846 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1.5. 



with the same bank account have just a little 

 more respect ? 



IJUCKWHEAT HONEY VS. SUGAR, FOR WINTER. 



A correspondent having extracted buckwheat 

 honey from unfinished sections, and needing to 

 feed for winter, wants lo know whether it is 

 better to feed the buckwheat honey or sugar. 

 If I had the buckwheat hon^y in brood-combs 

 all ready for use I'd use that for winter food 

 rather than take the trouble of pxtracting and 

 then feeding back. But if I had (extracted 

 buckwheat honey, with sugar as it now is in 

 price, I'd sell the honey and feed sugar— all the 

 more if the honey was extracted from unfinish- 

 ed sections, for in that case it would most likely 

 be unfinished honey, and not the very best for 

 winter stores. 



A QUESTION OF MOVING. 



The same correspondent is in a little doubt 

 whether it is better or not to move his bees to a 

 new location. Where he is in Pennsylvania, 

 the lindens have been mostly cut oflf, and pas- 

 turage is getting scarce, except that some fifty 

 acres of crimson clover have been sown wiihin 

 reach this summer. A location with which he 

 is familiar in Virginia abounds in linden-trees 

 that were loaded with bloom the past season. 



Leaving out all questions except what is best 

 for the bees, I think I'd take my chances on the 

 Virginia territory. Linden rarely fails, and at 

 its best is an immense yielder. Crimson clover 

 is as yet an unknown quantity. Even if it be 

 found that it will succeed perfectly in Pennsyl- 

 vania, and if. too, it be found that it yields 

 well, it will still be an uncertain quantity, for it 

 must be sown annually; and whatever may be 

 the amount sown this year, you've no guaran- 

 tee that an acre will be sown next year, while 

 your lindens are there as a fixture, and at the 

 worst will be only gradually cleared away. 

 Then, too, if the same amount of the crimson 

 clover is sown every year, a large part of it may 

 be plowed under as green manure; and of what 

 use wouldj^hat part of it be to the bees V The 

 most reliable part will be that used for raising 

 seed, and that is not likely to be large. I don't 

 want to throw cold water upon the expecta- 

 tions as to crimson clover. I hope much from 

 it ; but when it comes to comparing chances 

 between that and linden, with our present 

 knowledge crimson clover is nowhere. 



ROBBERS. 



I had a little scrimmage with robbers this 

 fall. It was at the time we were taking away 

 from the bees in the home apiary all lower sto- 

 ries, some of the lower stories having considera- 

 ble honey. A few frames, which we carelessly 

 supposed to be entirely empty, but with a lit- 

 tle honey in them, were left standing by a tree. 

 When I first noticed the bees at work on them I 

 thought it best to leave them, as there was only 

 a little honey in them ; and taking them away 

 before the bees had emptied them and realized 

 they were empty would only set the robbers at 



work on the nearest hives. Whether these 

 combs were directly to blame I don't know; but 

 at any rate the next day I found lively times at 

 No. 83 near by. I went and got some hay — not 

 a few spears, but a whole armful — threw some 

 loosely at the entrance, and then kept adding 

 till the entrance and the entire hive was cover- 

 ed. Then I got buckets of water and thorough- 

 ly wet down the hay, and left the bees to their 

 fate. I left the hay for a week; but there was 

 no appearance of robbers shortly after the hay 

 was put there. When T looked into the hive a 

 week or so later I found a good colony there; 

 but the robbers had emptied the three outside 

 combs before they had been stopped. If they 

 had not been meddled with I think the colony 

 would have been ruined. No. 19, in the oppo- 

 site row, was having a little trouble with rob- 

 bers at the same time, but I didn't think it 

 would amount to much. I didn't notice it till a 

 week or two later, when I found it empty of 

 honey, with the queen and a dozen bees. If I 

 had given it a good feed of hay it might have 

 been saved. 



SWEET CLOVER HEAVED BY FROST. 



On page 643 A. I. Root says of sweet clover, 

 "It is never heaved out by the frost. So far as 

 I am informed, the frost has never yet been able 

 to budge a root of it after it had made one 

 season's growth." I think you forget, friend 

 Root, or else you overlooked a report that I 

 made in Gleanings a few years ago. It will 

 be easier for me to repeat it than to hunt it up 

 and refer you to it: and, moreover, it may be 

 worth more now than when first written, for I 

 think more sweet clover is being now sown. 



I had a piece of ground carefully prepared in 

 the spring, the soil being made very mellow. 

 It was sowed with oats, then with sweet clover. 

 The sweet clover came up thick. The spring 

 following I went with a good deal of interest to 

 see what the sweet clover was like, and was 

 very much surprised to find no living plants. 

 I think there was not a single one. Plenty of 

 dead plants were there, lifted bodily up by the 

 roots. A point perhaps worth noticing was. 

 that the plants were all small, not more than 

 half the size that plants usually make in hard 

 ground in the first year of their growth. So I 

 conclude that adversity is good for sweet clo- 

 ver, and that the seed does best in hard ground. 



Marengo, 111. 



[I think you have answered it yourself, friend 

 M. The seeding was too heavy. A single 

 plant of sweet clover on any kind of soil, no 

 matter how poor, if there are not too many 

 other sweet-clover plants all around it, will 

 make such a growth, providing it has the whole 

 season, that it is almost next to impossible for 

 it to be heaved out by the frost. All along the 

 ground beside the railroad which has recently 

 been cut through my garden there are plants 

 about as thick as they ought to stand; and I 

 have never yet seen one thrown out by the 

 frost; while alsike, red clover, and other plants, 

 are frequently heaved up clear on top. — A. I. R.] 



