THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 2, 



prevent a recurrence of this, Mr. Doolittle uses stone flagging 

 instead of the boards. If the latter were covered with tarred 

 paper above and below, it might answer equally well, and, at 

 the same time, be cheaper. — Ed.] 4 is the 'i feet of dry earth 

 between the two roofs, 5 representing the outside roof. 6 is 

 the ventilator, showing the two elbows, whish effectually ex- 

 clude all light. The hole in it is 6x8 inches square. 7 is the 

 sub-earth ventilator, which is 4 feet deep, as far as may be, 

 and 100 feet long ; but, as I have said before, this and the 

 upper one are closed of late, winters, while the bees are in the 

 cellar. As I ha,ve often expressed, I believe this is the best 

 underground arrangement possible for wintering bees, and I 

 have tried to make it all plain, so any person can build one 

 who desires. The cost to me was not far from $80 ; but, of 

 course, prices of lumber, stone and labor, vary in different 

 localities. 



THEllEtl'ttB^ 



Bees of Kight Age for Wintering'. 



We are convinced if A winters his bees just as B, and in 

 one locality the bees cease to breed sufficiently early to mature 

 and have a cleansing flight, and in the other this is not the 

 case, the results will vary, and the fjrst will secure more satis- 

 factory results with less thorough methods, and such a case 

 may be used as an argument against the more thorough and 

 better methods. — Editorial in Canadian Bee Journal. 



Just so; and equally if the bees cease to breed so early 

 that the bees are all too old, the result will not be satisfactory. 



Wants Him "Sot Down" On. 



Rev. W. F. Clarke says that when the membership fee to 

 the North American Bee-Keepers' Association gets down to 25 

 cents, he wants no more to do with it. Has the reverend gen- 

 tleman made so much money from bee-keeping lately that he 

 had rather pay .$1.00 than 25 cents'? Or is it because he 

 does not wish to associate with the rank and file? If so, he 

 had better use his powerful influence to get the fee raised to 

 $10, if, according to his views, the higher the fee the better 

 the organization. I think we poor " 25-cent fellers " ought to 

 "sit down " on the reverend gentleman. We want no aristoc- 

 racy in ours. — Observer, in Progressive Bee-Keeper. 



Prospects for Nebraska. 



In looking over the year's correspondence we gather these 

 figures for the State of Nebraska : Loss of colonies of bees 

 from September, 1893, to May, 1895, 95 per cent. Surplus 

 honey placed on the market, 10,000 pounds. Gains in colo- 

 nies. May IS, 1894, to September 18, 1895, about 4 to 1, so 

 that we go into the winter with about 20 per cent, of the num- 

 ber we had to begin the winter of 1893, and nearly one-half 

 as many as in 1894, and our surplus honey crop this year is 

 more than ten times that of 1894. One year ago we predicted 

 very heavy losses on account of there being so few young bees 

 to begin the winter with. This season the reverse is true. 

 Colonies are well stocked with sealed honey and plenty of 

 young bees, and we think bees will winter better than for some 

 years past. Not since the fall of 1889 has there been as good a 

 show for the coming year being productive of honey as now. 

 In 1890 and 1891 we produced more honey than any other 

 two years in the history of our State. Get your dishes ready. 

 There will be honey next year. The fall rains this year have 

 started the honey-plants in good shape, and unless they are 

 destroyed after this, there will be a larger honey-production to 

 the square mile than there has been for a long time. — Edito- 

 rial, in December Nebraska Bee-Keeper. 



Alfalfa in Illinois. 



W. W. Pusey, residing nearOdell, Livingston County, 111., 

 has been growing alfalfa on his farm the past two years and 

 has made quite a study in regard to its culture and of caring 

 for the plant. In conversation with a reporter of the Bloom- 

 ington Pantagraph he said : 



" Alfalfa should be sown the latter part of April, and it 

 would do to sow it in a very wet fall, like this one. In August 

 or September. As a rule, in ordinary years it is good pasture 

 by April 20, five inches high. There is no other pasture that 

 will do to pasture so early in the season grown here. It can 

 stand several hard freezes, and, if protected by rubbish, it will 

 grow all winter." 



It has yielded on his farm two tons per acre each cutting, 

 and he has good fall pasturage afterwards. 



The first cutting should be done the last of May, second 

 cutting middle of July, third cutting the middle of September, 

 and his experience has been that the straw is no more difficult 

 to care for than timothy, and not so hard to care for as clover. 

 It does not "dust" as does clover, by lying too long on the 

 ground. The main root resembles the ordinary garden pars- 

 nip with fine lateral branches like the small roots of a parsnip. 



Alfalfa enriches the ground by the long roots bringing the 

 mineral substances to the surface, which other grasses do not 

 do, as their roots do not penetrate the earth to the mineral 

 depth. Alfalfa becomes of age or full growth in four years 

 from the planting when the outside bark or shell of the root 

 sheds off and a new bark grows. This is done annually after 

 four years, which further acts as a fertilizer to the soil and 

 loosens the earth, thus acting as a self-cultivator. 



Mr. Pusey thinks alfalfa is the coming feeding hay for this 

 section, as it will grow better in a dry year than timothy or 

 clover, and the yield is far in excess of any other grasses in 

 any season, and reduces the acreage required for feed, which 

 could be used for grain by a farmer. He has given up growing 

 any other plant for feed, and his experience has been that all 

 kinds of stock thrive better than feeding or pasturage on the 

 other grass feeds. 



Some "Stray Straws" from Gleanings. 



Cellared my bees Nov. 13. Oh, but they're heavy ! 

 Lots of fun dreaming over what big things the bees will do 

 next year. 



Never forget that bees can stand more cold with good air 

 than with bac^. So can you, or any other animal. 



The linden, according to an article in Gravenhorst's Bien- 

 enzeitung, yields well only about four times in 26 years. Bet- 

 ter get some American lindens. 



Foundation with wood-base ^g-inch thick is favorably men- 

 tioned in Gravenhorst's Bienenzeitung. For extracting it has 

 the advantage that no wire-cloth i8 needed in the extractor. 



Why is it that bees get lazy in a little while when working 

 on feeders, and keep up a life-long interest in flowers ? Would 

 they keep the same interest in the feeders if they traveled the 

 same distance to them ? 



Although bees are in the cellar, I expect to keep doors and 

 windows open day and night for some time — as long, anyhow, 

 as keeping them open doesn't bring the temperature of the 

 cellar below 40^. When it goes below that, I'll shut up and 

 keep it at 45^ or more. 



Heather honey is so thick that as yet it has never been 

 emptied by the extractor. One of the live questions at the 

 present time in Germany is as to some machine or manage- 

 ment by which it may be extracted, and the sturdy bee-keepers 

 of that land are hopeful. 



Dzierzon, the German Langstroth, who invented movable 

 combs in Germany, never allowed the advisability of end-bars 

 and bottom-bars until the advent of the extractor. He used 

 merely a top-bar; and when he wanted to remove a comb he 

 cut it away from its side attachments with a knife. 



The bee-keeper's year, says Lebrecht Wolff, in Graven- 

 horst's Bienenzeitung, does not begin in spring, nor Jan. 1, 

 but Oct. 1. That's when I start a new record-book each year, 

 and about the first entry is hauling home the bees from the 

 out-apiary. Each volume of Deutsche Illustrierte Bienenzei- 

 tung begins, not Jan. 1, but Oct. 1. 



Temperature alone will not decide when bees will fly. If 

 badly in need of a flight they may fly at 40°, whereas they 

 might stay quietly in their hives at 60° if there were no pas- 

 turage and they had not been long confined. They'll fly at a 

 lower temperature in bright than in cloudy weather ; and when 

 honey is yielding than when nothing is to be had. 



I wonder why it is that in Germany heather honey brings 

 lower price than clover, and in Scotland higher. [It's all in 

 the taste. Doctor. Some people think Limburger cheese very 

 delicious, and others can't bear to have it in sight. But, say : 

 in York State there are not a few who think buckwheat honey 

 far superior to any white honey ever produced. — Ed.] 



