1882 



GLEANINGS IN EEE CULTUKE. 



73 



their apiaries, nor in either our County or District 

 Bee-Keepers' Association meetings, where all these 

 points have been fully reported and discussed. In 

 conclusion I would say, that if our bee-keeping friend 

 would visit his bee-lveeping neighbors, read all the 

 bee literature he can find, and continue to keep bees 

 temperature, warmth (com fort) and quiet. For hon- 

 ey, large stocks, with as little swarming as possible." 



Although I have given a description of Mr. Dus- 

 ter's cellar elsewhere, I think the fact that, for a 

 large number of years, he has not lost a swarm by 

 disease, is a sufficient excuse for my doing so again, 

 It is about 23 ft. wide by 28 long and 7 deep: cement- 

 ed bottom and sides, and is frost-ptoof. There is a 

 wide gangway with double doors leading into it from 

 the outside, also a door from the sitting-room abov^e. 

 In this room (see description at the commencement 

 of this article) is a hard-coal stove, burning duy and 

 night, to warm the rooms above. This, in my opin- 

 ion, has a great deal to do in modifying the condi- 

 tions of the cellar to the wants of the bees, and mak- 

 ing it a first-class one. R. H. Mellen. 



Amboy-on-Tnlet, 111., Jan. 3, 1883. 



Friend JSI., Mr. Duster may be right about 

 it, but I should hardly prescribe water for 

 the kind ot " ache " he speaks of ; neverthe- 

 less, he may be right. It only corroborates 

 friend Simpson's experiment, given in our 

 back volumes, of the bees that wintered so 

 well under the wet and dripping straw, and 

 friend Boonibrower, who wrote "Chapter 

 I.," in the Sept. No., and has never as yet 

 given us Chapter JI., which we have been so 

 patiently waiting for. 



RAISING PLAf.TS KXPRESSLTT FOR 

 RRKS. 



SOMETHING ABOUT THE SIMPSON PLAKTS AND AL- 

 SIKE CLOVER. 



fRIEND ROOT:— I believe I promised to report 

 J 

 on the success or failure of the honey-plant 



' seeds I got of you in the spring cf 1880; and as 

 reports are in order, here goes. 



First, Spider plant. From some cause the seed 

 failed to germinate in the hot-bed. The Simpson 

 seemed to all grow. I transplanted 500 plants from 

 the hot-bed, in rows 4 ft. apart, plants 3 ft. in rows, 

 and by the first of August they were G and 7 ft. high, 

 and well covered with bloom. I could see the honej' 

 in the little pitcher-shaped blossom, but not a bee on 

 them, although there was a steady stream of bees 

 flying over them from morning till night, visiting 

 the Alsike clover in my wheat-fleld. My wife com- 

 menced to laugh at me about my wonderful honey- 

 plant, and the neighbors, as they would drop in for 

 a call, would ask, " What are those tall weedy-look- 

 ing things that you have there?" I was ashamed to 

 call them honey-plants and not a bee on them, so I 

 concluded I would pull them up some dark night, 

 and throw them on the beach at high water, and let 

 them go out with the tide, and thus bo rid of them. 

 One morning, two or three days later, my wife came 

 running down where I was working in the garden, 

 and said, " Come quickly and see the Simpsons 1 " I 

 made a rush for the honey-patch, and such a sight! 

 They had found It, surely enough. There were thou- 

 sands of blossoms, and there appeared to be two or 

 three bees to each blossom, pushing and crowding 

 for the nectar, and such a humming and roaring one 

 would think they were on a flrst-rate robbing expe- 



dition. I call the Simpsons a decided success; nine 

 weeks of steady work for the bees, when nearly all 

 other bloom is dried up. I am satisfied that an acre 

 of plants, as thrifty as those in my garden, would 

 produce from 400 to 500 lbs. of honey, and I think a 

 long way ahead of goldcnrod or aster honey. The 

 catnip — well, that is good for white-faced bumble- 

 bees. Hoarhound. the bees worked some on it ; sun- 

 flower, not a bee touched it; melilot clover failed to 

 grow (think the seed was old). 



ALSIICE CLDVER. 



I put the C lbs. on 1?4 acres of wheat; sowed it on 

 a light fall of snow in February, and think I struclc 

 a '* bonanza" when I tried Alsike. It didn't make 

 much of a show vnitil about the middle of June, when 

 it "commenced to climb." July 30th I cut three 

 small bundles in full bloom that measured 3 ft. 4 in. 

 tall, and which I sent to the postoffices in my vicini- 

 ty, to show 1 he new clover. The result was, every 

 farmer in the neighborhood came to sec the famous 

 clcjver growing, and of course all wanted seed. I let 

 the wheat stand as long as I dared to, in order to 

 ripen as much of the clover seed as possible, then 

 cradled and bound it with the wheat, and thrashed it 

 by hand, in order to save the chaff. I sold the chaff, 

 3 sacks, for $1.00, and had 20 lbs. of clean seed in the 

 fanning-mill; and, what is better, there are 10 acres 

 sown within reach of my bees, and they seem to pre- 

 fer it to white clover, and I can see no difference in 

 the honey. 



Now, this year, 1881, the clover was simply "im- 

 mense." It commenced to bloom by the middle of 

 May, and from that time till the 13th of July it was 

 one continuous hum of Italians. J then cut one acre 

 of it for hay. The lowest estimate was 3;4 tons per 

 acre, and up to i'/i. The ?i of an acre I cut for seed, 

 thrashed it by hand, and sold $S3.50 worth of seed, 

 and have 15 lbs. left for my own use. I think I can 

 safely say, that Alsike clover and the Simpson hon- 

 ey-plant are a success here on Puget Sound. 



H. A. March. 



Fidalgo, Whatcom Co., Wash. Ter., Dec, 1831. 

 Friend M., I do not think it was because 

 the bees did not hnd the Simpson plants, but 

 because they were too busy on something 

 else to notice it. After the other forage 

 failed, then all hands turned in for the sweet 

 water in the little pitchers of the Simpson 

 plant. While basswood yields, our oees 

 never look at the Simpsons here ; but just 

 before and just after, it is roaring as you de- 

 scribe. 



STRAV THOUGHTS ON BEES-NESS. 



WHEN DOCTORS DISAGREE, WHO SHALL DECIDE? 



^jifT is somewhat amusing to read in the different 

 j>| pages of Gleanings the varied experience of 

 — ' the different bee-keepers, scattered as they are 

 all over this broad land, from Maine to California, 

 and from New Orleans to some place in Canada. 

 One builds a chaff hive, his bees winter splendidly; 

 he naturally thinks he has found a bonanza ; another 

 builds a cellar, his bees come out in spring in a 

 thriving condition; he immediately proclaims to the 

 world that cellar wintering is the only correct prin- 

 ciple. Another winter comes; my chaff-hive friend 

 finds nearly all his stocks dead, while those of hia 

 neighbor in cellar come out all right. Hurrah for 

 cellar 1 Another winter comes, and he of the chaflf 



