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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Aug, 15 



One can make his own capping-melter by 

 putting one tub inside of another of a larger 

 size, leaving about an inch between thetwo 

 tubs, A tinner will have to solder a tube so 

 that the melted product can flow from the 

 inner tub out through the space between the 

 two tubs, and into some receptacle where it 

 can be cooled. — Ed.] 



ALSIKE CLOVER. 



Alslke Should Never be Sown Alone; a 

 Possible Solution of "Alsike Poisoning." 



BY BARRET PIERSON. 



In my article on alsike clover, page 198, I 

 showed the most successful method of its 

 •culture from the dollar as well as soil-builder 

 point of view, and I can add nothing to it 

 along those lines. 



I never heard of such a thing as alsike poi- 

 soning until I read Mr. J. L. Byer's article, 

 page 369, and that by Mr. W. W. Case, page 

 429, and from long experience with alsike 

 clover I seriously doubt that the plant of it- 

 self was the direct cause of the trouble. 



Years ago, when horses were pastured 

 here in the early summer, they were some- 

 times affected by a drooling from the mouth 

 which was commonly termed "slobbers." 

 This was attributed by veterinaries and oth- 

 ers to the white clover, and it was generally 

 believed to be a bad plan to pasture horses 

 when white clover was in blossom, because 

 of this trouble; but our agricultural collpge 

 showed that it was not the white clover itself 

 which caused "slobbering," but an insect 

 which would lodge in the blossoms; and the 

 animal eating the insect with the blossom 

 would produce an irritation of the salivary 

 glands that would cause the disease. Per- 

 haps "alsike poisoning" could be traced to 

 such a source. 



I have always noticed that horses that had 

 white or pink skin upon their nose, where 

 there is but little hair, are apt to have the 

 skin peel off and get sore, and this upon 

 horses that were kept in a barn and were fed 

 dry feed. We always called this "sun burn," 

 and treated it the same as sun burn, and it 

 would get well under the treatment. 



The stalk of an alsike-clover plant is small 

 and weak, with several branches and a great 

 many blossoms; and for this reason it should 

 never be sown by itself, even for seed, as it 

 will lodge badly and be impossible to harvest 

 without great waste. 



In sowing for seed it is usual to sow about 

 3 quarts to the acre with 3 quarts of timothy 

 seed, if the timothy seed is mixed with the 

 clover and sown in the spring, or 2 quarts of 

 timothy seed if the timothy is sown in the 

 fall with wheat or rye. This timothy will 

 hold up the clover and make it possible to 

 harvest the entire crop. There will be very 

 little timothy seed in the clover seed, as 

 timothy is very much later the first year it is 

 cut than the succeeding years; and what is 

 there can be easily cleaned out with a good 

 fanning-mill (a necessary implement which 

 comparatively few farmers possess) . 



I have known of its yielding a seed crop as 

 high as four or five bushels per acre, though 

 two or three bushels per acre is much more 

 common, which, at the present price of seed, 

 is a fair return for the land considering the 

 amount of labor invested in it; and the land 

 will yield a good crop of mixed hay the fol- 

 lowing year. 



The way alsike clover will stay in the soil 

 may be shown by a neighbor of mine who, 

 nine years ago, seeded a field with four 

 quarts of red clover, four quarts of timothy, 

 and one quart of alsike clover. Five years 

 ago he plowed up this field, and has plowed 

 it every year since, planting it to corn, beans, 

 and other crops, ,and the alsike clover has 

 been present all the time. It would almost 

 seem that no amount of plowing or cultivating 

 would entirely remove it when once firmly 

 set in the ground. 



Through the investigations of Prof. Cyril G. 

 Hopkins, of the University of Illinois, and a 

 great many others, we now know the use- 

 fulness of all clovers to fix the free nitrogen 

 of the atmosphere in the soil as well as to 

 raise other fertilizing elements from the sub- 

 soil to make them available for other crops. 

 So those who are engaged in the pursuit fit- 

 ly termed by one of its most brilliant writers 

 as the "poetry of agriculture," should do all 

 in their power to dispel the work of preju- 

 dice and encourage its growth, so that all 

 may be benefited — bee-keeper and farmer 

 alike. But by all means have it along the 

 lines of profit, so that men may see material 

 results. 



Flint, Michigan. 



NEWLY HIVED SWARMS LEAVE IN SPITE OF ALL THAT 

 CAN BE DONE. 



My new swarms will not stay in tbe hive, but come 

 out and go away. The hives are new, filled with Hoff- 

 man frames, and wired as usual. Sometimes the swarms 

 stay a day or two, but then they come out again. I 

 tried putting a super on top, and even put two on; but 

 it made no difference. I have given a frame of brood, 

 but they would come out and leave it. I put some 

 swarms in hives filled with comb and honey. They 

 came out just the same. I have tried sprinkling the 

 hives with salt water, but it does no good. I tliink I 

 have lost about one-half of the swarms that have 

 come out tliis summer. I have never had any experi- 

 ence like this before. I have an experienced bee-man 

 helping me; and he is at his wits' end to devise some 

 way or plan to keep them. The weather is very warm. 

 I tried setting them in the shade under a tree, but that 

 made no difference. 



If you can te:l the cause of it, or give any means to 

 prevent it, it will be appreciated. I am only a begin- 

 ner. I had 16 colonies to start with this spring. Five 

 years ago I began with one. My bees are hybrids, 

 about half Italians, CLIFFORD S. FORD. 



Rodney, Mich., June 28. 



[Sometimes bees in an apiary will get on a swarming 

 rampage— a mania, like a smile, that appeal's to be 

 somewhat contagious. The noise of one or more 

 swarms in the air will excite other colonies until the 

 whole apiary appears to be in an uproar. 



It is advisable never to let bees get started in the first 

 place. To that end, ample room should be provided, 

 and the proper amount of entrance space, as recom- 

 mended on another page. 



But suppose the bees do get to swarming. If a colo- 

 ny will not stay hived, take it down cellar and keep it 

 there for several days. In the meantime it might re- 

 (luire a little feeding, but probably not, as almost ev- 

 ery swarm takes a good liberal supply of honey with 

 it. If it starts building comb, and the queen should 

 lay a few eggs by the time you set the bees out again, 

 it should be 'n a mood to stay where it is placed. The 

 cellar should be dark and cool. — Ed. I 



