60 



American Hee Joarnall 



Washington, D. C, was searching en 

 thusiastically for such a strain, and I 

 at once communicated with him. How- 

 ever, the plants died from transplant- 

 ing, and that was the last of the matter 

 until now. 



At our State meeting in Des Moines, 

 in December, 1913, I met Mr. Frank 

 Coverdale, of Delmar, Iowa, who is 

 day in and out preaching the gospel of 

 sweet clover, and chancing to mention 

 the matter of the loss of tlie bitterless 

 plant, I was surprised to lind that it is 

 believed that this " bitter principle" in 

 sweet clover is what prevents " bloat " 

 or acute fermentative indigestion in 

 cattle, as they can gorge themselves 

 with the sweet clover with impunity, 

 while over-indulgence in the white, 

 " Dutch " will cause disaster. He also 

 stated that this " bitter principle " and 

 cumarin, or the odoriferous principle 

 of sweet clover, were identical. I was 

 not ready to assent to this, as our com- 

 mercial source of cumarin is the tonka 

 bean, in which it exists in liberal quan- 

 tities. 



The tonka bean is used as a substi- 

 tute or adulterant for vanilla, as it is 

 stronger and much cheaper. It is used 

 in our kitchen in preference to the 

 pure vanilla. Mind, the tonka bean is 

 used, and not the cumarin extracted 

 from it, which justifies me in saying 

 that cumarin is not bitter, as that is 

 the flavoring element. Moreover, a 

 couple of years ago I extracted an ap- 

 preciable amount of cumarin from 

 sweet clover, and do not remember 

 that it was bitter. 



Mr. Westgate, writing regarding the 

 bitter principle, says under date of 

 Dec. 18, 1913: " For some reason sweet 

 clover does not bloat cattle. It has 

 been suggested that it is due to the 

 'bitter principle.' I am not sure that 

 this ' bitter principle ' is the cumarin 

 we have thought it to be, but we hope 

 by another year to have some definite 

 tests made to determine this matter. In 

 a talk I had some time ago with one of 

 the physiological chemists, I was given 

 to understand that it was a/most impos- 

 sible to hai'e the cumarifi reftiaifi as such 

 in the dill'erent stages of siveel-cloi'er 

 curinff." (The italics are mine.) 



I think I have good grounds for 

 doubting that the " bitter principle " 

 and cumarin are identical, and I make 

 bold to assert that the proposition that 

 the "bitter principle" is the cause of 

 immunity from bloat is only an intelli- 

 gent guess. Cattle do not bloat from 

 eating cured white clover, but the 

 green. Why is it that the cumarin in 

 the sweet clover is not the prophylac- 

 tic element? Or perhaps that and the 

 "bitter principle" combined. Why 

 either ? So far as I know the " bitter 

 principle" has never yet been isolated, 

 consequently no physiological tests 

 can be made with it, and none have 

 been made with cumarin. Again, it 

 may be that not one-tenth of one per- 

 cent as many cattle eat sweet clover as 

 white, and yet it may be possible that 

 the sweet clover is not so absolutely 

 harmless as we assume while we wish 

 to prove it so; for the sooner sweet 

 clover takes the place of white the bet- 

 ter it will be for bee men, and possibly 

 farmers who should be beekeepers. 



" Cumarin is a vegetable proximate 

 principle (Cg H^ O2 ) obtained from the 



tonka bean, and also occurring in 

 melilot and other plants. It has been 

 used in medicine, and gives flavor to 

 the Swiss cheese, called sehabziege>-." 

 It is also spelled coumarin and cou- 

 niarine. i.iatris spieata, commonly 

 called gay-feather, devil's-bit, colic- 

 root and button-snake root, contains 

 cumarin, has been used in medicine, 

 and is still used in the South to flavor 

 tobacco. Sweet clover would be better. 

 The United States Dispensatory is au- 

 thority for the statement that "Melilot 

 is practically inert ;" as a medical agent 

 it means. " It contains coumarin, 

 Cg Hi, O2. the chief constituent of tonka 

 beans, combined with melilotic acid and 

 coumaric acid, of which the coumarin 

 is the anhydride." The Dispensatory 

 uses no hyphen in spelling the name 

 sweet clover. 



In the spring I purpose to find what 

 this "bitter principle" is. 



Buck Grove, Iowa. 



[We have often wondered whether 

 there were not difTerent degrees of bit- 

 terness in sweet clover, depending upon 

 the soil in which it grows. We have 

 never had any difficulty in getting 

 either cattle or horses to eat it, even 

 when the stalks are very large. — Editor. ] 



Flour in Place of Pollen in the 

 Hive 



BY J.\MES W. WILSEY. 



WHEN I examined my bees last 

 March, there were signs that 

 there had been considerable 

 brood-rearing during the win- 

 ter, but there was no unsealed 

 brood and very little pollen left in the 

 hives. It was plain that the bees were 

 in need of pollen, and I wondered if a 

 substitute for it placed in the hive 

 would be of any use. 



In order to try this, I laid an empty 

 comb flat upon the table, and on this 

 comb I placed a scoopful of ordinary 

 wheat flour and worked it back and 

 forth with a post card until all the 

 cells were filled. I then rubbed my 

 fingers over the surface of the comb 

 to pack the flour down so that it 

 would not fall out when the comb was 

 placed in an upright position. 



This comb of flour I placed in one 

 of my hives at the side, as far away 

 from the bees as I could get it, in or- 

 der to examine it without disturbing 

 the bees, as the weather was cold. On 

 examining the hive the next morning 

 it was apparent that the bees had been 

 using the flour. Brood-rearing on a 

 large scale immediately started in this 

 colony. I then placed similar frames 



of flour in the other hives with the 

 same general result, and two weeks 

 later, with the exception ol one hive, 

 there were from three to six frames of 

 capped brood in these colonies. 



The hive which failed to respond to 

 this treatment had more honey than 

 any other, and it also failed to start 

 up brood-rearing when natural pollen 

 was coming in freely; brood-rearing 

 did not commence in this colony until 

 honey was coming in from cherry and 

 hard maple trees. The frames of flour 

 also had a tendency to keep the bees 

 in the hives on cold and blustering 

 days, for on one such day, when none 

 of my bees were working, I visited a 

 neighbor and found the bees of one of 

 his colonies working strongly, bring- 

 ing in pollen, and on opening my hives 

 1 found many bees at work on the 

 frames of flour. Even on fine sunshiny 

 days in April, when pollen was plenti- 

 fully supplied by the flowers, many of 

 of my bees preferred to stay at home 

 and work on the frames of flour. But 

 when real warm weather came in May 

 the frames of flour were a bandoned. 



We have all observed that when 

 much brood-rearing is going on, the 

 floors of the hives become covered 

 with yellowish or brownish particles, 

 many of which the bees remove to the 

 alighting-board. After the bees com- 

 menced using the flour for brood-rear- 

 ing, the floors of the hives became 

 covered with little white particles, and 

 those which the bees removed to the 

 alighting-board were also white. 



New Platz, N. Y. 



(The use of flour as a substitute for 

 pollen dates back several hundred 

 years, but it is rediscovered every 

 year by some one. We give place to 

 the above because Mr. Wilsey uses it 

 inside of the hive instead of feeding it 

 outside. Our method is to place it in 

 low flat boxes, in a sheltered spot, 

 pressing it with the hands into little 

 mounds, so that the bees will not 

 smother in it. We tried placing it in 

 the combs, but the difficulty lies in 

 knowing how much or how little to 

 give. Colonies take it in varied 

 amounts, and usually stop using it as 

 soon as blossoms appear. Although 

 the placing of it in tlie hive saves them 

 some trips, the most damaging losses 

 of bees in cool weather are mainly due 

 to the hunt after water. 



We have in our possession a number 

 of manuscript notes from Father Lang- 

 stroth, and we find the following writ- 

 ten in 1859, touching upon this subject : 



h^A^ 



L-T 





L. I^. Langstrotii Notations on Using Ki.our as Hollen. 



