SWEET CLOVER 
821 
The claim has been made that sweet clo¬ 
ver in the Rocky Mountain regions pro¬ 
duces as much honey as alfalfa. While it 
is not cultivated as much as alfalfa, it 
grows well along the irrigating ditches 
where it is never cut. 
CANADA AND THE EASTERN STATES. 
Sweet clover is abundant in parts of the 
provinces of Ontario and Quebec, and in the 
vicinity of Toronto it covers hundreds of 
acres. It continues to bloom after white 
and alsike clovers have ceased to be of value, 
but tho the bees visit it freely it secretes 
nectar sparingly. In New England it is 
not important as a honey plant except in 
localities. At Middlebury, Vt., it is highly 
prized for fodder, green manuring, and as 
a weed eradicator. At Crawford, Mass., it 
grows well on the thinnest soil, even where 
the white limestone is exposed. An apiary 
of over 40 colonies obtained almost its 
entire surplus from this source. In the 
limestone soils of New York it also gives 
most promising results to both the farmer 
and the beekeeper; but it is still widely 
regarded as a weed in this State. In the 
sand belt in Schenectady and Albany 
counties the soil is so poor that alfalfa 
can not be raised; but sweet clover grows 
luxuriantly and is converting this impover¬ 
ished soil into a rich loam. At Jonesville, 
N. Y., the land along the railroad track 
was formerly covered with sweet clover, 
and the bees in that vicinity stored from 
75 to 150 pounds of honey per colony. A 
law was passed compelling the railroad 
company to cut all bushes and weeds along 
the track, and the honey yield fell to 25 
and 50 pounds per colony. In Pennsyl¬ 
vania sweet clover prolongs the honey flow 
fully two weeks after white and alsike 
clovers are out of bloom. It also gives 
good results in New Jersey, but its im¬ 
portance thruout this entire section is much 
less than in the following regions. 
IN THE NORTH-CENTRAL STATES. 
In Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wis¬ 
consin, and Michigan, altho sweet clover 
must compete with alsike and red clover 
and alfalfa, its cultivation is steadily in¬ 
creasing. In Ohio sweet clover grows 
spontaneously along tramped roadsides 
and on abandoned roads and compact land 
everywhere. At one time an Ohio statute 
compelled its cutting as a noxious weed 
like burdock and thistle, but today it is 
grown in fields under proper tillage by 
hundreds of farmers. At Rochelle, Ill., 
there are over 1,200 acres of sweet clover 
practically all in one field. Here it pas¬ 
tures three head of cattle to the acre, is 
raised for seed, cut for silage, and em¬ 
ployed to renovate the soil. A few years 
ago the average farmer in this section ridi¬ 
culed the claims of both alfalfa and sweet 
clover. On the banks of the Chicago 
Drainage Canal there are hundreds of acres 
of sweet clover. At Milledgeville it begins 
blooming early in July, and is in full flower 
when white clover and alfalfa have ceased 
to blossom. Where very abundant it has 
been known to yield nectar for two months. 
When pastured or mowed, it will bloom a 
second time and continue in bloom until 
after hard frosts. Bees have been seen on 
it in October, when few other flowers were 
to be found. While it stands a drought 
well, it yields better when there are fre¬ 
quent rains. It is not unusual for the bees 
to store from 50 to 100 pounds per colony. 
With sufficient rain the secretion of nectar 
is reliable in Illinois, but in very dry 
weather it has been known to fail entirely; 
for instance, one year at Kenney, Ill., dur¬ 
ing a severe drought, when vegetation gen¬ 
erally withered, the bees were starving with 
160 acres of blooming sweet clover within 
easy reach. 
In the western part of Iowa, where the 
land is rolling and hilly, some of the hills 
are so steep that it is impossible to plow 
or harrow them. When the seed of sweet 
clover is scattered over the tops of these 
hills it grows readily without further at¬ 
tention. In the eastern part of the State, 
in 1916, 320 colonies of bees produced 40,- 
000 pounds of honey and increased to 500. 
Near Delmar, Frank Coverdale, one of the 
earliest advocates of the planting of sweet 
clover, has 170 acres under cultivation. His 
apiary of 300 colonies store most of their 
honey from this plant. After very careful 
study he estimates that an acre is worth 
from $3 to $5 for bees alone. Altho the 
yield varies at different times, he obtains a 
surplus every year. At Onawa 60 hives 
stored 2,500 pounds of honey chiefly from 
