324 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 21, 



desire to handle them. I think, however, that one of their 

 chief characteristics must be to sting, for they seldom fail to 

 give me a dose whenever I come in contact with them. 



When sweet clover is grown for honey, and a crop of 

 blooming plants is desired every year, and from the same 

 land, then two crops of seed, in successive years, should be 

 planted, for, as you must be aware, the plant is biennial, and 

 blooms only every other year. * * » 



-, Mississippi, Feb. 23, 1895. 



I don't know how much sweet clover there may be within 

 a radius of two miles of my home, but to guess at it I should 

 say perhaps 100 acres that will bloom this season — counting 

 what is on the banks of ditches and in waste places, of which 

 I have about 50 acres. 



I like your bulletin (No. 2) on sweet clover very much. I 

 think it covers all the ground, judging from my experience 

 with the plant, and that no part of it is exaggerated. 



-, Mississippi, March 28, 1895. 



I have grazed cows, hogs and horses for years on sweet 

 clover, bat no sheep, for I do not keep them. Sweet clover 

 will bloat cows to some extent the second year of its growth, 

 but I have never had any special trouble in that direction. 



My present crop of sweet clover is now tall enough to 

 graze, and it compares favorably with all my sweet clover 

 crops in past years. * » * 



-, Mississippi, May 2, 1895. 



The average weight of a bushel of sweet clover seed, 

 where unhuUed, is about 32 pounds. When it weighs 35 

 pounds, it must be very clean and very plump seed. 



I have read your Sweet Clover Bulletin No. 1, and can 

 indorse it fully except certain statements that I know nothing 

 about. I presume they must be correct, or you would not 

 have made them. 



My sweet clover is now from 15 to 2-1 inches high, ac- 

 cording to the fertility of the soil. I mow once and then get a 

 big crop of seed to plant and to sell. I can, if I so wish, mow 

 twice for hay, and then the plants will mature plenty of seed 

 to re-seed the land. I always mow it twice for hay the first 

 year, and often three times. The seed ripens here in August, 

 but if it has been cut once this delays the ripening of the seed 

 about two weeks, say about the latter part of August. 



There are always a few scattering stalks of sweet clover 

 that will bloom the first year, but they are very few indeed. 



I think two crops of seed should always be sown on the 

 same land, that is, the seed should be sown two years in suc- 

 cession. This insures a new growth of plauts to cover the 

 ground in the fall of the year, when the old plants have died 

 out. This new growth of young plants always remains green 

 all through the fall and during the first part of winter. This 

 plan always insures a crop of blooming plants for the bees to 

 gather honey from every year, and from the same plat of 

 ground. 



^ 



Houey-Producers Helping Themselves. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



It was with the greatest of interest that I read the article 

 headed, " How Honey-Producers Can Help Themselves," by 

 Emerson T. Abbott, on page 273 ; and as I feel a great desire 

 to help myself always, where I can do so, I crave the privi- 

 lege of asking Mr. Abbott a few questions, so that we as bee- 

 keepers may the better know how to succeed. 



Mr. A. tells us we should work our home market all It 

 will possibly bear, and intimates, by his shopping story, that 

 if we did this we might obtain as much for our product as did 

 the storekeeper who sold the best of Colorado honey at 20 

 cents per pound. What I wish Mr. A. to tell us is, why it is 

 that we should be obliged to pK.s7i our own interests and honey- 

 products into every home within 20 miles of us (our home 

 market), often to the disgust and hindrance of those whose 

 " time is money," that we may obtain the fancy price of 20 

 cents per pound for honey, or else go under with the "survi- 

 val of the fittest," while during the seventies the whole of our 

 product (not the best or "fancy") was sought after by buyer* 

 from abroad, at a price ranging from 25 to 30 cents per 

 pound, free on board the cars, or at our own homes. If he 



can tell us this, we can intelligently solve at least one of the 

 problems which confronts every bee-keeper. Being told that 

 we must economize at every point of production, and produce 

 only a fancy article in these times of close competition, if we 

 would survive, will make of me and mine the half fed and less 

 clothed caricatures of humanity, when carried to its logical 

 conclusiou. 



Again, Mr. Abbott tells us, "I know times are close, and 

 people are forced to economize." Will Mr. A. tell us why 

 times are close, and why we are forced to economize, as bee- 

 keepers, while some of our statesmen (?) are telling us that 

 the country was never so prosperous as now ? Were these 

 close times brought on us of God? Did not God say, "The 

 earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof ?" and did He not 

 say, till the soil, eat, live and be happy ? Has the earth be- 

 come barren and unfruitful, so that the masses must econo- 

 mize, and thousands suffer from starvation ? 



Then Mr. A. tells us, "It is a favorite saying of mine 

 that all I want is health and to be let alone." Does he mean 

 by this that I have no privilege to share his markets for honey 

 with him ? That I must not send my fancy honey to the 

 same market to which his fancy honey goes ? As a minister 

 of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, does he not know that 

 the blessed Master said, "All ye are brethren ?" and for him 

 to ask me to let him alone, and give him all the markets, is 

 not loving his neighbor as himself? 



Again : Suppose that Mr. A. is right in asking that he 

 as a bee-keeper should be let alone, does he not know that 

 every bee-keeper who depends upon the production from his 

 apiary for a living, is not being let alone, but is being robbed 

 of 52 cents out of every dollar's worth of wealth which that 

 bee-keeper produces, that a few may roll in wealth " who toil 

 not neither do they spin ?" If he knows this, should he not 

 as a true " watchman on the towers of Zion," cry out in plain 

 language to us humble ones, instead of preaching fancy honey 

 and economy ? 



I endorse Mr. Abbott's views in the main, but cannot en- 

 dorse the points hinted at in the above questions till I have 

 further enlightment on these points. Will Mr. A. please en- 

 lighten us ? Borodino, N. Y. 



No. 4. — Produciug Comb Honey in Michigan. 



BY W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 

 (Continued from page 277.) 



As the basswood harvest draws to a close all sections 

 should be taken from the hives. Before the bees commence 

 " snooping " around and dipping into any exposed honey, all 

 of the honey should be ofif the hives. If there is any time of 

 the year when the worst disposition of the bees shows itself 

 it is at the close of the basswood honey harvest, and a little 

 robbing will intensify it a hundred fold. If bee-escapes are 

 used, and they should be, there is not so much necessity of 

 promptness in getting off the honey, but I think it better to 

 get the honey off as soon as possible, and then if feeding back 

 is to be practiced to secure the completion of unfinished sec- 

 tions, it can be commenced while everything is in good trim — 

 when there are no empty cells in the brood-nest to be filled 

 with the feed. 



The honey should be sorted into four grades — the finished, 

 that is nearly all sealed, sections that are half finished, and 

 those that are less than half completed. In putting the sec- 

 tions back on the hives, each grade should be kept by itself. 

 Those nearly completed should be put in cases by themselves, 

 and those that are half completed treated in a similar man- 

 ner. If separators are not used, there is no part of feeding 

 back that calls for the exercise of more care, patience and 

 skill, than that of filling the cases with unfinished sections, 

 particularly is this true of the sections that are nearly com- 



