The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-23
Value of Sweet Glover.

AS it is well known, sweet clover is a
valuable honey plant, while some persons
regard it as bad weed: but with eleven
summers experience I have learned quite
a little about it, writes j. G. Yodder in
Gleanings in Bee Culture. In the first
place, l sowed it for its honey qualities,
but l soon found there was something
else of value connected with it. | sowed
it on poor heavy soil in the spring of 1892
The following year it was a boon to my
bees, yielding abundance of honey l had
sOwn it near the public road, and many
persons going by would stop to see the
bees work on it, and expressed surprise
The roots penetrated deep into the hard
subsoil, and make the land loose aud fra
| BILE, and, after the crop is cleared of il is
in fine condition to put to other crops.
! We once, just as it was done blooming,
turned it under and sowed it to buck
wheat, thus getting two crops of bloom in
one summer. The following spring we
sowed it to oats, getting fine crop, while
at the same time the sweet clover volun-
teered, making a heavy growth by Sep
! TENDER. standing about three feet high
Now was our time to try its qualities for
hay and, suiting the action to the
thought, the mower was brought out, and
in due time we had it in stack, making
about one and a half tons per acre. 1t
was the sweetest smelling hayI have ever
seen. In one instance 1 had to call the
doctor one very dark night, and as we
came within few rods of the haystack
the doctor stopped short and said: What
smells so acknowledgements On being
told that it was a stack of sweet
clover he was much surprised. 1t
was actually so sweet that every
warm day during the winter the bees
would be flying about it. We fed it to all
our sheep, with corn fodder for change,
and never had sheep do better. Horses
will readily eat it, but cows do not care
much for it. 1t will grow almost any
where, even on rocky hilisides and waste
lands, but | prefer 10 sow it where | can
keep control of it, and get a crop of bloom
and crop of seed, then the next spring
a crop of some kind, and in the fall
| crop of hay, or to wheat in the fall, and
| in the next fall a crop Of hay. Every
other year it reseeds itself, but if put TO
cultivated crops few years il can all be
killed out. l made a garden spot on
sweet clover patch where there were
millions of seeds, and in Two years 1t was
all gone With us it grows from four to
eight feet high, thus making it almost
impossible to get it into thresher or
huIler We cut with a self-rake reaper,
then make a platform on a sixteen-foot
hay rack, placing it on skid made
of poles bolted together with
cross-pieces then hitch three horses to
il and pull it into the field. With two
light poles about eight feet long and just
heavy enough for man 10 handle, and
two pitchforks, we are ready for bust.
ness. Now fill your platform, not too
fun, and il the clover is very dry, few
good strokes will land the seed in the
bottom of the platform. Now tumble out
the refuse drive up, put more on, and so
on around the field. A little experience
will show how il should be done. When
ali is threshed of, run 10 through huller
and YOU have the Bokharl seed.
The sweet clover" above referred TO is
the Millilotus Alba about which we have
said good deal Of late. For the bee
keeper Il is an unsurpassed plant. Cows
and horses do not like IL green, but are
very fond Of tho hay.-Agricultural Edi-
tor