164 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



trance should be provided with some means of 

 varying the size of the opening. The opening 

 ought to be considerably smaller than the tile. 

 Tnis will cause the current to pass more slowly, 

 the tile acting as a chamber in which the temper- 

 ature of the air is modified before entering the 

 cellar. The pipes should extend several rods un- 

 der ground on both sides, and should be placed 

 well below the frost-line. 



It is well known that, in the construction of 

 many bee-cellars, the foregoing facts and princi- 

 ples have not been considered, and yet the bees 

 have often passed through winter in a fairly good 

 condition. This, I believe, is in spite of im- 

 proper ventilation and not because of it. The 

 fact that they do not always winter in prime 

 condition is sufficient to warrant us in giving the 

 subject of cellar construction and ventilation a 

 more thorough and scientirtc ftudy; for under 

 proper conditions, and with sufficient stores, the 

 successful wintering of every colon? is practical- 

 ly a certainty. Another advantage to be no'ed 

 is that, if the bees have a supply of pure but cool 

 air, they may be kept quiet in ihe cellar consid- 

 erably later in the spring, thus avoiding much of 

 th ■ loss due to bad weather. 



Valparaiso, Ind. 



ALSIKE CLOVER IN GOOD CONDI- 

 TION IN CANADA. 



Winter-killing a Misnomer. 



BY J. L. BYER. 



Drouth in the fall is not injurious to the clover, 

 as this plant will stand a longer period of dry 

 weather, without being injured, than almost any 

 o-her kind of vegetation that I am familiar with. 

 By this statement I mean, of course, plants that 

 are native to our latitude and which thrive in it. 

 During the past fall and late summer one of the 

 most prolonged drouths in the history of our 

 country visited this section; but for all that, the 

 many acres of alsike around us never went into 

 winter in better condition. If the alsike sown in 

 the spring happens to be a poor " catch," and the 

 season unfavorable for the plants to develop well, 

 before the grain which has been used as cover 

 crop is cut I have known the young plants to be 

 killed, especially if a very hot dry spell had oc- 

 curred immediately after the grain had been cut. 

 If on the other hand, as was the case this year, 

 the "catch " is good, and the weather favorable 

 for the plants to develop their root growth, any 

 amount of drouth in the fall will not affect the 

 plants. 



As to the term " winter-killing," as applied to 

 clover in the great majority of cases, it is a mis- 

 nomer — at least so far as oar experience goes in 

 the matter; and I might say that, previous to the 

 last five years, for twenty-five consecutive seasons 

 the writer was on a farm where the raising of 

 clover for its seed was one of the main crops. In 

 all that time I can recall only one year when the 

 clover was killed in the avinter. That season, 

 during the last week in January, a warm spell of 

 weather melted away all the snow; heavy rains 

 followed, and then it suddenly turned very cold, 



the therm imeter standing at from 10 to 20 below 

 zero for about three weeks in succession; in fac, 

 it was the lo.igest cold spell on recoid for our 

 part of the country. Whether it was on account 

 of so much ice on top of the ground, or of the 

 intense cold on the unprotected plants, I can not 

 say; but it is a fact that that year the clover was 

 "winter-killed." However, more than once we 

 have had goods fields of clover ruined during the 

 months ot March and April. During the latter 

 part of March and early part of April, we oft.-n 

 (in fact, generallj) get days in which the sun 

 shines brightly, and thaws out the soil to ihe 

 depth of three or four inches; then at niglit it 

 freezes hard, and the result is that the clover is, 

 by this continuous thawing and freezing, literal- 

 ly " heaved " out of the ground. I have seen 

 fields of clover, particularly the common red va- 

 riety, in which nearly every plant was right out 

 of the ground, and this notwithstanding the fact 

 the roots of the plants were quite long; by actual 

 measurement some of them were ten inchfs in 

 length Of course, this length of root is an ex- 

 ception, and it is given only to show what rea Iv 

 unfavorable spring weather will do to clover. As 

 hinted at already, the ahike as well as the w'^ite 

 clover is not as liable to injury as the red vaiiety ; 

 but if the kind of weather conditions as describ- 

 ed last long enough it will hurt them too. Some 

 soils are moie apt to heave than are others. Un- 

 derdraining helps to remedy the evil, no matter 

 what the nature of the soil. 



While what I have said has been more in con- 

 nection with the raising of alsike, we also -culti- 

 vated the common white or white Dutch, as it is 

 called by the seedsmen, for a number of years, 

 and so far as its wintering qualities are concerned, 

 there is very little difference between it and the 

 alsike. If any one takes the trouble to look at 

 an old pasture-field, in which white clover was 

 quite plentiful the previous summer, he will find, 

 after a spell of this alternate freezing and thaw- 

 ing, that many of the plants will be standing on 

 their toes, showing that, as with the alsike and 

 red varieties, it is the spring and not the winter 

 that does the damage. 



50° TOO HIGH A TEMPERATURE FOR A BEE-CEL- 

 LAR. 



The winter here has been quite moderate so 

 far, and I believe that the bees are wintering all 

 right. All of my bees are outdoors except 40 at 

 one yard that are in a cellar. The thermometer 

 in the cellar has never been higher than 48 nor 

 lower than 42, and the bees are much quieter at 

 the lower figure than at the other. There is a 

 furnace in the cellar, but the bees are separated 

 from the furnace-room by a partition of one inch 

 boards. The windows are open a good part of 

 the time in the other parts of the cellar, so that, 

 while the room where the bees are is quite dark, 

 yet there is plenty of fresh air at all times avail- 

 able for them. I can not understand how some 

 can keep the bees quiet at the high temperatures 

 often mentioned. Certainly the bees in this cel- 

 lar simply roar when it goes up to over 50, as was 

 the case last winter a few times. 



Mount Joy, Ont. 



[See editorial on the subject of drouth and 

 winter killing clovers, elsewhere in this issue. — 

 Ed.] 



