858 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. i5. 



SWEET clovek; where it gkows; not a 



NOXIOUS weed. 



Dr. Miller: — Will you please give in Glean- 

 ings the season of sweet-clover bloom? I 

 think of putting in a Held if bloom suiis, as my 

 Belgian bares could use the hay to a T. Would 

 I have a stand if 1 sowed the seed in March on 

 top of bare ground, like buckwheat stubble '? I 

 understand it grows easily. W. W. K. 



Pottstown, Pa., Oct. 14. 



Dr. Miller replies: 



I don't know just when sweet clover com- 

 mences to bloom, but it's some time after the 

 beginning of white clover— perhaps a month 

 later. This year it was at its best about the 

 middle of July, but that was unusually early. 

 It continued to bloom till the weather was loo 

 cold for bees to fly. The first frosts that kill 

 all the tenderer plants seem to have no effect 

 on sweet clover, and the bees can be seen work- 

 ing on it after the weather becomes freezing 

 cold, providing a warm day comes. 



I've no doubt it would come all right if sown 

 in March. It grows very easily where you 

 don't want it to grow, and will do well in very 

 hard ground; but I've known it to fail of a 

 catch in very carefully prepared ground. It 

 doesn't seem to do as well usually on soft 

 ground, but perhaps that's because it is sown 

 too shallow. I've seen some fine grotvthson 

 soft ground where the seed was plowed in. A 

 little patch of that kind on my own ground 

 would make good mowing in the latter half of 

 October. I've just been out and found one 

 stalk that measured 2i» inches. But then I've 

 found another patch nearly as good on very 

 hard ground. If sowed shallow on soft ground 

 it may heave in winter. Stamped in on the 

 roadside it will stand the severest winter. If 

 you sow on buckwheat stubble in March, mere- 

 ly letting the seed lie on the surface without 

 covering at all, I don't believe much of it will 

 come. Scratch it in or else plow it in. 



C. C. Miller. 



[Sweet clover, it is true, will grow where you 

 don't want ii to; but at the same time it is not 

 a noxious weed in the ordinary sense of the 

 term. Again, it won't grow where you wantii, 

 especially on the belter soils. It seeks dry 

 waste places in the hard clay along the roau- 

 sides and railroads — places where nothing else 

 would or could possil)ly grow. If, however, in- 

 stead of seeking such places it sought out the 

 best of our farms, and if, too, it were hard to 

 eradicate, we might call it a noxious weed. 



With us it begins blooming just about as 

 basswood ceases, and continues until a couple 

 of weeks before frost. Along the lattiT part of 

 July and first part of August it often yields 

 just enough honey to be perceptible in the 

 hives, and enough to keep robbers kind o' half 



way decent during our queen-rearing opera- 

 lions. 



The plant is destined to take a much more 

 prominent place among our honey-plants — the 

 more so as it is occupying otherwise waste 

 lands, anu comes alter tlie regular honey-flows. 

 Farmers are slowly beginning to learn that 

 stock will eat it, and tliis will serve to break 

 down their old prejudice against it. — Ed.J 



OLD FOUNDATION IN OR OUT OF THE BOX 

 READILY ACCEPTED BY THE BEES. 



Ed. OLed'tiinys:— in Oct. 15th issue you ask 

 for experience from readers in the line of using 

 founOation the second year wiih exposure to 

 air, as suggested by llie zigzaggmgs of ilie bees 

 of Bro. Israel, which he calls cross-eyed bees. 

 They must have been emulating the course of 

 the children of Israel in entering the promised 

 land. 



I remember of using, several years ago, quite 

 a quantity of thin section foundation the sec- 

 ond year. Pari of it had been kept in the bulk 

 as I received it, and pan had remained in the 

 sections over winter. If I forget not, I had 

 some of it as narrow starters on brood-frames 

 overwinter. Part of it was '"tissue " founda- 

 tion, from W. W. Bliss, of Duarte, Los Angeles 

 Co., and was well named, from its pliability, 

 both the first and second seasons, even at low 

 temperatures, where other foundation would 

 break. Part of it was very brittle and glassy, 

 so that I had to be carelul in using it. 



My bees at that lime were Cyprians, pure, 

 and hybrids; and, while cross-hearted in the 

 extreme, they evidently must have been 

 straight-eyed, for they pulled out the founda- 

 tion all right and built things true in every 

 section, regardless of the condition of the foun- 

 dation. 



CLOSED-END FRAME PREFERRED, AND WHY. 



i can not but say a word regarding your 

 frame-spacers — see same number of Glean- 

 ings. I like the closed end frame for a self- 

 spacing frame. My preference is for Alley's 

 Bay State hive, not patented, or some modifica- 

 tion of it, as I am not sure that the hives I 

 have made and used are modeled accurately 

 after it. I believe it to be the best hive in use. 

 The Aspinwall ought to be a very good one. 

 1 have found closed-end frames, lifted out and 

 replaced from above, to be remarkably easy to 

 handle. They kill fewer bees; they are handy 

 to put into place; they have been a real de- 

 light to me. There is no need of trouble with 

 propolis. If one only gets the knack (or, as 

 F. Thompson says, the "kink" of handling 

 them, they are easily operated, and there is no 

 awkward situation in their use that I have not 

 found to be worse duplicated in the ordinary 

 narrow hanging frame. A. Norton. 



Monterey, Cal., Oct. 28. 



[Your experience confirms that of Dr. Miller 

 and others. It looks now as if all old founda- 

 tion were perfectly good, whether kept in boxes 

 or in sections exposed to the air. Friend Isra- 



