When our older readers were beginners in the beekeeping business it
was a popular thing for the beekeepers to buy sweet clover seed and
stealthily sow it along the roadsides. So general was this practiced
that whenever the plant appeared in a new locality it was generally
charged up to the beekeepers living nearby. So great was the prejudice
against the plant that much ill-feeling developed in some places
because of it. It even went so far that in some States it was placed
on the list of noxious weeds and its eradication required by law. When
Frank Coverdale, well-known Iowa farmer who did so much to popularize
sweet clover, first sowed it in his own fields, neighbors called on
the county attorney to enquire whether he could not be prosecuted
for sowing weed seed. For a generation the beekeepers kept up the
fight, and constantly preached that sweet clover was not a weed, but
a valuable forage plant. It remained for men like Coverdale, who were
both beekeepers and farmers, to prove the assertion and convince the
unwilling public, by making as much profit from sweet clover pasture
for forage as the neighbors could make from other farm crops.
It was on poor lands which had been worn out by bad tillage, that the
plant made the best showing. When lands which had been lying idle,
because no other crop could be raised profitably, were made to produce
good yields of milk, butter and beef from sweet clover, the neighbors
were inclined to give it a trial on their own poor lands. The change
in sentiment has been very marked during the past few years and now
the demand for sweet clover seed is greater than the supply, and will
continue so for several years, since the area where it is being grown
is constantly being enlarged. There are large areas where sweet clover
is grown generally as a farm crop, in Kentucky, Nebraska and Kansas.
The increased acreage of this plant will double the possibilities
of honey production in most any locality, and in numerous instances
will treble and quadruple it. In the early years of his experience,
Coverdale kept bees in several outapiaries, so that much travel back
and forth was necessary. Since sweet clover has become so generally
grown in his locality, he is able to keep three hundred colonies
in one yard in his orchard, where they are under his immediate care
at all times. After traveling over much of the Central West, it has
become apparent to the author that within a few years the beekeeping
possibilities of parts of Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota will be
almost inexhaustible because of the increase of this plant. On visiting
Falmouth, Ky., I was amazed at the stories they told of what sweet
clover had done for that region. One of the pioneer growers was E.
E. Barton, and his experience with it sounded like a fairy tale. Mr.
Barton said that following the civil war, most of Pendleton County was
given over to tobacco growing, with little live stock, and not much
rotation of crops. It was a hill country, and although it had a fertile
soil over a clay subsoil, the heavy rains soon washed away the shallow
surface soil, and one farm after another was abandoned. Hundreds of
farms were abandoned, and many of them were sold for taxes, because no
buyers could be found. More than a third of the population left the
county, and the farmers who remained had hard lines to make ends meet.
Sweet clover was stealthily sowed, probably by beekeepers intent on
increasing the bee pasturage. At first it was regarded with disfavor
and fought as a dangerous weed.
Mr. Barton came into possession of a farm, somewhat against his will,
because the owner could not pay the mortgage. He tried renting it, and
the tenant was unable to make a living, much less pay the rent. After
it had been abandoned, he went to great trouble to keep down the weeds,
especially sweet clover. Then came a year of drought, when there was
very little feed for the cattle, and they were turned into the roads to
graze. Even there there was but little except the sweet clover, which
was by this time rather common along the roadsides. It was soon noticed
that the cows were eating the sweet clover with relish and doing well.
Then somebody tried an experiment by sowing it in a field. It thrived,
the cows liked it, and the milk flow was increased. Mr. Barton by this
time was quite ready to profit by the experience, and within five years
the farm which would not grow grass was producing good crops. He bought
more abandoned farms and sowed them to sweet clover, and his neighbors
began to do likewise. One by one the farmers came back to their
abandoned farms, new settlers came in, and everybody began to grow
sweet clover. Now there are fifty thousand acres of it in that county.
Ask any farmer you meet on the streets of Falmouth what he thinks of
sweet clover and he will tell you such tales of rebuilt fortunes from
a combination of dairy cows and sweet clover as you never expect to
hear. There are now shipped from the county about half a million pounds
of seed yearly, besides thousands of dollars’ worth of dairy products
every week. They find that an average of 300 to 600 pounds of hulled
seed per acre can be secured from the white variety and 500 to 700
pounds of the yellow. An average yield of from $40 to $100 per acre is
the return from the sweet clover, according to local reports picked up
on the streets. Now one finds evidences of prosperity on every hand.
The farmers have fine homes, automobiles, and money in the bank.
Soil Requirements.
There is no forage plant that will succeed on such a wide range
of soil conditions as will sweet clover. It will succeed under
unfavorable conditions on the heaviest clays and on light sand. It will
grow on hardpan and on gravelly and stony land unsuited for general
cultivation. It does well on soils too wet for either alfalfa or red
clover and on soils so dry that neither of these will succeed. It will
grow on land so poor and devoid of humus that no other clover or grass
will grow. It is the greatest soil builder known, and now that the
public has finally accepted the fact that it is not a noxious weed, it
will shortly be used to redeem untold thousands of acres of otherwise
waste land. It grows all the way from sea level to the mountain sides,
and is spreading in the semi-arid sections of Colorado and other
Western States, where the annual rainfall is very light.
In the October, 1917, number of the American Bee Journal has been told
the story of the sweet clover region of Alabama and Mississippi. In
those States sweet clover has spread over thousands of acres of land
which had been abandoned for agricultural purposes; and it is not
only furnishing abundant pasturage to the bees, but is restoring the
fertility of these worn-out plantations.
The growth of the plant, however, is no longer confined to the
roadsides and worn-out fields, but farmers are growing it successfully
and profitably on lands worth $300 per acre in Iowa and Illinois,
because it pays them to do so. In some cases the railroad companies
have discovered that sweet clover growing along the right of way is the
best possible insurance against erosion of the roadbed. A heavy growth
of sweet clover protects the banks from the washing of heavy rains, as
no other plant will do. In places, one can see a continuous strip of
sweet clover for miles and miles along the railroads. It would seem
the part of wisdom for the beekeepers’ associations to bring this fact
to the attention of the men in charge of keeping the lines in repair
wherever possible. Once established along the railroads, it is bound
to spread more or less along the byroads and into the fields, thus
increasing the supply of forage within reach of the bees.
One of the most useful purposes which sweet clover serves is to smother
out obnoxious weeds. So persistent is the plant where sowed in waste
places that there are few weeds which can compete with it. Where bad
weeds are present in old lots, along roadsides, etc., the easiest way
to eradicate them is by sowing sweet clover freely. Within a few years
the sweet clover will generally crowd them out. In spite of this fact,
sweet clover itself is one of the easiest plants to destroy. Since it
only lives two years and must come again from the seed after that time,
all that is necessary to clear the ground of sweet clover is to cut it
low when in blossom and before the seeds are formed.
Where there is difficulty in establishing alfalfa, sweet clover is
often grown in advance to establish the nitrogen-gathering bacteria,
which are peculiar to the leguminous plants. Following sweet clover,
there is usually little difficulty in getting the alfalfa to grow, if
the seed bed is carefully prepared. However, many farmers who have been
growing both plants, are of the opinion that sweet clover is the more
profitable of the two, and that it can be handled successfully with
less difficulty.
There is no pasture crop which will support as many cattle or other
live stock as will sweet clover during the second season of its growth.
A small experimental plot of little more than an acre yielded two big
loads of hay. The plants were permitted to get a good start after the
hay was cut before pasturing, then two cows and a horse were turned
in for the rest of the season. In addition to furnishing an abundant
pasture for three, more than twenty bags of seed were secured. Allowing
$15 per ton for hay, $1 a month per head for pasture, and $3 a bag for
the seed, all very conservative figures, the crop returned about $96
per acre. While this small plot was experimental, there are numerous
farmers who have received more than $100 an acre for seed alone.
Cultural Requirements.
It frequently happens that, having seen sweet clover growing along the
roadsides, on gravelly banks and other unpromising situations, we are
surprised to fail in getting a stand in a well prepared field. Sweet
clover requires a firm seed bed, and will not succeed on land where
the soil has been deeply stirred and left in a loose condition. It is
well to scratch the surface with a tool that does not penetrate deeply,
leaving the surface loose for an inch or so, and compact below. While
it will succeed on a great variety of soils, it requires that they
be in a well settled condition and not freshly plowed to a depth of
several inches, such as best suits many forage plants. This condition
probably accounts for more failures in getting a stand of sweet clover
than any other cause.
Sowing the seed on top of the ground or on the snow in winter, will
often secure a good stand with no cultivation at all. Good results
often come from sowing it with small grain in spring, on land that has
been cultivated the previous season. Some succeed by sowing after the
last cultivation of corn, the seed germinating to some extent the same
season, while some does not sprout until the following spring. The
ideal condition is to cover the seed from half an inch to an inch with
finely pulverized soil, with a firm soil underneath.
Time of Sowing.
Sweet clover may be sowed in the winter or early spring, as above
stated, or at any time from March until August. It should not be seeded
when it is likely to start so late that it will not have time to
establish itself firmly before winter. Under the different conditions
of soil and climate of this great country, it is difficult to give
general directions that will apply everywhere.
The time of sowing will depend much upon the manner in which the crop
is to be handled. Where it is desired to sow the seed on old meadows
or pastures without plowing, it will probably be best to scatter it in
winter or early spring. The freezing and thawing have a tendency to
soften the hard coat of the seed, as well as to cover it with earth.
As a field crop, the writer’s limited experience would indicate that
spring sowing, with a nurse crop that can be cut early, will be best,
though winter seeding on stubble should bring good results.
There is a great diversity of opinion as to the proper amount of seed
to sow. Where it is used to thicken up meadows or pastures a smaller
amount is needed than where sown as a field crop on newly prepared
land. Some growers say that 4 pounds of good unhulled seed per acre is
sufficient to sow on grass lands. As high as 20 pounds of hulled seed
per acre is advocated by some for a field crop. The seed covering is
very hard, and, unless treated, only about half of it will grow the
first year. If the seed is scarified, the hard coat is scratched until
it germinates readily, and much less seed is necessary to secure a
stand than otherwise. Ten pounds of hulled and scarified seed per acre
should be sufficient on good land.
It is often difficult to get a stand on old land which is deficient in
lime, for lack of the nitrogen-gathering bacteria that thrive on the
roots of clovers. It is sometimes necessary to treat a small area with
a good coat of manure, and sometimes with crushed lime. After the sweet
clover is growing well on this land the area can be gradually extended.
Utilizing the Crop.
Probably there is no forage crop which will furnish as much pasture
per acre as will sweet clover in its second year of growth. It should
be allowed to get a good start in spring before stock is turned in,
and the area should be sufficiently large for the animals thus kept.
Cattle, hogs and horses all eat it with relish after they become
familiar with it, and thrive equally on it. It is a common practice to
pasture the crop during the first part of the second season and then to
turn the stock off and harvest a seed crop. The writer has harvested a
very good crop of seed from a limited area, which was pastured lightly
through the entire summer until the crop was cut. Of course, it is not
possible to pasture heavily after midsummer, and still secure a good
crop of seed.
Sweet clover makes a good quality of hay if cut at the proper time and
well cured. If a seed crop is to be cut, the first crop of the second
season may be cured for hay by cutting high enough to leave some of the
small branches on the lower part of the stem. If cut too low at this
time the plants will die. Sweet clover hay requires more time to cure
properly than the clovers with small stems, but if piled in small cocks
it is little damaged, even though some rain falls on it. If properly
cured it makes a very good winter feed. When cut for hay it should be
mown before it begins to bloom to any extent. When it is about two feet
high is the right time. The first year it may be cut at almost any time
the grower finds convenient.
Some practice sowing sweet clover with early oats, cutting the oats
with a high stubble and later getting a crop of hay.
Saving the Seed.
The seed crop sometimes fails because the plants are too thick on the
ground. They spread or branch widely as they grow, and where they are
too thick the blossoms may drop off without setting a full crop of
seed. Usually best results are obtained where a first crop is cut for
hay or is pastured until mid-summer. The second crop does not grow as
high as the first would do if permitted to seed, thus making it easier
to handle. Seed is obtained only the second year, and if the first
growth of that year is permitted to seed, the plants will die when cut,
so that only the one crop can be obtained.
The seed ripens so irregularly that it is not always easy to tell just
when it should be cut in order to save the largest amount of seed. At
best, much of it will shatter off and be lost, since the first to ripen
will be ready while there is still a large amount of bloom. The most
seed will be secured by cutting when about three-fourths of the seed
pods have turned brown. If cut sooner there will be too many blossoms
and immature seeds; if cut later too much of the ripe seed will shatter
in the harvesting. Usually enough seeds shatter off to reseed the land.
Some growers have been able to continue the same land in sweet clover
for fifteen or twenty years by sowing two years in succession to begin
with. After the first year a crop of seed will ripen every year.
It is something of a problem to harvest the seed without losing a
large portion of it. The writer has cut a small field with an ordinary
mower when the plants were wet with dew, and immediately raked it into
windrows. This method is hardly to be advised where the seed is to be
hauled to a threshing machine, since more of the seed will be wasted
than where it is bound into bundles. This small field was threshed by
hand with forks. A large sheet of canvas was laid on the ground and
the sweet clover carefully lifted on it, after it was fully dried. By
beating with the forks the seed was readily separated from the stalks.
The ordinary grain binder is generally used for this purpose. Where
much seed is to be harvested, it is necessary to provide some special
pans to catch the seed that shatter off. Corn binders have been used in
some cases.
When threshed with a grain separator, the straw is broken up so much
that it makes a fair forage for wintering cattle or horses. They will
not eat it readily when threshed by hand, since the straw is not broken
up to any extent and the dry stalks are too coarse otherwise.
Those interested in this subject will do well to write to the U. S.
Department of Agriculture for Farmer’s Bulletins which deal with
different phases of the culture of sweet clover. They give in much
greater detail information that space will not permit here.
SWEET FENNEL (Foeniculum vulgare).
The cultivated fennel from Europe has become naturalized in some places
along the Atlantic Coast in Maryland and Virginia and other Eastern
States. It is often cultivated in gardens in many localities. Lovell
lists it as the source of a light amber honey.