August, 1916. 



271 



American 'Rae Journal 



^^^F 



obtain supplies of pollen, and there is 

 in many places almost a continuous 

 flow of more or less importance from 

 March until October, 



SWEET CLOVER. 



I have harvested sweet clover seed 

 for five years, and have observed con- 

 ditions here in Colorado for some time. 



Sweet clover of the white blossom 

 variety is very hardy and will do well 

 on a greater variety of soils than any 

 other plant that I know of. I( is in- 

 clined, however, to be patchy in its 

 growth on poor soil — thick here and 

 thin there. Wherever the soil is rich 

 and well watered, a heavy growth oc- 

 curs, so heavy in fact that the next 

 year little if any will grow on that spot. 

 This condition may be avoided, how- 

 ever, by cutting a hay crop and letting 



so hard. 



White sweet clover has yielded for 

 me as high as ten bushels of hulled 

 seed per acre. This was on a very 

 heavy growth, where little clover grew 

 the next year — the ground was so well 

 shaded that the next growth could not 

 get a start. 



The average seed production for me 

 has been three bushels. Where one 

 has 40 acres of it, it is impossible to 

 prevent loss from shattering, before 

 and after cutting, while threshing it 

 out either by hand or with a machine. 



If weather conditions are just right 

 all the time you are cutting it, little 

 seed may be lost, but extremely dry 

 weather will make it impossible to cut 

 very much without shattering off half 

 or more of the seed. Cutting after a 

 rain or early in the morning, while the 



WILD 



POPPIES AND LUPINES FURNISH NECTAR AND POLLEN FOR THE 

 BEES-THEY GROW ON UNIRRIGATED LAND 



the second crop go to seed. The seed 

 crop will not grow up so rank as to 

 shade the ground and hinder the new 

 seeding for the next year. 



The best time to sow seed is in the 

 fall within two weeks of the cutting of 

 the seed crop. The seed germinates 

 almost perfectly if sown before the 

 seed coat becomes very hard. Two 

 years ago I cut some sweet clover for 

 seed and cocked up the clover in large 

 piles. We had a week of rainy weather 

 and practically all the seed germinated 

 in the hay cocks. Green or slightly 

 green seed seems to germinate better 

 than the round, plump, yellow seeds, 

 probably because the seed coat is not 



dew is still on it, works best. 



I have threshed my seed on a rack 

 with canvas sides sloping to the cen- 

 ter, and a screened frame in the center 

 through which the seed drops into a 

 canvas-lined box holding about 15 

 bushels. The seed is quite dirty, but 

 can easily be cleaned in a fanning 

 mill and then hulled in a scarilying 

 machine. Running the seed-cleaner 

 and scarifying machine will require 

 three men. First run the seed through 

 the cleaner, then hull the seed and 

 scarify it by running twice through the 

 cleaner again to blow out the hulls. If 

 power is used on both the seed-cleaner 

 and scarifying machine, from one to 



two tons a day may be easily handled 

 by three men. 



EUROPEAN FOULBBOOn NOTES. 



H. E. Hutchinson, of Paonia, advises 

 transferring once directly upon full 

 sheets of foundation, and saving combs, 

 as he thinks it is not necessary to de- 

 stroy them. Queens received through 

 the rnails proved very susceptible to 

 the disease and what seemed very un- 

 satisfactory was the way these queens 

 were superseded. Strengthening colo- 

 nies by uniting did not work very well 

 with Mr. Hutchinson. Weak, diseased 

 colonies were closed up completely; 

 colonies of just fair strength were built 

 up by giving hatching brood from col- 

 onies that remained healthy through 

 the scourge of European foulbrood. 

 Of 135 colonies, Mr. Huchinson saved 

 15, most of Ihe 15 not showing the dis- 

 ease. Strong colonies with young 

 queens can be cured of the disease by 

 caging the queens, but colonies not 

 very strong and vigorous should be 

 transferred and requeened. 



The difficulty with uniting bees to 

 strengthen them is that, after uniting a 

 lot of them, the result is not a strong 

 colony. Transferring with even colo- 

 nies of small strength will give good 

 results, where requeening is also done. 



Bees, the hives of which are placed 

 too close together when the apiary is 

 diseased show a large percentage of 

 disease. 



Boulder, Colo. 



Production Costs and How to 

 Figure Tiiem 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER. 



w 



HAT does it cost to produce a 

 pound of honey? Easily asked 

 but not easily answered. Sup- 



pose the question is put this way : How 

 much does it cost per year to operate a 

 colony of bees ? Just about as hard to 

 answer as the other, isn't it ? And yet 

 if you can get at the average cost of 

 operating a colony of bees one year 

 with another, you can always tell what 

 your honey costs you, be it either comb 

 or extracted, and the difierence in cost 

 between the two you will find to be so 

 slight that you will not think it worth 

 considering. That statement will cause 

 protests I know, but it will be up to you 

 to prove me wrong. 



I have some satisfactory answers to 

 my questions for the conditions of the 

 eastern States, but some factors will 

 be modified by conditions in other sec- 

 tions. I will tell you how to proceed to 

 find out for yourselves. 



The first step is to take an inventory 

 of your possessions, of all those things 

 which are essential to the conduct of 

 the business. This will include all 

 hives, supers, extractors and other 

 tools, tanks, buildings used or built 

 specially for the business. If you in- 

 cidentally use a room in your dwelling 

 or some other building, even though if 

 you did not have it you would be com- 

 pelled to build for the purpose, the 

 dwelling would not be included in the 

 inventory. On the other hand, if you 

 own an automobile and use it chiefly 

 for your work, even though many miles 

 are run for pleasure, it should be in- 



