1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



953 



seemingly, though she seldom complained, and 

 thought she would recover, till within a few 

 hours of her death. Myself and family are very 

 sad, and sorely bereaved; and it is hard for me 

 to realize that so valuable a life must be taken 

 from us. Toward the last she seemed unconscious 

 of suffering, and passed quietly away. Funeral 

 service yesterday at 1 o'clock p. m., in the Presby- 

 terian church, Ipava, conducted by Rev. Mr. George, 

 of Lewiston, 111., after which we laid her to rest in 

 Ipava cemetery. John Chaddock. 



Vermont, 111., Nov. 15, 1889. 



Dear brother, our sympathies and our 

 prayers are with you. May Christ Jesus 

 sustain and comfort you in this your great 

 affliction ; and may you, too, be cheered by 

 the beautiful but brief little text given us 

 by our friend Mrs. Harrison : She " being 

 dead, yet sleepeth." 



at the upper end of the land. When it is Hooded 

 for about 100 yards we put the greater part of the 

 water in the first ditch and make a tappoon, or dam, 

 and turn it out on the land at the point where the 

 water has run to on the land; and when it has run 

 another 100 yards on the land we make another tap- 

 poon in the ditch just where the water on the land 

 has got to. and break or take out the dam above, 

 and let the water come down and go on the land at 

 that point, and so on till that land is irrigated; then 

 we go up to the head and turn the water to the next 

 land, and shut it off the first. I send a diagram, 

 showing a field laid off for irrigation. 



THE ALFALFA OF ARIZONA. 



AN UNFAILING SOURCE OF HONEY; MANNER OF 

 IRRIGATING. 



SEAR FRIEND ROOT:— To think of you paying 

 us a visit! well, well! Your brother and I 

 have often talked about the matter, and 

 wondered if we could not in some way (now 

 that the ice is broken, and you have made a 

 visit to California) induce you to pay us a visit here 

 in this incomparable country, a paradise for bees 

 and fruits. It is the great sanitarium for all lung 

 diseases, and the most healthful climate it has 

 ever been my lot to experience, though I have 

 lived in several States said to have the healthiest. 

 This is a land whose bright sunshine is far ahead 

 of any thing else in these United States, and whose 

 moonshine surpasses even that of far-famed Italy. 

 You ask if we get large yields of honey every 

 season. Yes. We have never had what you would 

 call a poor season; but this season has'been a poor 

 one for us. The mesquite was almost a failure- 

 here, and that is our finest honey, it being as clear 

 as water, and very fine flavored. When granulated, 

 it is as white as butter. Alfalfa is not quite clear, 

 but is what is commonly called white honey; but it 

 is clear enough so that you can seeja pin at the bot- 

 tom of a gallon bucket, and that is clear enough for 

 any purpose. Alfalfa honey is a certainty every 

 season; and right here I will say we have never be- 

 fore had any thing like the army-worm. It was not 

 really a grasshopper, though we called them grass- 

 hoppers. They were a very small beetle, or bug, that 

 could hop somewhat less than a flea, and lived en- 

 tirely on the alfalfa bloom during one crop; and 

 when the crop was cut we saw no more of them. 



When we run our alfalfa fields for hay alone we 

 cut it six times. Last [year I made four hay crops 

 and one seed crop; this season I made one hay crop 

 and two seed crops, without irrigation. 



We usually irrigate every time we cut the crop 

 off, which 1 think is unnecessary. I think we 

 could make just as much to make two crops and 

 irrigate, though some people think the ground 

 must be flooded every time. I have seen some ir- 

 rigate twice for every cutting. 



To irrigate the ground there are two ways prac- 

 ticed here, quite similar in some respects, owing to 

 the length of the lands. If the lands are more than 

 220 yards in length we make ditches every 20 yards, 

 the full length of the field, and turn the water on 



DIAGRAM SHOWING THE MANNER OF IRRIGATING ALFALFA 

 FIELDS. 



When the lands are short we simply throw up 

 high strong borders every 10 yards, and then all we 

 have to do is to turn the water on at the upper end 

 and let it run till it floods the whole land, then turn 

 it on the next, and so on till the whole piece is irri- 

 gated. 



Land set to alfalfa is valued at *100 per acre, be- 

 cause it will pay the interest and taxes on that 

 amount. Alfalfa does not bloom in our winter 

 sufficiently to do much good as bee pasturage. We 

 have not tested sufficiently to answer your last 

 question. Jno. L. Gregg. 



Tempe, Arizona, Nov. 15, 1889. 



ALFALFA AS A HONEY-PLANT. 



SOME IMPORTANT SUGGESTIONS FROM THE AL- 

 FALFA FIELDS OF KANSAS. 



R. ROOT: —About a year ago, while preach- 

 ing in Hiawatha, Kan., I became acquaint- 

 ed with Judge Dickinson, who is a lover of 

 bees, and a warm admirer of Gleanings; 

 and through him I became a subscriber 

 and reader of your journal. While I am not a bee- 

 keeper, yet I have always had a strong desire in 

 that direction, but have never just seen my way- 

 clear to embark in the business. In the last issue 

 of Gleanings I saw an article from Arizona, head- 

 ed " Alfalfa and Bees," which dealt with a subject I 

 have been interested in for some time. I have oft- 

 en asked, " Can bees make honey from alfalfa?" 

 but never happened to ask any one who knew. If 

 alfalfa is good for bees to work on, and can make 

 good honey from it, then indeed in this Southwest- 

 ern country we must have the best territory for 

 bees there is in the United States; yet in the whole 

 of Southwestern Kansas I do not know of a stand 

 of bees. Here in the vicinity of Garden City we 

 irrigate, having now 'adjacent to Garden City fully 

 three hundred thousand acres under a most perfect 

 system of irrigation ; and this vast territory is fast 

 becoming an alfalfa field. We now have in Finney 

 County several thousand acres in alfalfa, and 

 fully as much more will be sown in the spring. 



