January, igo8. 



American ^cc Journal 



soil comes from the air by means of 

 the legumes, of which clover^ form a 

 part. A striking example of what 

 sweet clover will do for very poor land 

 is thus given by D. P. Norton in Okla- 

 homa Farm Journal : 



"A few years after I came to Kansas 

 I planted an orchard on the poorest 

 kind of Kansas gumbo land, not fit for 

 cultivation. I mulched young trees 

 heavily for three or four years, also 

 sowed it to white clover, partly be- 

 cause an orchard should not be croppe;! 

 with any thing not a legume, and main 

 ly for bees to work on clover. Tlx- 

 orchard grew finely, and produced tiic 

 finest of fruit on coming into bearing. 

 The sweet clover mastered every thing 

 and grew immensely. It had full pos- 

 session eight or ten years, when I sold 

 out eight years ago. Last fall I was 

 there. About half the orchard had been 

 in peachtrees mostly, and the newcomer 

 had cleared up half the orchard where 

 peaches had grown, and was growing 

 great crops of corn on that old gumbo 

 land, beating his best bottom land, lie 

 said. I was amazed at the sight. He 

 asked me what caused such corn to 

 grow on that land. He said the plow 

 would go right down to the beam in 

 that soil — and he never had manured 

 it. I knew in a moment it was the 

 sweet clover. And there you are. The 

 apple-trees remaining were extra large, 

 and growing magnificent fruit. 



"I am 73, and too old to plant an- 

 other orchard. If I had known what I 

 know now, what sweet clover would 

 do to gumbo land, I could have 

 bought looo acres of such land at seven 

 or eight dollars per acre, and made it 

 worth seventy-five dollars per acre for 

 growing corn and alfalfa." 



booth to the center. The building was 

 lighted with both incandescent and arc 

 lights, and there was one incandescent 

 light, enclosed in a ground glass globe, 

 at each upper corner of every booth. 

 In the center of the building, reaching 

 to the dome, was a miniature Eiffel tow- 

 er of dark grey, having red and green 

 transparencies in its sides, the interior 

 being strongly lighted with electric 

 l-'jhts. 



"A B C and X Y Z of Bee-Culture" 



Another new edition of this great bee- 

 book has just been issued. It is an 

 encyclopedia of bee-culture of over 400 

 large pages, all beautifully illustrated. It 

 is bound in cloth, and is sent, postpaid, 

 for $1.50. The price was formerly $1.20, 

 but this latest edition is $1.50. We 

 mail it with the American Bee Journal 

 one year — ^both for only $1.75. No bee- 

 keeper's library can be at all complete 

 without a copy of this magnificent apiar- 

 ian work, it has reached a sale of 

 over T00,ooo copies already, being the 

 most largely sold book on bees in the 

 world. Better send to us for a copy to 

 read during the long winter evenings. 



The World's Pure Food Show 



The Bee-keepers' Review for Decem- 

 ber contained the following illustrated 

 write-up of the World's Pure Food 

 Show, held in Chicago, last November : 



"It is said that the Coliseum at Chi- 

 cago has the largest floor-space, of any 

 one room in the world ; and from Nov. 

 16, to Nov. 23, 1907, it was occupied 

 with the first annual Pure Food Show. 



"The booths were uniform in size (14 

 feet square), arranged in three double 

 rows, with alleys between the rows, and 

 three cross-alleys. The decorations were 

 yellow and green, with imitation autumn 

 leaves twined over the rafters that ex- 

 tended from the corner posts of each 



Somebody's flour ; samples of sausage fol- 

 lowed the same fate; the various break- 

 fast foods were served with sugar and 

 cream ; and a visitor could easily drink 

 his fill of the various coffees and other 

 beverages. 



".•\11 around the sides of the building 

 were booths rented to persons having 

 some novelty to sell. By waiting ten 

 minutes you could get three souvenir 

 postal cards adorned with your por- 



"The view from the gallery of the 

 building was delightfully novel and 

 beautiful, reminding one of a glimpse 

 into fairyland. 



"What was there on exhibition? Al- 

 most everything eatable and drinkable; 

 snd most of the booths were presided 

 over by fair "demonstrators," with fluffy 

 curls, bright eyes, smiles, ribbons and 

 laces, and enthused with a boldness, 

 natural or acquired, or both, that was 

 sometimes more or less of a shock to 

 the sensibilities. Sandwiches were given 

 away to show the superiority of Mr. 



trait ; for 25 cents you could get a phre- 

 nological reading of your cranium, made 

 by an ingenious, automatic machine, and 

 with scarcely any effort, a man could 

 load himself down with vegetable sliccrs 

 and parers, knife-sharpeners and can- 

 openers, Japanese vases, pop-corn frit- 

 ters, or 'Kotton Kandy.' 



"Yes, thanks to the money raised by 

 the ?Ioney- Producers' League, and later 

 turned over to the National Association, 

 the bee-keeping industry was creditably 

 represented by a display of honej' — one 

 that compared favorably with the other 



