Liz Day,
     How much sweet clover is out there?
     When you become a school teacher, you can drive west across South
Dakota on Interstate 90 (or on the old road that runs parallel to it) in
late June and find yourself in an ocean of yellow sweet clover.  The air
is filled with a lovely aroma and filled with honeybees, too.  Sometimes
they bounce off the windshield like hail as the car sweeps past an apairy.
    The plants are huge, with a five foot diameter spread of stalks. The
bee hives are stacked with perhaps six shallow supers.  Beekeepers
extract several 55-gallon drums of honey a day.
     Did I read on Bee-L about the controversial beginnings of sweet
clover cultivation on the western plains?
     In Eastern Pennsylvania, sweet clover grows alongside of highways in
the salty gravel right beside the road.  I cannot get it to grow in my yard.
Tim Sterrett
Westtown, Pennsylvania, USA
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