486 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 14, 1904. 



of Prof. Shutt's experiment in determining water of honey. 

 Prof. Shutt says that he coa lends that what we have been 

 supposing to be water only, is really in part the decomposed 

 products of the honey. Furthermore, he says : " Evidently 

 there was no stopping-place, and what we were calculating as 

 water was really in large part due to decomposition of the 

 honey.''' 



In conclusion I wish to say just this : We can be em- 

 phatically sure that it is only a question of time between 

 thin honey and sour honey, and a warm room will make it 

 sour all the quicker unless there be plenty of ventilation. 

 Ventilation is the important part. Mr. Ivatham used cal- 

 cium chloride to dry the air and honey. Why ? Because 

 calcium chloride is a true deliquescent substance, and not 

 only took the water from that air, but from the honey as 

 well. Knox Co., 111. 



Defense of Sweet Clover and Its Honey. 



BY R. C. HUGENTOBLER. 



I THINK Mr. Hasty all too hasty in confirming- the sen- 

 tence passed upon sweet clover, on page 745 (1903), by 

 Mr. Walter S. Pouder. Mr. Pouder makes two indict- 

 ments against sweet clover : 



1. That, blooming with white clover, and mingling its 

 inferior nectar with that of white clover, " it has greatly 

 lessened the value of our white clover crop in central In- 

 diana and southern Ohio." 



2. That " it yields a surplus this year, the first since the 

 National Bee-Keepers' Association met in Indianapolis, in 

 1886." 



As Mr. Pouder speaks for southern o^io, and as I am a 

 southern Buckeye, the bee-keepers' lullaby, "locality," has 

 no effect upon me, and I am compelled to break the silence 

 of years in defending that bee-intoxicant — sweet clover. 



I shall pass by the charge against sweet clover, of dis- 

 pensing intoxicants which change the "busy" to the 

 " boozy " bee, with the remark that the legality of such 

 business is beyond the tribunals of man, as he himself has 

 legalized and been engaged in the gigantic slaughter of the 

 years, and address myself to the foregoing indictments. 



In regard to the first, I must say that there is but a re- 

 mote possibility of the adulteration of white clover honey 

 by the busy bees in southern Ohio. The reason of the re- 

 moteness of the possibility of adulteration is, the remote- 

 ness of the thing to be adulterated. There is plenty of 

 sweet clover honey every year, but you can not adulterate 

 nothing ; neither can the bee. I will afSrm, for southwest- 

 ern Ohio, that between the years 1897 and 1903 there 

 was not a single pound of surplus white clover honey pro- 

 duced. Sometimes within this interval there was an abun- 

 dance of bloom, but it persistently refused to yield the much- 

 desired sweet. During this same interval sweet clover failed 

 not for a single season to produce enough surplus to make 

 bee-keeping possible. 



It is a well-known fact that in southern Ohio the sweet- 

 clover flow commences about two weeks later than from 

 white clover, and ends about two weeks later than the same. 

 Even if white clover were a reliable nectar-producing plant 

 in southern Ohio, (which it is not), one-half of the white 

 clover nectar would be gathered before the sweet clover 

 commenced to yield, and the last two weeks of the sweet 

 clover yield would be gathered after white clover had ceased 

 to produce nectar. Thus, the two clovers would be yielding 

 simultaneously for about two weeks, if we allow four weeks 

 for the time of the clover flow, which is a fair estimate. 

 Thus but two weeks of the white clover crop could be 

 affected by the sweet clover honey being blended with it. 

 while two weeks of the sweet clover crop would be gathered 

 separately. In the crowded districts of southern Ohio the 

 twoweeksof the sweet clover yield being simultaneous with 

 that of white clover, it would be an immense boon to the bee- 

 keeper, as it would furnish remunerative employment to the 

 millions of toilers that make their daily onset on the flowers. 



If the white clover pasturage were sufficient, and sweet 

 clover the scanty yielder it is said to be, the argument 

 against sweet clover would, nevertheless, fail ; for the law 

 obtains that bees work on the bloom giving them the great- 

 est returns for their labor, so there would be no admixture 

 of sweet clover honey with that of white clover. 



I think, then, that the argument made against sweet 

 clover is an argument in its favor ; and my conclusion, sup- 

 ported by the arguments based upon either of the premises, 

 is, that sweet clover holds its head high among the nectar- 



producing plants of central Indiana, and smothers out all 

 competitors in southern Ohio. 



Eliminate sweet clover from southern Ohio, and destroy 

 the last vestige of an apiary 7 No ! Let it adorn the dusty 

 highways and clothe the naked hillsides ; let it clamber up 

 frowning precipices and leap across deep gullies ; let wind 

 and wave conspire to extend its dominion and enable the 

 winged millions to sip from its enticing bloom. 



Hamilton Co., Ohio. 





Convention Proceedings 



ings I 



Report of the Michigan State Bee-Keepers' 

 Convention. 



BY E. B. TYRRELI,, SEC. 



The annual convention of the Michigan State Bee- 

 Keepers' Association was called to order with Pres. W. Z. 

 Hutchinson in the chair, at Agricultural College, at 1:30 

 p.m., Feb. 25. 



The report of the Secretary was read and adopted. 



DISCUSSION ON FOUL BROOD. 



Next followed a discussion on foul brood. Mr. C. A. 

 Huff believed it is not necessary to disinfect the hives. He 

 asked the experience of those who have tried shaking bees 

 for foul brood. 



Pres. Hutchinson said it does not develop very often 

 afterwards. 



Randolph Graden had reason to believe that robbing 

 will not spread the disease. He had a neighbor who had 

 8 or 10 colonies of bees located 30 rods from his apiary where 

 he had foul brood. One day this neighbor's bees were 

 found robbing out an infected hive, but the robbers did not 

 contract the disease. Mr. Graden said he could cure foul 

 brood in every case ; that he had tried all methods down to 

 ground coffee without effect. His method was to take the 

 bees, when honey was coming in, and shake them in a box, 

 leaving them there until they swarm out, when they are 

 hived in a nice, clean hive. He then destroys all combs, 

 and boils the honey. He believes foul brood is carried by 

 the wind. 



Leonard Griggs asked if it were not possible for the 

 nurse-bees from an infected hive to be carried by the wind 

 to the wrong hive, and then spread the disorder by the 

 honey carried with them. It was thought possible it might 

 be carried in that way. 



STORING HONEY IN LARGE TANKS. 



QuES. — " Why store honey in large tanks ?" 



G. A. Black uses 20-gallon jars just to ripen the honey 

 in. He allows 75 to 80 percent to be capped before extract- 

 ing. 



S. D. Chapman said there is no question but what a 

 large tank allows better evaporation, and thus a better arti- 

 cle of honey. He has raspberry honey weighing 12 pounds 

 to the gallon. 



Mr. Huff uses enough combs to hold the crop, then after 

 extracting stores it in a large tank. He is satisfied that he 

 thus gets a better article. 



Mr. Tyrrell uses and advocates the use of large storage- 

 tanks, his tanks holding one ton each. By their use he gets 

 a better-ripened and a better-settled article. All but two 

 barrels of his honey last year was stored in large tanks. 

 These two barrels were filled while extracting from nearly 

 sealed honey, but, when heating for bottling, the honey 

 could not be gotten nearly so clear as that stored in the 

 tanks. 



C. F. Smith thinks the honey gains nothing by being 

 stored in tanks, but wants all honey sealed before extract- 

 ing. He thinks that no honey catulies firm unless it is 

 sealed before extracting. He has used jars to ripen, with 

 poor results. 



Mr. Tyrrell said that candied hone melted, then allowed 

 to candy again, is much finer graiui .; than before being 

 melted; but possibly if the honey hai leen stirred the first 

 time while candying it might befinei ained. 



Pres. Hutchinson said that in ^ ,•• York bee-keepers 



