Sweet Clover.

Feilding Star, Volume XIX, Issue 72, 22 September 1897, Page 2

Sweet Clover.

(Melitotus Alba or Leucantha ) By Herbert J. Rumsey, Boronia, Barber's Creek, New South Wales. Yet another clover that has proved itself to thrive in this country where clovers are said not to flourish. Some thre years or more ago my attention was called to a plant that wan extensively sown by bee»keepers in tbe United Sates for its honey yielding pro perties, and stated by some of them to be valuable as a fodder plant, both for green feed and for hay. I obtained some Beed from that well-known beekeeper, A. S. Root, of Ohio, and planted it in a small experimental plot, and have since had a small patch of it each year since. As a bee plant, I have fonnd it a great yielder of honey, or rather, 1 should say, the bees work wpII on it, its long spikes of flowers being covered with bees for weeks. As to the flavor of the honey, I am not able to state, as the quantity was not sufficient to try it. As a fodder plant it is well worth a place among the best we have. Regarding this, there has been some difference of opinion, some saying that it is too woody and fibrous, others say it forms very succulent fodder, and so far as I can see, both are correct, for if where stock cannot get at it and not kept cut down, it will rnn np to seed, forming a very fibrous, woody stem up to four feet or more high ; but if kept cut, I find it to yield softer stems and a larger amount of them than lucerne planted next to it. I consider the best time to plant it is in autumn ; but if planted in spring it succeeds vrry well. The stslk and leave* have a rather peculiar flavour, inclined to be soar, and in sonic cases stock do not like it at first, but speedly require a taste for it. As it is a biennial, it cannot be such a troublesome weed as some have cnlled it, as it dies out the second year. And if no seed is allowed to ripen, there is an end to it. It has obtained a good name for hardiness, as many of the American bee»keepers have used it to extend their honey pasturage by scattering it broad cast by the road sides and on vacant ground near their apiaries. Dr Miller, whom most of the beekeepers in this colony know by repute, in answer to a question on the subject of where it would grow, said, " I've seen it grow well on sandy soil and on very stiff clay. I don't think it would grow on bare rock, and it would probably not make a good growth in clean sand 1 ' The following in an extract from au editorial in American Bee Journal :— ln a recent number of this paper, Mr J. L. Gandy, of Nebraska, made this remark about sweet clover, • Since it has been demonstrated that sweet clovar makes good hay and pasture, many of our far triers instead of trying to exterminate it are encouraging its growth.' Editor Root offers the following comment npon the above in " Gleauings " : — " This is a good plant. Let us keep them circulating. I expect to say and keep on Baying until I do not say it any more, that sweet clover is not a noxious weed, but is one of the best honey plants in the world ; that it produces nectar everywhere and that its flow is pro longed not days but weeks and weeks and that if it grows anywhere it grows in waste places ; it is easily extermin ated ; that cattle learn to eat it in preference to many other kinds of green forage ; and it makes fairly good hay. I have said these same things before, but it must be repeated in different ways to make people believe it." This is a subject upon which we are in entire accord with Mr Root, for we reside right in the midst of a sweet clover ragion. Does it yield honey ? Well, we should think so ( It yields for a long time, and to our taste its honey is finest of all. Sweet clover goes variously under the name of Melitotus Alba and M. Leu cantha, but both these descriptive words — one Latin and the other Greek — are synonymous, meaning white, melitotns meaning honey flower. There is a yellow variety crown in America, but it appears to differ very little, except in the colour of the flower. The Department of Agriculture intro* duoed some of this clover some years ago, under the name of Bokhara clover, nnder which name it appears to be known in some places. As a soil improver it should take a place among other clovers and leguminous plants, especially as it roots very deep. As 1 have done with other fodder plants that I have considered worth trying by all who have stock to feed and ground to enrich, I will do with this as long as I have any in stock, that is Bend a small packet for trial on receipt of 2d stamp, to pay expense of postage, etc So that if this clover is as valuable as it appears to be, there is no reason why it should not be tested in all parti of the colony this season.