90 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



it is a mistake to let the water run toward the 

 bacic end and freeze. A layer of ice just under 

 the cluster of bees can not do any good, and may 

 do harm. 



Better slant your bottoms toward the front and 

 keep the entrance open by raking out the dead 

 bees occasionally. If you keep them out of the 

 way, ice should not block the entrance as you 

 speak of. — Ed.] 



THE EFFECT OF DROUTH ON THE VARIOUS CLO- 

 VERS GREATER IN SPRING AND SUMMER THAN 

 IN FALL. 



In regard to the drouth killing clover, I would 

 say that, in my experience, it depends very much 

 on the kind of clover. I never saw a fall drouth 

 kill common red, and have seen the Dutch or 

 white clover entirely ruined thereby for the fol- 

 lowing season. Of course, any land where white 

 clover has once seeded will send up a crop from 

 the seed remaining in the land the next spring. 

 I have witnessed this twice; but from some cause 

 the young growth failed to furnish any honey 

 worth mentioning. 



A spring or summer drouth is what hurts 

 common red clover, catching it before the roots 

 have struck very deep into the soil. I should not 

 be much surprised if Dr. Miller's, that seems 

 nearly dead, would come out all right if it does 

 not put oiT raining too long. 



I find it useless to sow red clover on spouty 

 land, as any unusual wet weather will cause it to 

 be unhealthy, even if it should live over winter. 

 It doesn't seem to suffer so much from heaving — 

 the natural expansion of the soil from freezing — 

 as from a kind of spewing, which is very notice- 

 able on roadsides during a itreeze just after a rain. 

 The ground seems to give up the water, which 

 just keeps rising and freezing until it forms ice 

 on the order of honey-comb, one or two inches 

 thick. Now, if this spewing takes place around 

 a clover-plant the ice first freezes about the 

 crown; and as it keeps forming beneath, the 

 crown has to come off or the plant pulls off, with 

 about the same result in either case. The thor- 

 ough filling of the soil with the fibrous roots of 

 white clover or blue grass seems to act as a pro- 

 tection from spewing, as it is notably absent in 

 such places. 



Odin, Mo., Dec. 24. D. B. Thomas. 



A SUMMER AND FALL DROUTH DESTRUCTIVE TO 

 THE CLOVERS. 



Your old farmer friend is quite right when he 

 said that a drouth in the fall does not kill white 

 clover. That is in accordance with our experi- 

 ence here. The white clover will stand a pretty 

 severe drouth in the fall; but when we have a con- 

 tinued drouth through July and August the bee- 

 keepers here know for a certainty that there will 

 be no clover honey the next summer, which is 

 just our case in Northern and Central Kentucky. 

 We have not had any rain to speak of since the 

 5th of June, and our ponds and cisterns are still 

 dry; so we are not counting on any clover honey 

 next summer; but we have never failed to get a 

 good crop of surplus honey, and plenty left for 

 the bees from the aster, for more than 20 years 

 until this fall, which is the first failure we have 

 met. It is also fine honey for table use. Almost 

 every one here likes it better than white-clover 



honey. I have always lived on a large farm, and 

 have been a large producer of extracted honey 

 for over 20 years, and I have always watched the 

 clover crop with great interest, and several times 

 I have known a drouth through July and August 

 to kill the clover. Your farmer friend is right 

 again when he said that, when the rains come in 

 the spring, the white clover will spring up thick. 

 That is all true if we have rain next spring. 

 There will be a fine crop of white clover come 

 up from the seed; but the clover that comes from 

 the seed in the spring does not produce any hon- 

 ey until the next year. This is not theory or 

 guesswork, for I am writing from practical ex- 

 perience; but soil and climate might make some 

 difference. Our soil here is limestone soil, with 

 clay subsoil and no sand. 



Boyd, Ky., Dec. 26 H. C. Clemons 



CLOVER FREEZES WORSE IN WET GROUND. 



I have noted that clover freezes out most in 

 wet ground. I should think that a dry fall and 

 winter would be favorable to clover except 

 that it would not be as strong and luxuriant. It 

 certainly would not freeze out as badly in a dry 

 winter as in a wet one. 



The winter-killing of clover is due to what is 

 called freezing out. The frost in the ground 

 pulls the clover out of root. A wet, freezing, 

 and thawing winter is very hard on clover, and 

 you will find in the spring that the frost has pull- 

 ed the clover stalks or roots out of the ground 

 four, five, or six inches. The water on the 

 ground freezes in a comby form, and not in a 

 solid cake as on a pond, and these combs will rise 

 up in a single night one or two inches; and as 

 they rise up they pull the clover-stalk out with 

 them. This occurs particularly in low wet 

 ground, but will occur on any ground that is wet 

 from rains or melting snow. 



Butler, Ind., Dec. 26. L. H. Higley. 



A GOOD clover FLOW FOLLOWS A WET FALL. 



I have been a farmer and bee-keeper all my 

 life, and I have seen exposed hills that were a 

 mass of white clover dry out so that there was 

 not a live plant left when winter came, although 

 the bluegrass stood it all right; and I have notic- 

 ed that, when we have a dry fall, we have weak 

 clover in the spring, and when we have a wet fall 

 we havelotsof young clover, and generally a good 

 honey crop the next year unless it is too wet and 

 cold when it blooms. 



The only time I ever saw wet hurt the clover 

 was one winter years ago when the ground was 

 frozen and it rained and froze as soon as it struck, 

 until there was an inch or more of transparent ice 

 on the ground which stayed for a week or more 

 and smothered the clover. I think the clover is 

 in good condition here this winter because we 

 had a very wet spring, and more grass than the 

 stock could eat, which protected the clover dur- 

 ing the drouth. J. W. Schlenker. 



Ankeny, la., Dec. 21. 



CLOVERS ALIVE. 



I have examined clover closely this fall, and 

 find it green and alive wTiere other grasses seem 

 dead. I have examined it on both clay and grav- 

 el soil with the same result. 



East Trumbull, O. W. C. Eastmav. 



