CLOVER 
drift, 10 to 1,000 feet deep. Of course there 
is an enormous variation depending' on the 
presence of outwashed plains, bogs, 
marshland, etc., but the moraines of the 
middle West constitute our best clover 
country.” In northwestern Ohio, Toledo 
claims to be the greatest clover seed mar¬ 
ket in the world, and nearly every farmer 
in this section is growing alsike clover for 
seed. Southern Ohio has an average an¬ 
nual summer temperature a little too high 
for the best results. In eastern Indiana 
the underlying rock is limestone, but in 
the southwestern portion the soils have a 
different origin and white clover is less 
common. In southern Michigan dairy 
farming is one of the principal industries, 
and is dependent on the great acreage of 
white clover and alsike clover which yield 
the surplus honey. In the Upper Penin¬ 
sula alsike clover is very abundant. On 
the fertile limestone soils of southern Min¬ 
nesota white clover supports a great num¬ 
ber of colonies of bees, and only rarely is 
there a failure in the crop. Thruout Iowa 
w 7 hite clover is reported to be the princi¬ 
pal source of honey. In many localities 
no other plant yields a surplus. In the 
eastern part of the State it is hardly reli¬ 
able more than two years in three, as it 
may winterkill or the season may be too 
wet or too dry. At Colo, the state center, 
there have been only four years in twenty- 
three, in which it was nearly a total fail¬ 
ure. In the western part of the State a 
fair average is an annual crop of 50 
pounds per colony. 
In no part of Illinois does white clover 
succeed so well as in the northeast corner, 
especially in Stephenson County. It yields 
less nectar in the southern half of the 
State than in the northern. Central Illi¬ 
nois is largely devoted to growing corn 
and oats. When white clover fails on the 
uplands along the Mississippi as the re¬ 
sult of dry weather a fall crop is gathered 
from Spanish needles and other fall flow¬ 
ers on the bottomlands. Northern Mis¬ 
souri is also largely devoted to growing the 
cereals and, owing to dry weather, a crop 
from white clover is obtained only about 
once in four years. The yield from fall 
flowers along the rivers is, however, usu¬ 
ally certain. The larger part of the soil¬ 
forming rocks of the Ozark Plateau in 
191 
southern Missouri is limestone; but as 
the soils are the oldest in the State and 
the land is generally hilly, much of the 
lime has been removed by leaching. White 
clover is only moderately valuablel, but 
the bee pasturage could be greatly im¬ 
proved by extensively planting sweet 
clover. 
Kentucky and Tennessee are too far 
south and the summer temperature is too 
high for white clover to be very important 
as a honey plant. The famous blue grass 
region of Kentucky, or Lexington Plain, 
is the section of the State best adapted to 
the growth of the clovers. It is a well- 
drained limestone area broken by many 
rounded hills and knobs. At Richmond a 
normal crop from white clover comes 
about once in five years, viz., 1897, 1902, 
1906, and 1910. White clover is not de¬ 
pendable in Tennessee. The climate per¬ 
haps shows as great fluctuations as that 
of any State in the Union. The limestone 
soils are favorable and when the weather 
is cool secretion is good. In the central 
valley around Nashville and in the eastern 
valley of the Tennessee River, which are 
limestone areas, white clover occasionally 
yields bountifully. At Springfield in 
Maury County, in 1913, 500 colonies in 
one apiary could not gather all the nectar 
available, but since then not more than a 
fourth of a crop has been obtained. Phil¬ 
lips roughly estimates that under good 
management tulip trees would year after 
year produce four times as much as white 
clover in this region. Unfortunately few. 
beekeepers are ready for the flow from 
tulip trees as they refuse to pack their 
bees in winter, and the climate owing to the 
frequent changes of temperature is harder 
on the colonies than that of Ohio. 
In New Jersey, Delaware, and Mary¬ 
land beekeeping is pursued chiefly as a 
sideline. White clover is valuable in 
northern New Jersey, but in Maryland it 
is not reliable. West of the Blue Ridge 
Mountains in Virginia is the Great Lime¬ 
stone Valley, which is 20 miles in width 
and extends from New York to Alabama. 
In the extreme southwestern section of 
Virginia and in eastern West Virginia 
there are a number of smaller limestone 
valleys in the mountains, where white 
clover is apparently a fair honey plant. 
