.IINK 1, 1015 



453 



also bounce a. haiulful of bees and ca(oh 

 them as a ball; but all this performance 

 came about by conditions, and not because 

 his bees were gentler than any otliers. They 

 were a fair sample of the three-banded 

 Italians. 



These stunts only ii'o to show that persons 

 from observation learn when they can han- 

 dle the little pets with impunity. When I 

 wish to extract honey I either use a house 

 ()!• tent, but recently a tent ; and after get- 

 ting my hives cleared of bees as best I can 

 liy shaking a frame I carry them to the 

 lent and take off my hat and coat, and, as 

 a rule, never get stung. 1 usually make a 

 tent of mosquito netting about six feet 

 square; and when done 1 take it down and 

 ]iut it away. 



cnxniTioxs in Georgia. 



1 have been here about four years, and 

 I have yet to see my firet honey from asters 

 and goldenrod. Where I moved from I 

 jiearly always secured a crop from this 

 source. I do not know of any cause except 

 a very dry atmosphere. Honey-plants will 

 not secrete honey without moisture. Bees 

 will work well on buckwheat here in the 

 South, but I decided it did not pay for the 

 honey. It blooms profusely, and bees work 

 on it until about 9 o'clock; but I have ob- 

 seiwed that they gather more jiollen from it 

 than honey. It will not seed here unless 

 some late; but when it comes to pollen, the 

 ragweed has all the other plants beaten. 1 1 

 is the best pollen-producing plant that I 

 know of, but has no lioney. 



Augusta. Ga. 



Bees make a good chest-protector. Pholosraphed by 

 L. N. Gravely, Ringgold, Va. 



DOES ALFALFA WITHOUT SEED GIV^ NE^TAM' 



ISV T. .1. QUAIL 



In a recent issue of Gleaxixgs Dr. Miller 

 says that he saw bumblebees working on 

 alfalfa, and that the other bees were not 

 working on it. While Dr. Miller is an 

 expert beeman, I think he must have been 

 mistaken, although the bumblebees may 

 have been looking for honey. I have never 

 known alfalfa to yield lioney east of the 

 Afissouri River. Alfalfa blossoms that do 

 not make seed, as a rule do not yield hone^^ 

 I should like to know what the experience 

 of other men has to present on the question. 

 In Missouri I once saw a large field of 

 alfalfa that was a mass of blossoms. The 

 owner said he was exj)ecting a heavy yield 

 of see<l, although there was not a bee to be 

 seen on the blossoms. The owner harvested 

 the alfalfa and started to thrash it. After 



an lioui's work with a big machine he did 

 not get a pound of seed. Alfalfa and white 

 sweet clover do well in central Nebraska, 

 and often yield heavy crops of seed, al- 

 though some years have very light crops. 

 Alfalfa makes the best seed in dry years. 



We often get 150 to 180 pounds of sec- 

 tion honey per colony on alfalfa. In fact, 

 alfalfa and sweet clover are the only honey- 

 plants in this part of Nebraska. The bees 

 get some honey in the early jiart of the 

 summer from box-elder blossoms. We do 

 not raise any clover or timothy here. 



While sweet clover which has always been 

 considered a noxious weed, is coming into 

 the native hay-meadows along the Loupe 

 and the Platte Rivers, where they are sav- 

 ing the seed. Farmers are now sowing 



