282 



American Vee -Journal 



August, 1914. 



)^=^^ ^ i 



a better understanding of it. What you re- 

 fer to is wliere inexperienced persons have, 

 at the beginning of winter, put one or more 

 swarms of bees in an upper room or earret. 

 The first warm spell that comes they fly out 

 and go to the windows and die. One of my 

 neighbors used up two fine colonies in tliis 

 way. The varyint temperature does not 

 seem to fiave much effect on bees, as we 

 have had them for years in the hottest attics 

 on earth; one in particular that seemed as 

 hot as an oven. I feared the combs would 

 melt down, but they never did, and last year, 

 althougli so dry. they gave so pounds of 

 comb honev. 



Hut I would not advise putting bees in at- 

 tics or lofts if you can build a suitable build- 

 ing of the size required in your yard, as it is 

 much more convenient than going up and 

 down stairs. But in the cities this is the 

 only way. as bees placed anywhere above 

 tlie second floor do not trouble anything on 

 the ground, and it seems to be a great source 

 of pleasure as well as profit to the city 

 dwellers to have bees in their homes. 



We set them by the wall and cut a good 

 fiy hole, or if we put them at a window we 

 cut the fly hole through the bottomsash bar. 

 and in addition make an opening at the bot- 

 tom of the glass for the escape of anv bees 

 that might get inside. We darken all the 

 other windows. J. A Pearce. 



Grand Rapids. Mich 



A Little from Basswood 



There will be no honey here this year. 

 White clover has all dried up. and basswood 

 is yielding very little now. 1 hope the bees 

 will gather enough to keep them. 



Marceline, Mo.. June 20. Irving Long. 



No Surplus 



No honey so far. and poor outlook at pres- 

 ent on account of drouth. Very little sur- 

 plus last year. Frank L. Goss. 



Harwood. Mo.. June 27. 



Poor Season in Missouri 



The season of 1014 is one of the poorest in 

 many years thus far. with but little chance 

 of anything to come. No white clover, and 

 basswood did not yield any surplus. Bees 

 are gathering just about enough from sweet 

 clover to live on. They are killing off their 

 drones at a lively rate. A. A. Baldwin. 



Independence. Mo.. June 27. 



A Month Late 



We are a month late in extracting, but are 

 making it up. as alfalfa is only $4.00 and $5.00 

 a ton here, and the farmers are neglecting 

 to cut hay when it comes in bloom. Today 

 the thermometer registered 115 degrees in 

 the shade, and I am fearing a rain, which 

 always stops our flow for a couple of weeks. 



Brawley. Calif. Rov F. Bateman. 



Crop Failure 



The crop here is an absolute failure; no 

 rain since May 4. and much of thevegeiation 

 has died outright. We need rain very badly. 

 Hope you have fared much better. 



W. E. Drane. 



Mallory Branch. Memphis. I'enn. 



Good Report 



We secured a big crop of honey, and were 

 glad when the harvest ended. It is the 

 wliitest 1 ever saw. C. W. Dayton. 



Owensniouth. Calif,. July «. 



Not Many Bees 



A good honey flow has been on since about 

 July I. but bees were not in condition to 

 make the most of it. A. E. BuRDlCK. 



Sunnyside. Wash.. July ij. 



No Crop, But Enthusiastic 



This has been a very poor year for bees; 

 so far too dry. We liaven't had an inch of 

 rain since April Have not taken a pound 

 of honey, and no prospect of any. I hope 

 they will gather euoueh for winter. 



My wife and I have the bee fever badly, 

 and hope next year will be better. We live 

 in the city and keep nine colonies on a 40- 

 foot lot and have no trouble. Last year I 



A Magnet is a Very Handy Thing to Clean Up the Work Bench, 



was away from home when our bees 

 swarmed, and my wife had never seen bees 

 hived, but had heard me tell how to do it, so 

 she went after them. They had clustered 

 in a small peach tree. She got a step-ladder 

 and saw; sawed them out and hived them. 

 She never got a sting, much to the surprise 

 of the neighbor women. 



Grover E. Moore. 

 Decatur. III,. June 2q. 



Two Plants Described 



I am sendingby parcels post today samples 

 of two plants 1 am unable to indentify. Will 

 you kindly tell me about them through the 

 American Bee Journal, as they may be of in- 

 terest to others also. 



The plant with the burs blooms just after 

 dandelion, and the bees work on it in pref- 

 erence to everything else when it Hrst 

 comes. The clover-like plant is more of a 

 vine, and comes from a crown and runs one 

 or two feet in all directions. Is it of any 

 value as a honey plant ? 



Princeton. 111. G. R. Richardson. 



The samples being referrrd to Mr. John 

 H. Lovell. he states: 



The smaller plant with clover-like leaves 

 and small yellow flowers is A/i-t/ii;n-o liihii- 

 linn I.. Common names are black or hop 

 medic, black seed clover, black trefoil, 

 black grass, and also non-such. It belongs 

 to the same genus as alfalfa. The species 

 is introduced from Fairooe, and is a well- 

 known weed. 



The other plant with the burs and small 

 purplish flowers is Cynonlosuim t>0'>'"<il'' I- 

 Hound's-tongue and gypsy flower. It is a 



weed, naturalized from Europe, and is found 

 between Canada. North Carolina, and Kan- 

 sas. The fruit has the form of a pyramid, 

 and is composed of four nutlets covered 

 with barbed prickles. Each nutlet has the 

 form of a tongue, hence the name hound's- 

 tongue. 



Letter from Natal 



Do black and silver wattles lacacia^ se- 

 crete much nectar; if so, what is the color 

 produced and flavor, and do tJiev j^ivc' r/tNch 

 sur/'/tis. if any ? 



The enclosed specimen of a flower grows 

 in iirofusion on prickly bushes, which have 

 filled our grass lands around here. They ap- 

 pear to be too deep for our bees to extract 

 nectar from, as one rarely sees more than 

 one or two bees on a bush, which must have 

 thousands of flowers. Do you think Italian 

 bees could work on these ? I know that they 

 secrete nectar, because when one pulls the 

 flowers and squeezes ihem. you can see big 

 drops of nectar at the end. Local name 

 tinkerberry; Latin name unknown. 



We have the bush flowers all the year 

 around, and it is very hard to exterminate 

 them. 



I am given to understand that eucalyptus 

 (gum tree! flowers the whole year around; 

 is that so? A. NlLES. 



Natal. South Africa. 



IThe name " wattles." which our corres- 

 pondent uses to designate the acacias in 

 question, is special to South Africa and 

 Australia, and probably describes trees or 

 shrubs which differ from our locusts. We 

 have in the United States both the thorny 



