CLOVER 
shaped very much like the claw of a com¬ 
mon house cat. If one tries to push thru 
the bushes or among the branches he will 
conclude that, unless he “backs up,” he 
may “remain hooked.” Peiliaps he will 
anyhow. 
The illustration on the preceding page 
shows a small twig, life size. The leaves 
are small and in clusters while the blossoms 
have a cottony or downy look. One of the 
seed pods, after the blossoms have been 
cast off, is shown at the upper left-hand 
corner of the plate. 
The tree comes .into bloom about the first 
of May, and yields honey for a consider¬ 
able length of time before going out of 
bloom. In July there is a second crop. 
Like the huajilla and mesquite it grows 
in the semi-desert regions of Texas and 
Arizona where it would be impossible to 
carry on farming without irrigation. There 
are vast areas in both States mentioned 
that will probably never be used for any¬ 
thing more useful to man than catsclaw, 
huajilla, and mesquite; so that the onward 
march of civilization will not displace these 
honey trees with more profitable farm 
crops. We may reasonably conclude that 
catsclaw will remain one of the permanent 
sources of honey supply. 
We are not sure but it would pay to in¬ 
troduce these valuable honey-bearing trees 
in other semiarid regions. It has been in¬ 
troduced into Southern Europe, whence 
large quantities of its flowers are exported 
to France and England. It is there known 
as mimosa. 
CAUCASIANS. —See Races of Bees. 
CELLAR WINTERING!.— See Winter¬ 
ing in Cellars. 
CELLS, QUEENS. — See Queens and 
Queen-rearing. 
CHUNK HONEY.— See “Bulk Comb 
Honey,” under head of Comb Honey. 
CLIPPING-. —See Queens. 
CLOVER (Trifolium). — No group of 
plants yields more or better honey than the 
clovers. About 250 species belong to the 
genus Trifolium; but only a few of them, 
as white clover, alsike clover, red clover, 
and crimson clover, are of great import¬ 
ance to bee culture. Under the general 
18:1 
term “clover” alfalfa, sweet clover, sain¬ 
foin clover, and pin clover are sometimes 
included; but they belong to different gen¬ 
era, and, in the case of pin clover to a dif¬ 
ferent family. So broad a license in the 
use of the word “clover” is not admissi¬ 
ble. Clover, alfalfa, sweet clover, and sain¬ 
foin all belong to the pulse family (Legu- 
minosae), a very extensive family, which 
contains many other valuable honey plants. 
Some 30 or 40 years ago a failure to ob¬ 
tain a crop of clover honey was almost 
unknown. In more recent years intensive 
agriculture has tended to exclude white 
clover from cultivated fields and to confine 
it to the roadsides, hedgerows, and un¬ 
ploughed pastures. Its place was taken 
by red clover and alsike clover, but these 
What is sweeter than honey ? 
species in turn have lately begun to disap¬ 
pear. Lands that formerly yielded clover 
in abundance, in some eases produce it 
only sparingly, or not at all, and are called 
by the farmers “clover-sick.” The cause 
of this difficulty was soon discovered to 
be an insufficient amount of lime in the 
soil. The clovers will not grow on an acid 
soil. Alsike requires less lime than red 
clover, but the time finally comes when the 
land will not support alsike. When the 
land was new, or before it was tilled, it 
