According to Extension Bulletin 253 of Ohio University, "Honeybees Increase Clover Seed Production 15 Times. " Several of the clovers including white Dutch, alsike, medium red and Ladino are practically self sterile and dependent upon insect pollination.

Yields of clover seed are directly correlated with the density of the honeybee population. This field of Trifolium ambiguum in American Bee Journal honey plant garden seeds abundantly when visited freely by the bees.

There are approximately 100 florets in the head composing a clover blossom. Each of these florets must have an individual visit from a honeybee at the receptive stage to insure the setting of seed.

The yield of clover seed commonly reported under Mid-West conditions is only about one bushel per acre. According to the bulletin quoted where 100 per cent pollination has taken place alsike clover has yielded from 12 1/2 to as high as 20 bushels of seed per acre.

To secure complete pollination would require a much larger number of honeybees than are often available. Studies at the Ohio Experiment Station show that seed yields are directly correlated with the density of the honeybee population.

A change in the agriculture of a region is of vital importance to the honey producer. Thus, in recent years, we have seen changes in some localities which made it possible to greatly increase the number of bees, as was the case in North Dakota when sweet clover came into farm rotation. Likewise, in portions of New York where buckwheat had long been grown extensively, when the farmers abandoned that crop the beekeepers found it necessary to move. In other neighborhoods, the planting of alsike to replace cultivated crops, improved the bee pasture of the neighborhood.

The more intensive our agriculture becomes, the more important the place which the beekeeper fills. In a state of nature, a great variety of plants grew in a small area with no large number of any one kind. Likewise, there was a large variety of insects, some of which were adapted to the pollination of every plant.

In the early stages of our primitive agriculture this condition was not greatly changed, since the farmer cultivated only small fields with a variety of crops. Orchards consisted of but a few dozen trees of several varieties of fruit instead of large blocks of a single variety, or at most, only a few varieties, as later specialized conditions demand.

Changed conditions have served to greatly increase the number of some kinds of insects because of a favorable environment, while destroying other species. Our Iowa fields are so completely cultivated as to remove the natural nesting sites for many of the wild bees, and their numbers have greatly declined. The bumblebees, on which our red clover-growers have long depended for pollination, have nearly disappeared over much of the state.

Thus we find our problems of control of certain insect pests have become very serious, while we have lost the services of insects which filled an important place in our economic life. The honeybee is the only insect which serves the fertilization of a large variety of plants, whose numbers can be readily controlled. Thus we must depend upon the honeybee for assistance which was provided by a number of different insects in the early years before specialization was carried very far.

We are now faced by conditions which will compel further changes on our farms. Soil erosion is reaching a dangerous stage and if we are to save our farms for the future, a much larger proportion of our acreage must be restored to meadow and pasture.

The loss of markets for grains because the gasoline engine has replaced the horse to a very large extent favors this change.

It has been pointed out by Dr. J. N. Martin of Iowa State College that if the acreage of clover is planted that the soil conservation program contemplates, more than a million colonies of bees will be needed for pollination of the blossoms, in Iowa alone.

We should bear in mind that a minimum of one hive of bees for each acre of leguminous crops or fruits, is needed for proper fertilization. It is probable that better results will come from double that number, and in the case of some plants, with four to ten hives per acre. If best results are to come from our farm program, the bee population must be very greatly increased.

Not long since I had a visit with a large land owner, who operates 2200 acres of land. Among other crops, he grows about 500 acres of sweet clover in his rotation. With few bees in his vicinity, he found it necessary to provide about 1000 colonies of bees, or two hives per acre of the clover. This is only a fair sample of what must be done if this clover program is to fully succeed.

If the farmer has a neighbor who is a beekeeper, they may find mutual profit with one man caring for the bees and the other the clover fields. Otherwise, the farmer must provide bees if he is to get a satisfactory crop of seed. Until the bee population is increased, the price of seed will remain excessively high and the seeding program will proceed very slowly because of that fact.

As long as the farms are devoted to corn and oats and bluegrass pasture, the bees are not missed, for there is neither pasture for them nor are their services needed. When the clovers come in, the bees must come also or the farmer will still be dependent on outside sources for his seed.