September, lyii 



American Hee Journal 



River bottom, and alfalfa on the upland ; 

 and today they are at least 75 pounds 

 heavier per colony than they were a 

 month ago. 



Clay County, Mo., will make a display 

 of honey at the next meeting of the Mis- 

 souri State Bee-Keeper's Association, to 

 be held at Electric Park, in Kansas City, 

 Mo., Sept. 26, 27, and 28, 191 1. 



Liberty, Mo., Aug. 20. J. F. Diemer. 



Good Pro' spects for Buckwheat 



Honey in this locality was only about 

 half a crop of basswood and clover, but 

 prospects are good for buckwheat. I never 

 saw bees work as well, or store as much 

 honey from buckwheat, as they are now. 

 Some of my bees filled their extracting 

 supers in a little over a week. 



M. C. SiLSBEE. 



•Cohocton, X. v., August 15. 



Half Crop and No Swarms 



I have averaged about 30 pounds of 

 good clover honev per colony. The brood- 

 chambers are well filled for winter, with 

 good prospects for a fall flow from golden- 

 rod and asters, which are abundant in 

 this locality. The dry spell from June_ 

 loth to August loth cut off one-half of 

 the honey crop in this section. Abundant 

 rain, which has just fallen, should give 

 us some fall surplus honey. Xo swarms 

 this season. 



Honey Short, but Other Crops 

 Good 



Bees' in New Hampshire were doing 

 fine until July ist when the hot wave 

 struck us. It dried up the clover, but I 

 am hoping the bees will finish up what 

 they have started on goldenrod ; some 

 swarms had 84 one-pound sections nearly 

 finished at that time. One week more 

 would have finished them. Our crops are 

 good. Potatoes sell here for $2.00 a bushel 

 now. Edg.«,r Ricard. 



Canaan. X. H.. August 7. 



May Not Need to Feed Much 



Since I wrote you, July 15th, we have 

 had some showers. We had a very heavy 

 one the evening of the day I wrote. There 

 will be something of a corn crop, but not 

 such a one as we have in seasons of 

 greater moisture. Xotwithstanding the heat 

 and dryness, 1 am surprised at the weight 

 of my brood-chambers. I expected to 

 have to feed much, but it looks now as 

 if I shall have to feed but little. The 

 colonies I am feeding are those that got 

 queenless early, and did not have field- 

 bees in sufficient numbers early enough 

 to get anvthing from the early flow. 



I have 'faith in bees, but know that I 

 must soon go the way that Hutchinson 

 and Hilton have gone. They rest in 

 peace and their works do follow them. 

 May it be so with me. Edwin Bevins. 



Leon, Iowa, August 14- 



ate it first in preference to the timothy. 

 If any reader does not believe this, try 

 it and be convinced, and you'll be sur- 

 prised how greedily the cattle will eat it 

 in preference to the best hay. 



St. Anne, 111., July 29. H. S. Duby. 



The following is the clipping about 

 sweet clover, referred to by Mr. 

 Duby, which shows that this great 

 clover is finally ''having its day:" 



Sweet Clover Now Recognized as One 

 OF the Most Valuable Fertilizers. 



On the McDougall farm in Danforth 

 township, Iroquis county, Illinois, there 

 was sown 60 acres of the common sweet 

 clover, of the kind that usually grows at 

 the side of the road and is considered 

 somewhat of a nuisance except for pas- 

 turage for bees. However, according to 

 "Bob" McDougall, who told the writer 

 about the story, sweet clover is coming 

 to be considered a valuable food-plant, 

 and is also much superior to red clover 

 in improving the soil, as the roots spread 

 out more and go down further, and have 

 more of the microbes that assimilate 

 nitrogen. 



The sweet clover has grown up about as 

 high as a man's head, and is a veritable 

 jungle of vegetation on the ground. Some 

 of it has been pastured, the cattle eating 

 the tops greedily when in blossom. The 

 most of the 60 acres will be cut for hay 

 and the seed threshed out. 



Supervisor Gilfillan, of Belmont, has 

 tried some experiments in the sweet clover 

 line, and thinks it might be made quite a 

 success. — IVatseka (Illinois) Republican. 



Sweet Clover for Milk Cows and as a 

 Fertilizer 



I enclose a clipping from one of our 

 local papers. This is the first time that 

 I noticed an article of this kind in a local 

 paper, and I believe that the story is 

 worth repeating. It took a long time to 

 educate the farmers to the value of sweet 

 clover, but I hope that we are "getting 

 there," slow but sure. 



I know by experience that sweet clover 

 is very good feed, especially for milk 

 cows, for when we were on the farm, 

 some vears ago, we had a piece of hay, 

 half of which was sweet clover. We cut 

 everything, thinking that the stock would 

 pick the hay and discard the "stuff." 

 'Well, to our surprise, they did, but they 



Report for 1911 — Swarming and 

 Clipping Queens 



I had 42 colonies of bees, spring count, 

 in lo-frame double- wall hives, on Hoft'- 

 man frames, and have increased to 74, 

 the increase being from about one-third 

 of the whole number. 2 of them having 

 swarmed 4 times, which was very un- 

 usual, and entirely too much. However, 

 the parent colony built up, and is now 

 doing super-work. The swarming com- 

 menced the first part of June, nearly all 

 filling a super hsfore swarming. The 

 prime swarms have filled 2, and some 3 

 supers, and most of the second swarms 

 have filled one uper. They have suffi- 

 cient stores for the winter. I don't gen- 

 erally have more than one swarm to every 

 4, and very seldom a second swarm. This 

 has been an exceptional 'Season in the 

 way of swarming. I am certainly in a 

 good location as to bee-pasture. I produce 

 comb honey entirely, and have the bees 

 starting super-work in the after part of 

 fruit-bloom, which is helped very much by 

 the dandelion bloom, followed by white 

 clover and alsike. Then we have quite 

 a locust bloom, followed by a large crop 

 of sumac and basswood, catnip, and rasp- 

 berry. We have had about 10 days in the 

 buckwheat bloom, which is unusually good 

 on account of the late rains which have 

 pushed forward the fail blossoms tha. 

 promise a good yield, such as heartsease, 

 blue and white asters. We also have quite 

 an abundance of goldenrod, but the bees 

 seldom work on it here. 



We had quite a drouth through July, 

 but the late rains have pushed everything 

 forward till there is prospect of a fair 

 honey crop. My colonies, from present 

 indications, will average 40 sections apiece, 

 leaving off the afterswarras, and will ol 

 all ready for wintering, excepting 2 late 

 swarms that will likely need some addi- 

 tional combs of honey. 



1 feel like expressing myself as to the 

 war against natural swarming and the 

 clipping of queens. My experience is that 

 a swarm coming off when the queen is 

 disabled, and can't be with them when 



thev alight, is a regular nuisance and 

 bother, while if she is with them it is 

 no trouble to take them to their intended 

 hive, and they go right in, and all is well 

 without having to hunt her up. and then 

 get her and the swarm together. 



The clipping of queens is entirely con- 

 trary to Xature, and I believe the time 

 is coming when it will be a thing of the 

 past. My bees are of the Golden Italian 

 strain, and are very gentle, and are hust- 

 lers. 



I would be glad for some information 

 on how to get the much-advertised sweet 

 clover to grow. I have bought seed and 

 sown it three different seasons, and on 

 different kinds of soil, but have failed to 

 get it to grow. Must it have lime, or 

 must the ground be inoculated with soil 

 from the ground from which it grew ? 



W. S. WiLLIMS. 



Julian, Pa., August 15. 



[W'e expect to publish quite a lit- 

 tle on the growing of sweet clover, 

 during the next few months, and 

 would invite any who have had ex- 

 perience With it, to write us about it 

 for publication. — Editor.] 



" Southern Bee-Culture " is the 



name of a booklet written by J. J. 

 Wilder, perhaps the most extensive 

 bee-keeper and honey-producer in the 

 whole State of Georgia. It is a real 

 hand-book of Southern bee-keeping, 

 with methods so simply described that 

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 keeper, especially in the South, should 

 have a copy of Mr. Wilder's booklet. 

 He conducts apiaries by the dozen, and 

 produces many tons of honey every 

 season. He tells in careful detail just 

 how he does it. The price of this book- 

 let is 50 cents, or we now club it with 

 the American Bee Journal for a year — 

 both for $1.30. Send all orders to 

 the American Bee Journal, 117 North 

 Jefferson St., Chicago, 111. 



"A Year's Work in an Out- 

 Apiary" is the name of a booklet by 

 G. M. Doolittle, the well-known honey- 

 producer of New York State. He tells 

 how he secured an average of IW/i 

 pounds of honey per colony in a poor 

 season. It is fully illustrated, and tells 

 in detail just how Mr. Doolittle has 

 won his great success as a honey-pro- 

 ducer. The price of the booklet is 50 

 cents, postpaid, but we club it with the 

 American Bee Journal for a year— both 

 for $1.30. Every bee-keeper should 

 have a copy of this booklet, and stud> 

 it thoroughly. Address all orders to 

 the American Bee Journal, 117 North 

 Jefferson St., Chicago, 111. 



" Bee-Keepers' Guide " 



This book on bees is also known as 

 the "Manual of the Apiary." It is iii- 

 structive, interesting, and both practi- 

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 Every bee-keeper should have it in his 

 library. It has 544 pages, and 295 illus- 

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 for $1.90. Send all orders to *>-» igice 

 of the American Bee Journal. 



