• DELVOTEII^ 



•To -Be. ELS"- 



•ANcHoNEY- 

 fMD HOME, 



•I/iTE:PvEST.S 



KMnH*'-^ 



PublishedyTHEA-ll^OO'f Co. 



11° PER Year'^'Xs) hedina- Ohio • 



Vol. XXIII. 



AUG. I, 1895. 



No. 15. 



Crimson clover won't count for much as a 

 honey-plant if its chief use is to plow under 

 before blooming. But then, some of it will be 

 used for raising seed. 



I avouldn't worry much whether it was 

 stored in a large or a small hive, if I could 

 have, like that Nevada man on p. 5.51, a steady 

 honey-flow of 2>2 to 3 months. 



Two THOUSAND cubic inches is the capacity 

 of brood-chamber C. W. Dayton has reached in 

 the last 13 years (p. 551). That's the figure 

 Quinby settled on 40 or 50 years ago. 



Did you ever see bees gather pollen from 

 sweet clover? If you did, what color is it? 

 My bees never seem to gather any. [Honey 

 alone seems to be what they are after around 

 our sweet clovers. — Ed.] 



Tell Y'OUR WIFE if she wants nice bread- 

 crumbs, to have very dry slices of bread, save 

 them up in a paper bag from time to time, and 

 mash them with a rolling pin. Then dip in 

 them your meat to fry. [I'm going to try it. 

 It tastes good in imagination already. — En.] 



C. W. Dayton doesn't want to be " encum- 

 bered by unnecessary stores and combs in the 

 hives in the busy season." What harm does 

 an extra comb of solid honey do in the busy 

 season, providing there is extra room for it in 

 the hive? I don't know of any except the 

 weight in handling. Do you ? 



Sweet clover is now at its best, July 15. 

 Bees don't commence on it till 8 or 9 o'clock, 

 but are thick on it the rest of the day. Prob- 

 ably they can do better on something else early 

 in the morning. [Some day, if it keeps on 

 spreading in the waste places as it has been 

 doing for the last four or five years, we shall 

 value it more than we do now.— Ed.] 



My little patch of crimson clover, sowed 

 this spring with oats, is not an immense suc- 

 cess. July 15 I found some stalks in bloom a 

 foot high. But it has been through a bad 



drouth, and is overshadowed by heavy oats. I 

 suppose it never ought to be sowed in the 

 spring, and I am afraid it will hardly stand one 

 of our winters. 



For years, following the lead of Adam 

 Grimm, I had a ventilating-space of ^^ inch at 

 the back of my hives; and, strange to say, it 

 was never used as an entrance as Doolittle 

 fears, p. 560. But my ventilating-space was at 

 the top, and he may mean at the bottom. I 

 think it helped to keep down swarming, but it 

 retarded the capping of sections at the back 

 end. 



Tin tags for numbering hives are to be list- 

 ed another year, perhaps (p. .561). Good! all 

 but the " perhaps." But I don't want to wait 

 till next year. Some of my old tags are lost, 

 and some are getting dim. I can tell the num- 

 bers by the place in the row, but I want them 

 correctly numbered before going into the cellar. 

 Punch a little hole in each, to push a half- 

 inch nail through. 



Crimson clover, according to a footnote on 

 p. 561, is to be sown " about the time corn is 

 cultivated for the first time." Didn't you mean 

 just before going through with the cultivator 

 for the last time ? [Yes, this was a mistake of 

 our business manager, Mr. Calvert. Only a 

 few advance sheets, however, like your own, 

 had the misprint. A. I. detected the error, and 

 the type were changed. — Ed.] 



To SHAKE bees off combs, I have for years 

 followed Doolittle's plan as learned from him, 

 and given on p. 559; also the plan given in the 

 foot-noie. For very heavy combs I like Doo- 

 little's plan best, and the editor's plan for 

 combs of medium weight. For very light 

 combs I use a still different plan. Hold the 

 frame in the left hand by one end of the top- 

 bar, and pound on the back of that hand with 

 the right fist. 



Frank Benton is named on page 5.59 as a 

 good man for a government apicultural station. 

 Hardly, if he'd be as slow about getting out re- 

 ports as he has been about getting out the re- 

 port of the St. Joe c'/uvention. [That may be; 

 but I was thinking of that splendid ability he 

 could use if he would; and would he not, under 



