198 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Mar. 15 



after May 15, not on the amount of snowfall 

 or freezing and th iwing 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 I say this is that -luly 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 blos- 

 soms set. At this peri d 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 fa'l growth, thus giving 

 a crop of new white cliverachance to spread 

 itself which, with plenty of moisture, it cer- 

 tainly does to a king's taste. In a great many 

 piaffes of this section the rainfall almost van- 

 ished after July 10 — Cairo, III., for example, 

 givmg but a trace of rain for August. West 

 of ihe Mississippi and South of the Minnesota 

 line conditions are not very favorable for 

 white- clover honey. Iowa is hit hardest, as 

 there ar*- whole counties in that State that 

 will not produne a pound of surplus white- 

 clover honey this year. I h ive no govern- 

 ment data covering Missouri and Kansas; 

 but through an unoffi<nal source I h ive learn 

 ed that a good part of these States were hit 

 hard by fall drouths in 1909, there being 

 about seven weeks without rain, beginning 

 July 10, in large areas of this section, in 

 Missouri, as there was no honey last year to 

 speak of, and where the rainfall was exces- 

 sive 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 v\ill not be half a yield from white 

 clover in that State in 1910. Snow does not 

 set emt^ryo clover-blossoms. It takes a tem- 

 perature from 7o 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 

 1910. As I have said before, wherever the 

 clover is in a normal cindition Nov. 1, it will 

 be in a normal condition April 1. To get 

 best results after April 1, could 1 have my 

 own way in my 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 till the 

 ground with feeders to gather plant f lod and 

 mois'uie; 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 y eld 

 from white clover that any combination of 

 circumstances could make. 



Now, it may happen that, where the clover 

 is not in the best condition now, conditions 

 will be good for a honey flow; and where 

 conditions are most favorable now for a lack 

 of or from too much moisture, it may cut the 

 honey flow short: but taking conditions as a 

 whole, to have clover in a normal condition 

 Nov. 1 is live points out of ten in securing a 

 honey-flow. 



In speaking of a normal condition for white 

 clover, there are two conditions where clo- 

 ver is in a normal condition, one which occurs 

 but about one year in five. It occurred in 

 my locality in my 17 years of bee-keeping as 

 follows: 1897. i9o2. 19"6 and 1910. At Dr. 

 Miller's it occurred 1897, 1903, 1908, and 1910. 

 Now, as it will be two or three years before 

 this condition ran occur again it makes it for 

 the two locations about one year in five as 

 stated above. This condition is a crop of 

 wh'te clover, the greater part of which has 

 started from the seed the year previous, and 

 has covered the ground thoroughly with 

 plants that are in the best condition that it is 

 possible to put them in. These are the 

 plants that, under normal condit'on, in the 

 best of the white-clover belt, will yield honey 

 f r three months. The other condition, 

 which is also a n'>rmal one, but which at Dr. 

 Miller's, or, in fact, all the best of the white- 

 clover b*^ It. will not produce under the same 

 climatic conditions more than half as much 

 honey as the condition first mentioned. It 

 is where these plants started from the seed 

 in 19^9, and have developed a greater part 

 of their blossoms in 1910. Then these plants 

 set new plants from their runners, and these 

 new p'ants set new embryo blossoms that 

 blossom next year, but the bloom period be- 

 ing about half as Ion r the second year as the 

 first. This will continue for a year or two, 

 then they fall down from overcrowding or 

 drouth. In my locality clover never f nls 

 from overcrowding. As T am on the extreme 

 soui^hern side of the white-clover belt our 

 soil is not as strong nor as well adapted to 

 white clover as it is north. There is no com- 

 bination of circumstances in my locality that 

 will make white clover yield honey later 

 than July 10. while in the best of the clo- 

 ver belt it will yield honey for three months 

 or more. 



Richmond, Kentucky, Feb. 28. 



SUPPLYING NFFDED STORES IN THE 

 SPRIVG. 



Pouring Svrup into Empty Combs In- 

 stead of Feeders; some Advantages of 

 the Plan. 



BY GFO. ^HIBER. 



More than twenty years ago. when Dr. 

 Miller wrote "A Year Among the Bees" he 

 gave in that book his plan of fe ding by fill- 

 ing empty combs (regular b^ood- combs), 

 with sugar vrup and putting them right in 

 the hive. The doctor pointed out that in 

 this way one always has plenty of feeders; 

 for if all the combs are full there is no neces- 



