hive; but the time is not far distant 

 when even these odds and ends will be gone. 



Not many years hence the supply-manu- 

 facturer will have to depend upon some oth- 

 er material of poorer quality, and yet which 

 will doubtless cost even more than the pres- 

 ent stock. 



The President's trip southward, accom- 

 panied as he has been with Chief For- 

 rester Pinchot, may have some effect in wak- 

 ing the public up to the importance of legis- 

 lation that will protect future generations 

 from the waste that is now going on, on pri- 

 vate lands. The duty, first of all, on lumber 

 should be removed, and then some restric- 

 tions placed on cutting trees which in a few 

 years would furnish treble the amount they 

 now do. 



In Germany, for example, there are forest 

 reserves from which it is allowable to cut 

 only trees that have reached their best growth 

 for lumber purposes. All the younger ones 

 are carefully nurtured. Such a policy is be- 

 ing begun in the United States; but, unfor- 

 tunately, it will be too late to prevent hard- 

 ship on the future generation. 



The great railroads are beginning to see 

 the importance of setting out trees for their 

 future supply of ties, for nothing in all the 

 world is equal to wood for the purpose. 



EXPERT TESTIMONY ON SWEET CLOVER AS A 

 VALUABLE FORAGE-PLANT ON THE FARM. 



Every bee-keeper in the central tier of 

 States should carefully make note of the fact 

 that John M. Jamison, of Ohio, one of the 

 ablest and best-known farmers in America, 

 is strongly in favor of sweet clover as a for- 

 age-plant. He grows some himself on his 

 fine farm in Western Ohio, and wishes he 

 had planted more of it this year. See what 

 he says about it in the Rural New-Yorker 

 for Oct. 26. Mr. Jamison is a well-known 

 lecturer on practical farming, more particu- 

 larly on dairy husbandry; and, moreover, he 

 farms on quite a large scale himself. 



Mr. Joseph E. Wing, a great authority on 

 alfalfa culture, now advocates growing sweet 

 clover and alfalfa together. He is a large 

 grower on his farms m Ohio and Alabama, 



and knows what he is talking about. He 

 says if alfalfa seed has sweet clover mixed 

 with it there is no need of removing it. On 

 the contrary, its presence will prove to be 

 beneficial. 



Dr. Thorne, director of the Ohio Experi- 

 ment Station, at Wooster, has been a pro- 

 nounced advocate of sweet clover for years, 

 and still sticks to his opinion. 



The views of these men carry weight ; so 

 if the people in your section are disposed to 

 outlaw sweet clover, call their attention to 

 this statement. w. K. M. 



WHAT sweet clover DOES WITH POOR 

 LAND. 



The following clinching argument in favor 

 of sweet clover as a soil-renovator appeared 

 in the Oklahoma Farm Journal. It com- 

 pletely knocks the bottom out of the asser- 

 tion that sweet clover is a weed, and proves 

 it is the greatest soil-improver we have in 

 this country to-day: 



I can not understand why sweet clover should be 

 more detrimental to orchards in Oklahoma than in 

 Kansas. I would have to be shown to believe it. A 

 few years after I came to Kansas I planted an orchard 

 on the poorest kind of Kansas gumbo land, not fit for 

 cultivation. 1 mulched young trees heavily for three 

 or four years, also sowed it to white sweet clover, 

 partly because lands would yield no returns for culti- 

 vating, and partly because an orchard should not be 

 cropped with any thing not a legume, and mainly for 

 bees to work on clover. The orchard grew finely, and 

 produced the finest of fruit on coming into bearing. 

 The sweet clover mastered every thing and grew im- 

 mensely. It had full possession eight or ten years, 

 when I sold out, eight years ago. Last fall I was 

 there. About half the orchard had been in peach- 

 trees mostly, and the new comer had cleared up half 

 the orchard where peaches had grown, and was grow- 

 ing great crops of corn on that old gumbo land, beat- 

 ing his best bottom land, he said. I was amazed at 

 the sight. He asked me what caused such corn to 

 grow on that land. He said the plow would go right 

 down to the beam in that soil— and he never had 

 manured it. I knew in a moment it was the sweet 

 clover. And there you are. The apple-trees remain- 

 ing were extra large, and growing magnificent fruit. 



I am 73, and too old to plant another orchard. If I 

 had known what I know now, what sweet clover would 

 do to gumbo land, I could have bought 1000 acres of 

 such land at seven or eight dollars per acre, and made 

 it worth seventy-five dollars per acre for growing corn 

 and alfalfa. 



Knowledge came too late in my case, but I know 

 nobody will believe such a story without the experi- 

 ence. It is true all the same. And you need not 

 doubt it would do the same trick in Oklahoma or else- 

 where. I am not writing for publication. It is noth- 

 ing to me. I know what my eyes have seen. I only 

 regret that I did not know it sooner. I have a good 

 warm feeling for you and your paper, which is doing 

 good work. 



Morris Co., Kan. D.P.Norton. 



Comments of editor Farm Journal: 



Unquestionably sweet clover is a great renovating 

 crop because of its ability to grow on soils poorly 

 adapted to plant growth, because it gels down into 

 the subsoil, and r.ecause, when it goes down on the 

 land, it adds to the supply of available plant food. 



The trouble with it in orchards here is this: Both 

 trees and sweet clover can't grow on the same piece 

 of land this far south and west. Alfalfa does not 

 grow so vigorously as sweet clover, and we have 

 killed excellent orchards, experimentally, by growing 

 alfalfa in them. It's a question of moisture This 

 year, only the orchards that have had clean cultiva- 

 tion matured good peaches, and are holding their ap- 

 ples to maturity. We must give orchards clean cul- 

 tivation until July 1; then we may plant cow peas as 

 a winter cover crop and for its renovating value. 



A very few of our best farmers use alfalfa as a soil- 

 builder on tough uplands, and report improvement of 

 soil conditions similar to the experience which you 

 relate with sweet clover. 



