September, 1914. 



297 



American IBae -Journal 



of the honey-bee. In 1872 73, several 

 importations were made but with little 

 success, and it was not until 1884-85 

 that the first humble bees were success- 

 fully introduced. Their propagation 

 was rapid. Within a year some of 

 these bees were reported as far as 100 

 miles from the place where the first 

 ones had been liberated. 



The increase in amount of seed har- 

 vested from the red clover increased 

 in direct proportion to the number of 

 humble-bees, until at present large 

 quantities of seed are harvested. Such 

 was the case also with a few different 

 grasses which had be n difficult of 

 propagation previously. 



Mr. Hopkins believes that it is ad- 

 visable to make further importations of 

 several species of humble-bees which 

 are not yet found in this country in the 

 hopes that they will be better able to 

 stand the climate of certain portions 

 where red clover is little grown for 

 seed at present, owing to the absence 

 of this insect. 



In the course of the booklet, life his- 

 tory of the humble-bee is given with a 

 description of the queen, size of colo- 



nies, method of hibernation, disease 

 germs, etc. 



The appendix contains remarks by 

 Mr. W. W. Smith, F. E. S., and also has 

 a description on each specie of the 

 humble-bee. 



The bulletin, 2000 copies of which 

 were printed in March, 1!I14, makes 

 very interesting reading. Its illustra- 

 tions are e.xcellent, and Mr. Hopkins 

 writes in his usual easy style which is 

 in itself an attraction. 



Sweet Clover Agaiu 



The case of sweet clover has been 

 given another boost, before the public, 

 by Prof. Mosier, of the Illinois State 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, at 

 the Chautauqua of Hamilton, on Aug. 

 15. Not only he said that sweet clover 

 was a far better legume to enrich soil 

 than any other legume, but he reported 

 that he had planted last fall 65 acres of 

 red clover and 6 acres of sweet clover. 

 Owing to the drouth, the red clover 

 was about all killed out, while the 

 sweet clover had yielded a crop of four 

 and four-tenths tons of hay per acre. 

 He also averred that sweet clover is 

 almost as good hay as alfalfa. 



Miscellaneous ^ News Items 



Albino Queens. — Mr. Alfred Alex, of 

 Yorktown, Tex., is desirous of obtain- 

 ing the names of breeders handling 

 Albino stock. Any one having such 

 stock should correspond with Mr. Alex. 



Winter in New Zealand The last 



issue of the New Zetland Farmer con- 

 tains a half-page picture of the bee- 

 keepers in attendance at the National 

 Conference in Wellington recently. 

 Their represention is fine. We were 

 struck by the picture in that nearly all 

 the members wore overcoats, until we 

 recalled that the seasons there are just 

 the reverse of what we have here. The 

 honey producer is at his busiest there 

 when we of the North are taking things 

 quietly and profiting by spare moments 

 to catch up with our reading. 



meeting, which was held at the Cham- 

 ber of Commerce headquarters. Sev- 

 eral of them made talks, in which they 

 declared that this section of the coun- 

 try was well adapted to bee culture, as 

 shown by results that have been ob- 

 tained by those in the business. 



In different parts of the State there 

 are beekeepers, and it is thought that 

 the membership can be increased to 

 100 without much difficulty. Efforts to 



well the list will be made promptly. 



Officers of the association for the 

 first year were chosen. President, G. 

 F. Pease ; vice president, W. S. Carney ; 

 secretary-treasurer, L. T. Rogers. 



Massachusetts Field Day. — One of 



the biggest joint annual field day meet- 

 ings of the Worcester County Beekeep- 

 ers' Association and Eastern Massa- 

 chusetts Society of Beekeepers in the 

 history of the county took place at 

 the home of O. F. Fuller, president 

 of the former organization and promi- 

 nent queen-breeder in Blackstone, on 

 Aug. 8. 



Mr. Ellsworth spoke of the progress 

 that has been made in the apiary in- 

 spection work. 



Dr Gates spoke of the plan of the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College 

 whereby it will be possible to demon- 

 strate the fundamental principles of 

 beekeeping at the large fairs in Massa- 

 chusetts this fall. Arrangements have 

 been completed to attend the Fitch- 

 burg fair, the New England fair at 

 Worcester, the Brockton fair, and the 

 fair at Northampton in October. 



At each of these will be an extensive 

 equipment, consisting of a demonstra- 

 tion tent, supplied with a work bench 

 and display tables, and a cage in which 

 demonstrations of handling bees will 

 be made, together with a small model 

 apiary. The display will also include 

 the most recently approved methods 

 used in beekeeping. Demonstrations 

 will be given daily by various authori- 

 ties. This is probably the first attempt 

 to promote apiculture through the me- 

 dium of agricultural fairs. 



Arthur C. Miller, of Providence, R. 

 I., spoke briefly concerning the devel- 

 opment of his method of direct intro- 

 duction of queens through the use of 

 smoke. 



A. W. Yates, of Hartford, bee inspec- 

 tor for Connecticut, and queen-breeder, 

 demonstrated in detail his type of "let- 

 alone " hive. This is a modification 

 and development of the smaller hive of 

 Allen Latham, of Norwich, Conn. 



E. M. F. Tittle, of Woonsocket, gave 

 an interesting address concerning bee- 

 keeping in early days. This was an 

 historical account of beekeeping from 



Liaisiani Association Formed Louis- 

 iana is going to be placed in t 'e front 

 rank of honey producing States if the 

 plans of an organization formed in 

 Shreveport are developed as expected 

 by members of the organization, which 

 is to be known as the Louisiana State 

 Beekeepers' Association. 



Twenty or more persons engaged in 

 this industry attended the organization 



Distant View of the Massachusetts .\i;rici;ltural College Apicultural 

 Building and Experimental Apiary. 



