940 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. L 



THE CHICAGO DRAINAGE CANAL, SHOWING THE BRIDGE AT ROMEO, ILLINOIS, AND THE BANKS, 

 ON WHICH SWEET CLOVER IS MAKING GREAT HEADWAY. 



SWEET CLOVER. 



How this Honey-producing Plant Grows 

 on the Banks of the Chicago Drain- 

 age Canal. 



BY J. L. GRAFF. 



Sweet clover, of the white variety, is found 

 growing in such profusion on the towering 

 banks of the Chicago drainage canal, between 

 Chicago and Joliet, that apiarists are much en- 

 couraged in their attempts to produce honey in 

 paying quantities. 



Before this great sanitary canal was built, a 

 large amount of wild clover grew in the Des 

 Plaines Valley. It all but covered the right of 

 way of the railroads traversing the region, and 

 spread out to a wide expanse of prairie land. 

 When the constructing gangs with their ponder- 

 ous machinery of all kinds moved down the val- 

 ley, digging out the earth and stone, and piling 

 it mountain high on one side or the other, much 

 of the clover growth was dug out or covered up. 



Within the last few years, however, it has 

 been noticed that the clover began appearing on 

 the rough banks until at this time there are hun- 

 dreds of acres of it. When the bloom comes, 

 the bees get busy, and, as may be conjectured, 

 they lay in a rich store of as fine a product as 

 may be found in any milk-and-honey land in 

 the world. 



The accompanying pictures were made at Ro- 

 meo, Illinois, and near the home of John J. Keig, 

 a poultry-honey man. He breeds and raises 

 Butf Plymouth Rocks, and also owns ten colo- 



nies of bees, from the woik of which he recently 

 sold 500 pounds of honey. Other property own- 

 ers in the valley keep bees that find the rich 

 bloom on the canal banks and in the adjacent 

 territory. Quite recently the drainage board had 

 its attention called to the increase in the clover 

 acreage within the sanitary district, which by 

 this time embraces 260 square miles of territory, 

 and no one at this time is able to say that the 

 great corporation may not turn to producing 

 honey within a bailiwick in which by this time 

 it has expended $53,000,000. 

 Ravenswood, 111. 



THE TROUBLES OF AN AMATEUR 

 BEE-KEEPER. 



Moving Day. 



BY F. DUN DAS TODD. 



A Danzenbaker hive requires little preparation 

 for moving, as all the frames are firmly held in 

 position. In the day time I fastened all the bot- 

 tom-boards and supers to the hives with staples, 

 then I nailed on top of each super three pieces of 

 wood, straight on the one side but curved on the 

 other. They were roughly shaped with a hatchet 

 out of inch boards two inches wide. Over these 

 I placed mosquito-wire netting, the pieces being 

 large enough to overlap by a couple of inches all 

 round. The margins were bent on the sides of 

 the hives, and held in place by strips of quarter- 

 inch wood fastened with finishing nails. The 

 purpose of this covering was to give the bees 



