1M02 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



385 



this 3'ear there is something' wrong with 

 my judg'ment. There will be some honey 

 in a few favored locations, but no general 

 crop in the southern part of the State. 



Of course, we can not tell what the bees 

 will do in the central part of the State on 

 the alfalfa. We seldom get a crop of hon- 

 ey here with less than 14 to 18 inches of 

 rain. Last year was an exception. We 

 don't often get exceptions two years in suc- 

 cession, but we often get two failures, and 

 sometimes three, in succession. 



This year we have had nearly as much 

 rain as we did last year — about 12 inches; 

 but nearly a third of it came early last fall, 

 when it did the bee business more harm 

 than good, as it started the sages and al- 

 fileria to growing- nicely, and then the long 

 dry spell, which lasted until February, 

 dwarfed or stunted the alfileria so that it 

 is not a fourth as good as it was last year; 

 and the sage will not bloom as it did last 

 year, or as it would if all our rains had 

 come after the holidays. L. E. Mercer. 



Ventura, Cal., Mar. 29. 



BEES IN A DEEP MOUNTAIN CANYON. 



I should like to ask if bees will do as well 

 down in a canyon where they do not get 

 the sun until about 7 a.m., and where it 

 leaves them about 5 p. m., as they would up 

 where they would get more sunshine. 



Mesa, Col., Apr. 9. W. C. Dobbins. 



[You probably could not produce as nice 

 an article of comb honey down deep in a 

 canyon as you could where the sun strikes 

 earlier and later in the day; but I ran 

 across fine large apiaries in California in 

 several of the canyons, and the honey I 

 tasted at all of them was of a heavy body 

 and of fine flavor, notwithstanding the 

 nights in those same canyons were quite 

 cool. Indeed, it was very comfortable to 

 wrap in a good heavy banket at night in a 

 warm house. If I knew of a good location 

 in a canyon I certainly would locate the 

 bees there. — Ed.] 



FIGWORT, OR SIMPSON HONEY-PLANT. 



If it hadn't been for the Simpson honey- 

 plant our bees would have gone to begging 

 into winter; but the late bloom of this plant 

 just put them in fine condition after the dry 

 season. This plant grows plentifully in 

 old fence-rows, brush-piles, gulleys, and 

 waste places. It likes a good rich sandy 

 leaf mold, but it seems to use almost any 

 kind, so it gets a start, and it is easy to 

 grow from seed plants this fall or early 

 spring. A great many will bloom the first 

 season. J. C. Deem. 



Knightstown, Ind. 



CHINESE bees THE FORERUNNERS OF GOOD 

 LUCK. 



In a recent number of Gleanings I saw 

 the statement that the bee has never been 

 tamed; but if left to itself will always seek 

 a home in the woods. This is emphatical- 



ly nof true of Chinese bees. T/iey seem 

 always to seek a home with man, somewhere 

 in some sort of structure reared by his 

 hand; and the only case that I have yet 

 met with in all my tours of a swarm of 

 bees in a hollow tree was in the edge of a 

 village, in the butt of a large camphor-tree, 

 about six feet from the ground. For ages 

 and ages the Chinese have believed that 

 bees bring good luck; and so for ages and 

 ages the safest place for bees has been the 

 human habitation, till now they cleave to 

 man instinctively. Even superstition some- 

 times shows a brighter side. But may not 

 a few generations of scientific bee culture 

 accomplish the same results in America? 

 J. E. Walker. 

 Shaowu, Foochow, China, Feb. 11. 



sweet clover — its habit of growing on 



soils so poor that no other PT.ANT 



known would take root amj 



flourish. 



Several years ago the B. & O. R. R. opened a gravel- 

 pit at Belpre, O , for ballasting the track and con- 

 structing fills. Sweet clover first made its appear- 

 ance in this region, so far as my observation goes, on 

 the fill forming the approach to the Parkersburg 

 bridge. This fill was made of gravel taken from the 

 Belpre gravel-pit. 



Last week as I passed by this pit, now thirty feet 

 deep. I noticed sweet clover growing as thick as it 

 could stand in the bottom. This gravel deposit is of 

 combined glacial and alluvial origin with an occasion- 

 al true boulder, brought down by the river from the 

 glaciated part of the State. Was the seed deposited 

 with the gravel? Dana, in his geology, speaks of 

 plants growing from sand taken from the bottom of a 

 well dug a few miles from the seacoast. There were 

 no plants of the variety growing near the well, but 

 they were found growing on the seashore. No doubt 

 the well had tapped soil which at one time had form- 

 ed the sea-beach. 



[The above was sent us in the shape of a 

 newspaper clipping, so we can not tell 

 what paper it was taken from. It empha- 

 sizes the fact made by Prof. Thorne, of our 

 experiment station, that sweet clover, as a 

 rule, occupies ground where no other plant 

 would grow; but after the sweet clover has 

 got a start, and has been plowed under, 

 various farm crops may be grown success- 

 fully.— Ed.] 



GOOD WINTERING ON BLACK HONEY-DEW. 



I have 40 colonies of bees in the cellar, 

 wintering well so far on the blackest hon- 

 ey-dew you ever saw, and have 400 lbs. of 

 the same, for spring feeding. I got but lit- 

 tle good honey last year— too dry. 



A. G. MOORHEAD. 



Dearborn, Mo., Feb. 22. 



BEES AND SMELTING-FURNACES. 



My husband's bees are all dead (killed 

 through the smelter smoke), and the same 

 fate befell all bees in this county. 



Alice M. Bangerter. 



Granger, Utah, Mar. 8. 



My wife is much interested in bee culture. 

 One swarm produced 110 lbs. of honey last 

 year — that is, surplus, besides over SO lbs. 

 left in the hive for the bees. 



Wanatah, Ind. S. P. Howell. 



