156 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



spring of 1908 I made no honey forecast, 

 because, being located on the southern 

 side of the white clover belt, I was 

 hopeful of getting- some of my honey off 

 at the high price before the deluge came 

 from the North— something I v/as mis- 

 taken in. In t^ebruary 1st Gleanings, 

 1909, I had another article, telling the 

 bee keepers that east of the Mississippi 

 River there would not be a tenth of a 

 white clover crop that year; but didn't 

 Miller, Root, Doolittle, Hand & Co. do 

 me up! What was the result? The 

 editor, after bringing in Canada, which 

 gave a yield from alsike clover, and in- 

 cluding all the alsike and sweet clovers 

 and basswood honey, said there was 

 from 25 to 50 per cent, of a white honey 

 flow. Now. if you will except the above 

 named sources it is a serious question in 

 my mind whether there was a single 

 carload of surplus white clover honey 

 gathered from the Mississippi to the 

 Hudson River. 



Now I have a different story. Instead 

 of no honey, I want to say that there will 

 be a bumper crop this time in most of the 

 clover belt east of the Mississippi River. 

 When I say "white clover belt" I mean 

 those localities where white clover grows 

 spontaneously. The best of these locali- 

 ties are the Blue Grass sections of 

 Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, 

 Iowa, Southern Minnesota, Southern 

 Michigan, and Southern Wisconsin — 

 Iowa and Northern Illinois being the 

 heart of this belt. Draw a line from 

 Dubuque, la., to Springfield, 111., thence 

 to Indianapolis, Ind., thence to Louisville, 

 Ky., thence south; in nearly all the white 

 clover belt east of this line the white 

 clover is in a normal condition, i. e., a 

 crop of white clover started from the 

 seed in the spring of 1909 which grew 

 continually, caused by a surplus of rain- 

 fall, and, under favorable conditions, will 

 produce one of the largest honey flows 

 on record in 1910. The honey crop for 

 1910 now depends on normal rainfall 

 and sunshine after May 15, not on the 

 amount of snowfall or freezing and thaw- 

 ing we have during the winter months. 

 The snow helps in just this way: It 

 leaves the ground with plenty of moisture 

 in it in the spring, thus inviting more 

 moisture when the clover has got to have 

 it. The condition west of this line is 

 just this. The clover here was cut off 

 from moisture about July 10 and has set 

 only a moderate amount of embryo 

 blossoms to bloom this year; and the 

 best that can be hoped for in this section 

 is a moderate yield. The reason that I 

 say this is that July and August are the 



most important months in setting embryo 

 blossoms for next season's crop of honey; 

 and the greater the rainfall in these 

 months the larger amount of embryo 

 blossoms set. At this period the other 

 grasses are taking a kind of rest. Blue 

 grass has set its crop of seed; the 

 meadows have been shorn by the 

 mower, and have not started yet on a 

 new crop of fall growth, thus giving a 

 crop of new white clover a chance to 

 spread itself, which, with plenty of 

 moisture, it certainly does to a king's 

 taste. In a great many places of this 

 section the rainfall almost vanished after 

 July 10 — Cairo, III., for example, giving 

 but a trace of rain for August. West of 

 the Mississippi and south of the Minnne- 

 sota line, conditions are not very favor- 

 able for white clover honey. Iowa is hit 

 hardest, as there are whole counties in 

 that State that will not produce a pound 

 of surplus white clover honey this year. 

 I have no government data covering 

 Missouri and Kansas; but through an 

 unofficial source I have learned that a 

 good part of these States were hit hard 

 by fall drouths in 1909, there being 

 about seven weeks without rain, be- 

 ginning July 10, in large areas of this 

 section. In Missouri, as there was no 

 honey last year to speak of, and where 

 the rain fall was excessive until July 10, 

 there ought to be some honey this year. 

 I want the snow-honey fellows to watch 

 Iowa this year. The ground there in 

 most parts of the State has been covered 

 with snow since Dec. 1, and I say that 

 there will not be half a yield from white 

 clover in that State in 1910. Snow 

 does not set embryo clover blossoms. It 

 takes a temperature from 75 to 90 

 degrees, and from three to six inches of 

 rainfall per month to do the work. 



I will now tell what kind of weather 

 we need to make a bumper crop of honey 

 in 191C. As I have said before, wher- 

 ever the clover is in a normal condition 

 Nov. 1, it will be in a normal condition 

 April 1. To get best results after April 

 1. could I have my own way in my own 

 locality I would have good rains to soak 

 the ground thoroughly as soon as warm 

 weather comes, the last rains to be May 

 1 ; then I would have three weeks of dry 

 weather— this to make the clover fill the 

 ground with feeders to gather plant food 

 and moisture; then I would have good 

 rains to soak the ground thoroughly 

 again; also as much as an inch of rain 

 every eight or ten days; then we would 

 see the greatest yield from white clover 

 that any combination of circumstances 

 could make. 



