AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 401 



her brood-nest, it should be spread by placing unoccupied combs in the center, and 

 the amount of spreading should be governed by the laying capacity of the queen. 

 In carrying this idea out an experienced bee-keeper would seldom make a mistake, 

 but the novice very often made mistakes by spreading the brood too much — away 

 beyond the covering capacity of the attending bees. Result — chilled and unprotected 

 brood that died — resources of the colony wasted, and its strength diminished in- 

 stead of increased. If spreading is practiced at all, it should be done with a cau- 

 tion — one comb inserted at a time, or not more than the colony can care for, should 

 there be a stress of bad weather. 



If a colony is kept in good condition with nice worker-comb in the center of the 

 brood-nest, and plenty of stores, there is no use for any such tinkering. The bees 

 know quite as much about their ability to take care of brood as their keeper — in 

 fact more, because they always regulate the amount by their capacity to provide for 

 for it, whereas he often has more young than he can properly rear. 



Augusta, Ga., Sept. 14. 



FACTS ABOUT Sl^VEBX CLOVER.. 



BY M. M. BALDKIDGE. 



On page 341, a reader of the Bee Journal says that he desires to know when 

 to sow sweet clover seed, how much per acre, and what effect cold weather has 

 upon it. 



If for honey alone, sow not more than five pounds of seed per acre. This will 

 give the plants plenty of room to stool, but none too much. If for hay or pasture, 

 sow from 10 to 15 pounds per acre, so the stems will make a finer growth. Early 

 in the fall or spring is perhaps the best time to sow the seed. Sow alone or with 

 grain. I should prefer to cover the seed by harrowing lightly. I have planted the 

 seed in my garden, as an experiment, the same as I would vegetable seeds, and have 

 had the plants in sight in four days ! I planted some the first of this month, and 

 they are to-day (Sept. 15th) two inches in hight. 



I have been quite well acquainted with sweet clover since 1858, and have no 

 remembrance of a winter that has ever done it any iniiiry. It will stand the coldest 

 weather that we have in the Northern States, when the plants have become thor- 

 oughly established. When very young the plants are rather feeble, and at that 

 stage of growth will not stand severe freezing weather, nor perhaps a long-pro- 

 tracted drouth. Last spring one of my correspondents sowed 80 acres to sweet 

 clover upon an uncultivated tract of land. The clover germinated and grew fairly 

 well, but before the plants had secured a proper growth that cold freeze the last of 

 March came on and destroyed them. This correspondent keeps no bees, but he grows 

 sweet clover for a double purpose and extensively, namely — for hay and pasture, 

 and to enrich the soil. There is perhaps no plant that will improve the soil so 

 rapidly as sweet clover. The plant being a biennial, the roots die and rot at the 

 end of the second year. The roots being large, and several feet in length, fill the 

 ground with an enormous amount of rich vegetable matter, and this can be depended 

 upon, on the same land if so desired, every two years. 



There is, in my opinion, no one plant now known that will produce more and 

 better honey per acre than sweet clover ; and, as it is at last coming to the front as 

 a fertilizer for worn-out soils, and as a hay and pasture plant for many kinds of 

 stock, it will in the near future be grown more extensively than the majority of 

 bee-keepers at present imagine. St. Charles, 111. 



