FchriKiry 



American Hee Journal 



recent issue of Gleanings in Bee Cul- 

 ture we lintl the following from two 

 successful growers of sweet clover — 

 one in Iowa, and the other in New- 

 York ; 



An Iowa Experience. 



I'l.AN No. I.— Sweet clover nuisl be sown 

 on land well supplied with humus or lime, 

 or both, as it will not grow well on ground 

 badiv worn, nor iu soil that is strongly acid 

 or sour. In order to start sweet clover on 

 such land, plow the ground to a fair depth; 

 pulverize, and top dress heavily with ma- 

 nure. Then sow the seed and harrow in the 

 manure and seed together. A light applica- 

 tion of lime would be of great benefit; but a 

 good catch can be secured without tlie lime. 



I'l.AN No 2.— .'Vnother way to secure a 

 stand is to plow a field that has been seeded 

 for at least two seasons to timothy, clover. 

 or both. While it is better to plow in tlie 

 fall, the spring will do. Before seeding 

 work the ground just as you would for corn ; 

 sow the seed, and cover, using a common 

 iiarrow. and your success will be sure. 

 Many have old hogpastnres that are over- 

 grown with bluegrass. Those lields. when 

 broken up. make very excellent ground for 

 sweet clover. Sow one-half of such fields 

 to sweet clover, and note what nice, green, 

 succulent feed the pigs will have all sum- 

 mer long, when the bluegrass is dead and of 

 no use to pigs. . , , , 



Plan No. 3.— Any held that has grown 50 or 

 60 bushels of corn an acre can be sown to 

 Early Champion oats, barley or wheat, and 

 still make possible a stand of clover. .Sow 

 ij^ bushels of oats, and ^t less of either bar- 

 ley or wheat, taking care that the ground is 

 fairly smooth. This nurse crop will work 

 well, provided there is not a severe drouth 

 to spoil the clover. This seldom happens in 

 the corn belt. The clover should be well up 

 in the grain at harvest time. If the grain is 

 cut high from the ground it will be better 

 for the clover. Often a tine cutting of hay 

 will be secured later in the fall, about Oct. 

 1st, or a tine pasture for stock. There is 

 much to recommend this plan. 



COMMEN'rs.— The seed can be sown any 

 time between early spring and the last week 

 of July; but it makes such a strong growth 

 the first summer, seeding should be done 

 when convenient in«.-Vpril or May, using 20 

 pounds of hulled seed per acre. The seed 

 should be hulled. If unhulled seed is sown, 

 about one-third of it fails to germinate the 

 first season, and doesn't come up until an- 

 other year. Then, again, the unhulled seed 

 often results in uneven growth, too thin in 

 some parts of the field and fair in others. 

 The sower should bear in mine that proper 

 elements of the soil are necessary at first, 

 because of the lack of sweet clover bacteria 

 in the tieids. Just the right conditions are 

 required to start the nodules on the sweet- 

 clover roots, which, in time, burst and mul- 

 tiply and fill the soil. 



Do not make the mistakeof trying to grow 

 two or three crops of corn antl then sow to 

 sweet clover, as the land has not yet a sup- 

 ply of the bacteria required to grow it. 

 After it has been growing on the land for a 

 few years, and the bacteria are started, you 

 will notice how much better it thrives. 

 Many hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of 

 bushels of this seed have been tlirown away 

 because it was not sown on the right kind 

 of ground. The bluff deposits of the Mis- 

 souri River basin seem to grow sweet clover 

 at once under any conditions, and in all of 

 the States it appears to have much less 

 trouble in getting a stand. Sweet clover 

 succeeds on lands so tilled with alkali that 

 nothing else grows well.— Frank Covek- 

 UAI-E. of Clinton Co., Iowa. 



A New York E.xperience. 



I have never tried to raise a lot of sweet 

 clover, but have always had several small 

 patches around our premises. It has come 

 up almost as quickly and as surely as radish 

 seed, whether I have sown it in the spring. 

 summer, or fall, .-^bout Aug. 15 we gathered 

 some seed (stripped it off by hand,, some be- 

 ing black and some green. I sow-ed this 

 where I had had a small patch of early po- 

 tatoes, first going over the ground several 

 times with a hand cultivator. In a little 

 over a week the ground was all evenly cov- 

 ered with young plants. I doubt whether 

 they will winter; but as the seed was put on 

 fairly thick, 1 think there will be enough 

 that did not conje up to make a stand in the 

 spring. The seed was unhulled, of course, 

 and the white variety. My experience, al- 

 though on a small scale, is that it has never 

 been praised too highly as a fertilizer of the 

 soil. 



.About six years ago one of our neighbors 

 gave us a small handful of sweet-clover seed 

 for our Mower garden— perhaps a table- 

 spoonful. I sowetl it in a shallow trench 

 and covered it with about half an inch of 

 soil. It came up all right and made a rank 

 growth. 'I'hc next spring, after it bloomed, I 

 dugout the dead roots, spaded it well, and 

 planted a row of sweet peas in the same 

 spot. 



We have always had very pretty sweet 

 peas; but these were a marvel— great sturdy 

 stalks, huge dark-green leaves, and the 

 bloom was wonderful — the finest sweet peas 

 I ever saw. I puzzled my head trying to find 

 out what I fiad done to those peas to get 

 such fine plants; then after a while I " tum- 

 bled. ' It was the sweet clover of the year 

 before.— Geo. .SuuiER, of Cattaraugus Co., 

 y. Y. 



Our Government and Bee-Keeping 



On page 8 we referred to some good 

 work done by the I^egislative Commit- 

 tee of the National Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation. .\s a partial result the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture has sent out the 

 following to the various publications: 



Koi'i. Brood. 



The census of luio shows a decrease of 

 almost 800.000 coloines of bees on the farms 

 of the United States. There is also a con- 

 siderable decrease in the number of farms 

 reporting bees. Since bee-keeping is one of 

 the important and profitable minor branches 

 of agriculture, this decrease among farmer 

 bee-keepers is unfortunate. No returns are 

 available for bee-keepers in towns and 

 cities. 



Bee-keeping is fast becoming the business 

 of the specialist, and the number of men 

 who devote their entire attention to the 

 business is rapidly increasing. However, 

 there is no reason why the average farmer 

 can not keep a few colonies of bees to sup- 

 ply honey for home consumption with per- 

 haps some surplus for sale in good j-ears. 



The United States Department of Agri- 

 culture attributes most of the reported de- 

 crease to the brood-diseases of bees, which 

 are now found widely distributed in the 

 United States. The Department has knowl- 

 edge of these diseases in about 20 percent of 

 all the counties in the United States. Where 

 disease exists bee-keepers often lose colo- 

 nies, and attribute their loss to some other 

 cause. Because of these facts, the Depart- 

 ment advises persons interested in bees to 

 inform themselves concerning these dis- 

 eases. It is quite possible to keep bees with 

 profit with disease prevalent in the neigh- 

 borhood, provided the bee-keeper knows 

 how to treat the disease. Farmers' Bulletin 

 No. 442, " The Treatment of Bee-Diseases. ' 

 will be sent free on request to the Secretary 

 of .Agriculture. Washington. D. C. 



We hope that the foregoing an- 

 nouncement will be widely published, 

 for it can only result in benefit to bee- 

 culture. If any of our readers have 

 not had a copy of Farmers' Bulletin 

 No. -i42, we hope they will send for it 

 at once. It can be had for simply the 



asking. 



■*• 



Gralting-Wax. As there are doubt- 

 less many among our readers who have 

 occasion to use grafting-wax, we take 

 the following from that unusually good 

 farm weekly, the Rural New-Yorker: 



Will you give me a reciiie for makinggraft- 

 ing-wax ? What I bought, when the hot 

 weather came, ran off, leaving the graft open, 

 letting the air in. J. S. M. 



A standard grafting-wax calls for rosin. 4 

 parts by weight; beeswax. 2 parts by weight, 

 tallow, rendered, one part by weight. Melt 

 all carefully together, but do not let it boil. 

 Pour the hot liquid quickly in a pail of cold 

 water, and with greased hands flatten the 

 wax under the water so that it will cool 

 evenly. Let it get cold and tough, but not 

 brittle; then remove from the water and 

 pull like taffy until it is alike ductile and fine 

 in grain. If lumpy remelt and pull again. 

 \Iake into balls or small skeins and put 

 away in a cool place. When wanted soften 

 with heat of hand or in hot water. 



Tfiis is an excellent wax for all purposes: 

 it may be made softer by using a little more 

 tallow, or tougher by a rather larger propor- 

 tion of beeswax. 



The Banat Bees As we have had 



several eu(|uiries abnut the Banat bees, 

 we have requested Mr. Grant Anderson, 

 of Texas, who is familiar with them, to 

 tell of their important points: 



l'"or the benefit of those who have never 

 had the pleasure of handling or seeing the 

 Banat bees, I will give a description of tliem 

 in tlie columns of the " old reliable " Ameri- 

 can Bee .lournal. 



The Banat bees arc natives of Hungary, 

 and are neighbors to the famous Carniolan 

 bees, which you know come from Carniola, 

 .Austria. 



The Banat bees are classed by some men 

 as cousins to theCarniolan bees. which they 

 very much resemble. 



In color the Banat bees are a dark gray, 

 somewhat darker than the Carniolan, and 

 have no trace of yellow on them; while the 

 Carniolan may show some copper bands 

 and yet be pure. 



In size the Banat bees are a trifle smaller 

 than the Italians, and a little more pointed 

 at the tail. 



Their actions are the same as the Carnio- 

 lans. being very (uiiet and gentle under ma- 

 nipulation, and go on with their work while 

 you handle the combs. 



The queens are very gentle, and good, pro- 

 lific layers. 



In color the queens range from an orange 

 to a jet black, and it is a common thing to 

 see light and dark queens hatch from cells 

 grafted with the larvie of one queen. 



The yellow queens produce workers a 

 shade lighter than do the dark queens, and 

 it is reasonable to believe that a golden 

 bee can be produced by careful selection in 

 breeding for color. 



■The Banats are white cappers, and good 

 honey-gatherers. They are not bad swarm- 

 ers. and gather but little propolis. They de- 

 fend their hives well. 



As breeders the Banats are about the 

 same as the Italians, and let up on their 

 breeding when the honey-flow lets up. 



The Banats are good all-purpose bees. 



Grant Anderson. 



" First Lessons in Bee-Keeping." — In 



the course of a short review of this 

 book the British Bee Journal says : 



The present edition has been revised by 

 Mr. C. P. Dadant, one of the most success- 

 ful honey-producers and the reviser of the 

 last edition of Langstroth's book, so this is a 

 guarantee that the work is well done. The 

 book before us is principally intended for 

 beginners: it contains the foundation prin- 

 ciples of bee-keeping, and is not meant to 

 take the place of the larger works on the 

 subject. Progress in bee-keeping has been 

 so great during the last w years that we are 

 not surprised to find that much which ap- 

 peared in the earlier editions has had to be 

 left out. new matter taking its place. 



Iowa Bee-Keepers' Association, — De" 



cember li'.l, liUl. the Tri-State Bee- 

 Keepers'Association met in Sioux City 

 and at this meeting the Iowa delegation 

 organized the Iowa State Bee-Keepers' 

 .Association, with W. P. Southworth, of 

 Salix, Iowa, as president; C. L, Penny, 

 of Le Mars, Iowa, secretary and treas- 

 urer. Three vice - presidents were 

 chosen to boost the organization in 

 their districts— Frank C. Pellett, of At- 

 lantic ; Frank Coverdale, of Delmar; 

 and J. L, Strong, of Clarinda. 



As a committee on program for the 

 next meeting, the following were 

 named : C. L. Penny, J. B. Espy, R. A. 

 Morgan. 



Iowa needs the .-Vssociation, and its 

 organizers expect the enthusiastic co- 

 operation of every bee-keeper in the 

 State, and each one is urged to send in 

 his name and membership dues at 

 once to the secretary, C. L. Penny, of 

 Le Mars, Iowa. 



To be in harmony with the new Con- 

 stitution of the National Bee-Keepers' 

 .Association, the membership dues were 

 fixed at $l.oii per year. Some may say 



