ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



109 



with a solid section that question 

 would not arise. I never had any 

 questions -asked. 



When I can get 300 sections from a 

 colony I can afford to sell it cheaper, 

 perhaps at a minimum price. If a man 

 gets ten cents a section for 300 sec- 

 tions he has $30 from a colony, and 

 all r have to say to the man who is 

 buying it at that price is — "If you do 

 not want it at that price, although it 

 is split section (at 10 cents) — I can 

 find ten to one men who do", and I 

 have never had that questioned. 



It is coming to the question of how 

 cheaply we can produce honey. 



We have to produce it cheaper in 

 great quantities in good gaasons. We 

 may have a season in eight or ten 

 years in which the bees will not pay 

 for themselves, but with non-swarm- 

 ing hives during the average season 

 they will pay well, and this matter of 

 drone cell foundation is not going to 

 cut any ice at all. 



The question is — whether the honey 

 is pure and of the right kind. Clover 

 honey is the honey, and alfalfa is 

 really of a finer flavor than clover. 



Where I have sold my honey, and 

 some have gotten hold of the alfalfa, 

 and didn't know one from the other, 

 they said the alfalfa honey tasted so 

 fine and that was what they wanted. 



Alfalfa is being introduced from 

 Colorado into our state. It produces 

 the finest honey imaginable. Alsike 

 comes next to it. 



A member — I have alfalfa in my sec- 

 tion of the country and I never saw 

 a bee on it. 



Mr. Coppin — I have had the same 

 experience; lots of alfalfa, and I never 

 saw a bee on it. 



Mr. Aspinwall — I have seen it cov- 

 ered with bees in Jackson county. A 

 dairyman, who is not a bee-keeper, 

 said to me, "I see some of your bees 

 around; if you will put them in my 

 yard I will let you have half the honey 

 they gather from my alfalfa." I said 

 — "I am getting all of it now." 



Mr. Ahlers — I pretty nearly agree 

 with everything Mr. Aspinwall has said. 

 I think if they didn't have the alfalfa, 

 but clover around there, he would get 

 so much honey he could not weigh it. 

 Pres. Kannenberg — He might have 

 lived in a different neighborhood where 

 there is nectar in alfalfa — in mine 

 there is none. 



Secretary Dadant — I think it was 



Mr. Pyles who said last fall in this 

 connection that he believed it was the 

 condition of the soil. I have never seen 

 one bee on alfalfa, but Mr. Pyles said 

 that in their country there was a sort 

 of sandy soil, in the central part of 

 Illinois, and the bees did work on it. 

 There is no doubt that they work on it 

 in Colorado. 



Dr. J. J. Brinckerhoff: — There were 

 two pieces of alfalfa near my home 

 this summer, about four miles apart 

 (two or three acres) and on one it was 

 rolling with bees and on the other one 

 there were no bees at all on those 

 days I looked; one piece that was on 

 gravelly soil had no bees and the other 

 piece on rich soil was rolling in bees. 

 I do not know what made the differ- 

 ence, I am sure. 



Mr. J. H. Kneser — The bees worked 

 on aflfalfa the year 1908 and this year 

 again in Cook County; that soil is lime 

 and it contains phosphorus. This is 

 the first year since 1908 that they 

 worked it. 



Mr. J. R. Simmons — I live just out- 

 side of Chicago and we had two pieces 

 of alfalfa in the immediq,tely vicinity, 

 and my bees were not gathering honey 

 on any thing and they would not work 

 the alfalfa. There were two or three 

 pieces of alfalfa; I went there a num- 

 ber of times and they were not gath- 

 ering any honey on it. 



Mr. John C. Bull — Fifty miles from 

 here we have alfalfa in our locality 

 and no bees on it. I have seen small 

 bumble bees working on it. I have 

 noticed no honey bees but a great 

 many bumble bees. 



Mr. Aspinwall — Possibly most of you 

 know the yield in alfalfa is not very 

 rich but there will be a yield of alsike 

 at the same time and I think they 

 prefer the field that gives the greatest 

 amount of nectar. 



Another fact — The introduction of a 

 germ or something that feeds upon the 

 root; I have seen them on catnip and 

 different things and that was neces- 

 sary before the plant yielded any 

 amount of honey. I don't know what 

 it amounts to. It might be in certain 

 gravelly soils we would not find mois- 

 ture enough to produce any effect upon 

 the root of the clover while in humid 

 soil it might make the difference re- 

 ferred to by Mr. Brinckerhoff. 



Mr. Farrington — I would like to ask 

 if some one here is informed as to 

 whether the western alfalfa yields nee- 



