1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



645 



the roll for any given package. The package 

 must be folded at tne sides of the sections, but I 

 have never had complaints of its breaking the 

 honey. Be sure to use good strong twine, and 

 tie tightly. I tie by making a loop in one end 

 and carrying the twine around the package, and 

 passing the other end through the loop. By 

 this method you can draw the twine tight. 



J. Q. A. MULPORD. 

 Lebanon, O., Aug. 13, 1896. 



[While your plans of wrapping up sections 

 are good, I still like the basket-splint method 

 proposed by Mr. Phelps; and by it the average 

 bee-keeper could, I think, make a stronger 

 package.— Ed.] 



SWEET CLOVER. 



Our crop of honey has been very good so far, 

 mostly from sweet clover. Bees won't touch 

 alfalfa till sweet clover has done blossoming. I 

 find quite a change in the minds of some of my 

 neighbors. They are beginning to think sweet 

 clover is a pretty good thing after all. I have 

 sold some seed to one, and two others are talk- 

 ing of sowing some. It will grow on our poor- 

 est land, and make a crop, and choke out all 

 weeds we have in this country, including sand- 

 burrs and cockle-burrs. If it were of no other 

 use it would pay well as a fertilizer. But it is 

 a splendid hay crop, and, in my opinion, there 

 is nothing belter for honey. I have about ten 

 acres seeded down for next year. I put several 

 acres in the corn at the last cultivating, and 

 have a nice stand. You see, by putting it in 

 the corn we have the crop the next season. If 

 sown in the fall it will come up early the next 

 spring, and make a good growth that season, 

 but not seed. I always sow the seed with the 

 hull on. Joseph Shaw. 



Strong City, Kan., Aug. 13. 



SWEET CLOVER IN NEBRASKA; ITS HAY EQUAL 

 TO THAT OF ALFALFA. 



Sweet clover is one of the grandest plants in 

 existence, and it flourishes here with almost 

 tropical luxuriance. I have been familiar with 

 the plant from childhood, but had seen none for 

 years until we found it here. It is supposed to 

 have gained a foothold here four years ago from 

 some seed dropped around a camp of emigrants. 

 We protected and fenced the spot, and helped 

 it to spread. We give it no soil preparation nor 

 cultivation, as it needs none. We scatter it 

 along the roaasides and in grass lands — the 

 rain does the rest. It does not trouble cultivat- 

 ed fields. It is a resister of drouth, and for hay 

 is about equal to alfalfa. Aside from the above 

 valuable features it possesses valuable medici- 

 nal properties, some of which I will give you at 

 another time. As to the quality of the honey it 

 yields, I am not prepared to speak so positively; 

 but I imagine I shall have to learn to like it. 

 I can tell better later. 



Cleome and the Simpson honey-plant are na- 

 tive here, but not Cleome jiungens. That is an 



escape from cultivation near Mt. Carmel, 111., 

 and is not very widely distributed. Ours is 

 Cleome integri folia — ^nst as good as and in 

 some respects better than the former, from the 

 fact that ours yields honey from very early in 

 the morning till 11 and 13 o'clock; and unless it 

 is very hot and dry, the bees work on it until 

 quitting-time at nrght. 



Mrs. L. E. R. Lambrigger. 



Niobrara, Neb. 



SWEET clover; its value to THE FARMER. 



We clip the following from a recent issue of 

 the Country Gentleman: 



It first grew on our land (Scoharie, N. Y.) in spots, 

 as the seed was waslied on from the creek overtlow- 

 hig- the land; then as it grew up, and the land was 

 plowed tor corn, it was plainly seen that the corn 

 would be much better than where there was none 

 gTowiug. I considered it then advisable to gather 

 some of the seed as it grew wild, and seed it upon 

 part of a piece of rye in the spring, as you would 

 witii ordinary clover. 



The result was, in the fall after the rye was off the 

 ground there was a very rich growth of about two 

 feet high, a solid mat of it that it was almost impos- 

 sible for a man to walk through. In the spring it 

 was left to grow about up to the horses' knees, and 

 in due time for corn-planting, and then was turned 

 under by having a sharp share on the plow to cut 

 tlie roots well, and a chain attached to tlie plow to 

 drag under completely the green growth. Jt was 

 perfectly subdued, and the corn on that four acres 

 of a 13-acre lot was much heavier, and a better, 

 healthier color than on the remaining ground where 

 red clover was seeded and tliere was, only about 

 six Indus growth to turn under. 



I would advise all farmers, in preparing ground 

 for a good corn crop, to seed their ground with 

 this clover, either with winter grain or spring 

 grain. It will yield much better corn crops, and 

 will enrich their ground more and more each year. 

 There is no danger of the seed lying in the ground 

 and coming up another year, and it quickly dies 

 after turning under. J think it is worth five times 

 the quantity of common clover turned under. It 

 also acts as a subsoiler, as the roots will root deep, 

 and loosen the subsoil. I will gather a good quan- 

 tity of the seed this year to use for another season. 

 It is the cheapest manure that can be used, and is 

 equal to many more loads of manure to the acre 

 than any farmer puts on his land. The seed should 

 be hulled and cleaned the same as other clover seed 

 is prepared. For hay for cattle it is good cut early 

 before it gets stalky, and two and three crops can 

 be cut from it in that state, and then it dies off. 



The following is clipped from the Evening 

 News, Saginaw, Mich.: 



Nicholas J. Van Patten, a bsekeeper, of Vassar 

 Mich., got out of bed partly dressed on the morning 

 of Aug. 8 to drive a calf out of the yard. The calf 

 had knocked six hives of bees over. They com- 

 pletely covered Van Patten's body, and stung him 

 terribly. Van Patten ran into the house, and the 

 family scraped a quart of bees from his head. He 

 is in a critical condition. 



[Dear friends, there is a moral to this little 

 story. Bees and calves should each be placed 

 so that they can not disturb each other. My 

 impression is that the calf should have a good 

 stout fence around it; and under circumstances 

 like the above, one should be very careful about 

 undertaking to mend matters without being 

 well clothed. Very likely the whole mishap 

 came about by a poor fence, a gate carelessly 

 left open, or something of that sort.— Ed. J 



unfinished sections not in THE CENTER BUT 

 IN THP; OUTSIDE ROWS. 



There seems to be but one opinion in regard 

 to putting such sections back ; and that is, to 



