312 CLOVERS 



crop, it would not seem necessary to try to renew 

 this crop, because of the relatively low value which 

 it possesses for these uses. When grown for bee 

 pasture, it will renew itself for an indefinite period 

 when the plants are not cut for seed and where 

 the conditions are favorable to growth. When 

 grown to keep soils from washing or railroad em- 

 bankments from breaking down, it will, of course, 

 renew itself in the same way. In time, however, it 

 is usually superseded by some kind of grass, for 

 which it has prepared the way by the ameliorating 

 and renewing influence which it exerts upon the 

 soil. 



Value for Bee Pasture. —All authorities are 

 agreed as to the high value of this plant as a honey 

 producer. The claim has been made for it that for 

 such a use it is more valuable acre for acre than 

 any ordinary grain crop. By cutting a part of the 

 crop before it comes into bloom, the season of honey 

 production may be prolonged from, say, July ist 

 until some time in the autumn, as the part thus cut 

 will come into bloom after the blooms have left 

 the plants that were cut. ^\l^en not disturbed, 

 sweet clover yields honey in the interval between 

 the blooming of the basswood and the golden rod. 

 The honey is of excellent quality. There should be 

 no good reasons, therefore, why bee-keepers should 

 not sow the seed in by and waste places. But the 

 wisdom of growing it as a honey-producing crop 

 on valuable land where other honey crops, as alsike 

 and white clover, can be grown in good form may 

 be questioned. 



