816 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



little tunneling' under the wall was all that 

 was necessary to pass the 6-inch tile pipe 

 through. This tile piping serves a twofold 

 purpose. It acts as a ventilator, and also 

 as a drain for any water which might come 

 by seepage in on the floor. I have had the 

 floor cemented also, and graded to slope 

 from all sides to the center where the elbow 

 of the drain rises flush with the floor. 



I can not too highly recommend this 

 scheme of wintering, and I am glad to have 

 found another who so lieartily endorses it. 

 Thanks to Mr. Miller. 



Guelph, Ontario, Can., Oct. 12. 



BOOST" SWEET CLOVER 



BY HARRIS T. KILLE 



HIVE ENTRANCE MADE SMALLER BY THE 

 BEES 



JOHN VOLLMER 



I discovered the hive entrance shown in 

 the picture when about to put up my bees 

 for winter. My wife hived a swarm in Au- 

 gust in an observation hive. I left them in 

 it, after covering it with a deep telescope 

 cover, intending to put them indoors for the 

 winter. They were a stock that could al- 

 ways take care of themselves and robbers 

 too, so I didn't contract their entrance too 

 much; but their glass walls must have been 

 chilly, so they built a double-arched door- 

 way to shut out three-fourths of the cold 

 blasts. They built it of propolis, and it 

 much resembles stucco work. 



In the print, A is the hive-body; B the 

 alighting-board ; C, C are blocks to cover the 

 longest part of the opening. 



The photo is slightly too large, as the 

 space from the landing-board up to the 

 hive-body is about % inch. 



Ashland, Pa. 



Hive entrance partly closed with propolis. 



Sweet clover is on the stage to win, and 

 it is up to the beekeepers to make it win. 

 Within ten years, I believe sweet clover — 

 that noxious weed which but a few years 

 ago State legislatures took it ujoon them- 

 selves to eradicate — will be grown as exten- 

 sively as alfalfa. But in order that this 

 may be a fact and not an idle prophecy, 

 beekeepers will have to do their part toward 

 making it a fact. They will have to "boost" 

 sweet clover. The farm j^apers are begin- 

 ning to boost it; the State experiment sta- 

 tions are boosting it, and they haven't any 

 liioney to get by so doing either. 



In the Sept. 20th issue of the Country 

 Gentleman is an article by J. C. Mohler on 

 " A Roadside Weed of Worth," subheaded 

 " Sweet Clover Gives Promise of Becoming 

 a Rival of Alfalfa on Many Soils." The 

 facts of this article are drawn from the 

 experience of a Mr. Fred Miller, Jr., dairy- 

 man farmer of Shawnee County, Kansas. 

 It tells of the difficulty Mr. Miller had in 

 obtaining seed for his flrst half-acre trial- 

 plot of sweet clover. He was subjected to 

 the severest criticism for attempting to 

 propagate the pest. Seedsmen and farmei-s 

 hooted at him. But he had fed some that 

 he obtained by the wayside. He had found 

 that, when placed in the feed-racks along 

 with alfalfa, 21 out of 25 cows ate it in 

 preference to alfalfa ; so he planted in spite 

 of hoots and criticism. Here, quoting from 

 the Country Gentleman, are the results he 

 obtained after he had planted and grown 

 his half-acre plot of sweet clover: 



The second year of my experiment I wanted to 

 know the value of sweet clover as a milk-producer. 

 I took ten average milch cows from good prairie and 

 blue-grass pasture about May 10th, and put them 

 into this sweet-clover patch. 

 It had attained a very rank 

 growth, and was more than 

 two feet high. The cows 

 were kept there two weeks, 

 and at the end of that time 

 had gained an average of 

 five gallons of milk a head. 

 About June 1st I returned 

 the cows to the prairie pas- 

 ture, and in two weeks they 

 had lost the five gallons 

 that had been gained. 



Brought back to sweet 

 clover, in two weeks they 

 gained three gallons. The 

 weather was very hot, and 

 the clover was really too 

 rank for the best results. 

 But these cows maintained 

 'an excellent flow of milk 

 throughout the season on 

 this little half-acre tranct of 

 sweet clover. For pasture it 

 is far better than alfalfa 

 in at least one respect: It 



