1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



85 



than the clovers with smaller stems, 

 but if piled in small cocks it is little 

 damaged, even though some rain 

 falls on it. If properly cured, it 

 makes a very good winter feed. 

 When cut for hay it should be mown 

 before it begins to bloom to any ex- 

 tent. When it is about two feet 

 high is the right time. The first year 

 it may be cut at almost any time the 

 grower finds it convenient. 



Some practice sowing sweet clover 

 with early oats, cutting the oats with 

 a high stubble, and, later, getting a 

 crop of hay. 



Saving the Seed 



The seed crop sometimes fails be- 

 cause the plants are too thick on the 

 ground. They spread or branch 

 widely as they grow, and where they 

 are too thick the blossoms may drop 

 off without setting a full crop of 

 seed. Usually best results are ob- 

 tained where a first crop is cut for 

 hay or is pastured until midsummer. 

 The second crop does not grow as 

 high as the first would do if permit- 

 ted to seed, thus making it easier to 

 handle. Seed is obtained only the 

 second year, and if the first growth 

 of that year is permitted to seed, the 

 plants will die when cut, so that only 

 the one crop can be obtained. 



The seed ripens so irregularly that 

 it is not always easy to tell just 

 when it should be cut in order to 

 save the largest amount of seed. At 

 best much of it will shatter off and 

 be lost, since the first to ripen will 

 be ready while there is still a large 

 amount of bloom. The most seed 

 will be secured by cutting when 

 about three-fourths of the seed pods 

 have turned brown. If cut sooner 

 there will be too many blossoms and 

 immature seeds; if cut later too 

 much of the ripe seed will shatter in 

 the harvesting. Usually enough 

 seed shatters off to reseed the land. 

 Some growers have been able to con- 

 tinue the same land in sweet clover 

 for fifteen or twenty years by sow- 

 ing two years in succession to begin 

 with. After the first year, a crop of 

 seed will ripen every year. 



It is something of a problem to 

 harvest the seed without losing a 



large portion of it. The writer has 

 cut a small field with an ordinary 

 mower when the plants were wet 

 with dew, and immediately raked it 

 injo windrow's. This method is 

 hardly to be advised where the seed 

 is to be hauled to a threshing ma- 

 chine, since more of the seed will be 

 wasted than where it is bound into 

 bundles. This small field was 

 threshed by hand with forks. A large 

 sheet of canvas was laid on the 

 ground, and the sweet clover care- 

 fully lifted on it, after it was fully 

 dry. By beating with the forks the 

 seed was readily separated from the 

 stalks. 



The ordinary grain binder is gen- 

 erally used for this purpose. Where 

 much seed is to be harvested, it is 

 necessary to provide some special 

 pans to catch the seed that shatters 

 off. Corn binders have been used in 

 some cases. 



When threshed with a grain sep- 

 arator, the straw is broken up so 

 much that it makes a fair forage for 

 wintering cattle or horses. They will 

 not eat it readily where threshed by 

 hand, since the straw is not broken 



up to any extent and the dry stalks 

 are too coarse otherwise. 



Those interested in this subject 

 will do well to write to the U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture for Farm- 

 er's Bulletins 797, 820 and 836, all of 

 which deal with different phases of 

 the culture of sweet clover. They 

 give in much greater detail informa- 

 tion that space will not permit here. 



Quadruple Vs. Single Row 

 Winter Cases 



By G. C. Greiner. 



THE old adage, "Convince a man 

 against his will, he is of the 

 same opinion still," contains 

 more truth than poetry. And this is 

 not strange. After we have spent al- 

 most a lifetime using certain appli- 

 ances and tools it becomes, as it is 

 termed, second nature to us, and with 

 normal, natural abilities we become 

 experts in their application. To make 

 a break in our accustomed habits and 

 adapt ourselves to new methods 

 would not only be up-hill business, 



A FIELD OF SWEET CLOVER AT HARVEST TIME. 



SWEET CLOVER ON THE LEFT, GRIM ALFALFA ON* THE RIGHT 



but in many instances would cause 

 heavy expenses and extra labor. The 

 beaten path, crooked as it may be, is 

 always easier traveled than deep 

 snow on a straight line, even if we 

 could save one-half of the distance. 

 In fact, if we should undertake to 

 make a short-cut of this kind, the av- 

 erage people would call us "cranky," 

 no matter how much they would be 

 benefited by our effort in the end. 



These conditions we meet in almost 

 all walks of life. It is not only the 

 beekeeper of many years' experience, 

 who thinks his beaten path is the 

 straightest, but all other occupations 

 are laboring under the same decep- 

 tion. 



It is not my object to open up any 

 controversy with either the quadru- 

 ple, the straight row or the single 

 colony advocates. Each one of these 

 three methods has its advantages. 

 This cannot be denied, and it would 

 hardly be advisable for anyone who 



