JANUARY 15, 1915 



which brings good prices, but cattle that 

 are sleek and fat are pastured on it during 

 the entire season. 



Sweet clover is a continuous bloomer. 

 Beginning along about the first of June and 

 July with the yellow, which is followed by 

 the white, there is a continuous supply of 

 nectar clear along till the fall. It goes 

 without saying, that the three counties 

 mentioned — Pendleton, Bracken, and Rob- 

 ertson — where it is grown almost exclusive- 

 ly, make a fine bee country. Indeed, we 

 were informed that in one of the counties 

 there are 4000 colonies. 



A good part of Kentucky is rolling land, 

 consisting of knobs, hills, and some moun- 

 tainous country. The limestone rock sticks 

 out of the sides of the liills. 



It took the farmers of the State some 

 little time to realize that there is money in 

 sweet clover. But they are not so slow to 

 catch on now; and at the present rate of 

 increase Kentucky will produce moi*e sweet- 

 clover honey than any other State in the 

 Union; and that will be going some, because 

 some of the western States are now produc- 

 ing a large amount of it — carloads and car- 

 loads of it. Kentucky will also be a land 

 that will produce large quantities of meat 

 and sole leather — two commodities to-day 

 that are commanding high prices. 



Another thing sweet clover is doing is to 

 renovate the soil on some of those farms. 

 Professor Garman, the Botanist and Ento- 

 mologist, was somewhat skeptical about this 

 at tii-st. He was also rather unfavorably 

 impressed because he could not get his stock 

 to take hold of it; but he says there is no 

 use in denying that the cattle where they 

 are educated to it were thriving on it, and 

 that it is proving to be a great soil-restorer. 



We learned of one particular instance of 

 one farmer whose land gradually went down 

 until he reached almost the starvation point. 

 He found there was a tendency on the part 

 of sweet clover to grow on the land; but 

 as he was opposed to the " weed " he kept 

 it well cut down. He was disgusted, and 

 finally moved to town, leaving the farm to 

 take care of itself. In the mean time sweet 

 clover overran the whole place. The neigh- 

 bors began to tell him that his farm would 

 grow crops as before if he would come back 

 and cultivate it. He did so, and began to 

 gather the seed from the "weed," as it had 

 a market value. At the same time he began 

 to grow other crops, for the farm was com- 

 pletely restored. That farmer is now one 

 of the most enthusiastic sweet-clover men in 

 Kentucky'. This is only one of other in- 

 stances of a like nature. 



Such a man as Alva Agee, of the Xat-ional 



stockman, and one of the professors in the 

 experiment station of Pennsylvania, and 

 Mr. F. E. Dawley, of the experiment station 

 in New York, both speak very highly of 

 the plant as a soil-restorer. Yet in spite of 

 all this testimony — in spite of tlie fact that 

 it is being grown, hundreds and hundreds 

 of acres of it in Kansas and Oklahoma and 

 many other of the western States, we find 

 that some old fogies and even one college 

 professor still call sweet clover a noxious 

 weed of no earthly use to any man. But 

 there is no argument so strong as facts. 

 When some of those who formerly opposed 

 sweet clover are now finding that this same 

 plant is pouring money into their pockets 

 they may well " stop, look, and listen," for 

 to see is to be convinced. 



So delighted w^ere we with what we learned 

 about sweet clover in Kentucky that we 

 have decided to drive down into the districts 

 next summer to see the hogs and cattle and 

 bees that are living and thriving on this so- 

 called " noxious weed." 



We omitted to state that the seed-gather- 

 ing and nectar-gathering on the part of the 

 bees continues throughout the season. The 

 dry seed-pods and stalks are gathered while 

 tlie bees are at work on the blossoms above. 

 In the mean time the cattle and pigs run 

 promiscuously through this luxuriant 

 growth, furnishing milk, butter, and meat 

 as well as sole leather. " Butter and honey 

 shall he eat," and the three counties of 

 Pendleton, Bracken, and Robertson are 

 furnishing both, and then some. The truth 

 is more wonderful than fiction ; and when 

 we go down into that countiy next summer 

 we shall be equipped with cameras, and let 

 the pictures speak for themselves. 



The Behavior of a Cluster of Bees in 

 Midwinter, as Observed by the Ed- 

 itor of Gleanings at Medina 



In our issue for Nov. 15, page 789, we 

 gave a review of Bulletin 93 on the subject 

 of the temperature of the honey-cluster in 

 winter, by Dr. E. F. Phillips and ]\Ir. Geo. 

 S. Demuth. In this it was shown that a 

 cluster of bees in winter is not necessarily 

 as still as death, although examination over 

 the top of the frames might give that im- 

 pression. It was also show^i that the clus- 

 ter has the power, when the outside temper- 

 ature drops to a certain limit, to raise the 

 temperature inside by means of bodily exer- 

 cise, consisting of active movements on the 

 part of the bees tugging at each other, 

 shaking their bodies, and actually fanning 

 with their wing's. These showings were de- 

 cidedly interesting — so much so that we 



