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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 30, 



By and by a customer came who wanted at least 15 gal- 

 lons, and brought his little barrel along to get it in. Imagine, 

 if you can, my chagrin, when, after taking out about three 

 gallons, there was no more beautiful, clear vinegar, but just 

 a great, foanTing, working mass of at least 15 gallons that I 

 had to throw away. Don't ask me why I didn't let it settle, 

 for it just wouldn't. I tried it until I saw it never would, so I 

 took out the fine, thick mother, and after thoroughly washing 

 both it and the barrel, put it back with the three gallons, and 

 started afresh. So I want no more yeast in mine. The bad 

 part of it was, my customer had to go elsewhere for vinegar, 

 and hasn't since given me an order. 



In 1888— the year I got 6,000 pounds of honey— I had 

 so much work with the bees and honey that I hadn't time to 

 put up as much fruit as 1 wanted to, so I thought I would try 

 an experiment. I washed, wiped dry, and packed an eight- 

 gallon keg full of peaches. 1 placed a large plate over them, 

 and then a nice, clean, flat rock on top to hold them down, 

 after first filling the keg full of extracted honey. This was in 

 August ; after tying a cheese-cloth over the top of the keg, I 

 let it stand for three months, until the rush was over. I then 

 opened, looked at, and sorted or divided them, putting all that 

 were firm into jars, and pouring the liquid over them, finally 

 using them as sweet pickles. Those that were soft I rubbed 

 through a colander, put on fresh extracted honey, and cooked, 

 calling it " peach butter." Both were fine, and were so pro- 

 nounced by those who tried them at different fairs and farm- 

 ers' institutes where they were on exhibition. 



The liquid that was left over was also pronounced fine, 

 though I have always been at a loss to know just what to call 

 it. I gave some of it to a gentleman and lady this morning 

 {Jan. 31, 1896) to sample. The lady said it was good. The 

 gentleman said it was fine, and he didn't believe a gallon of 

 it would make any one drunk. My father and mother liked it 

 very much, it seems so nourishing. I regretted very much 

 having taken a bottle of it with me to Chicago, to the bee- 

 keepers' convention, as I think a few got the idea that it was 

 intoxicating. You may as well disabuse your minds of its in- 

 toxicating qualities, for I assure you that there was no one 

 attending that convention who would have been farther from 

 recommending a beverage containing those qualities than my- 

 self. I carried it, thinking it might be something both new 

 and useful, as I had never seen anything in print about mak- 

 ing a beverage of this kind ; and at the same time find a new 

 use for honey, thus increasing its consumption. 



Referring to the World's Fair convention, I wish to most 

 heartily thank each and every one who did, or said, anything 

 towards making my visit a pleasant one. That trip was the 

 grandest one of my life, and will ever remain on memory's 

 tablet as an oasis in the desert. Pleasant words and sweet 

 recollections will go down with me to my grave. 



A few years ago, on going out of my gate early one morn- 

 ing in the fall, I heard what at first seemed like a whole swarm 

 of bees. On looking up, I saw that a post-oak near by was 

 covered with bees. I suspected at once the cause, so I broke 

 off a small limb and brought it to the house, examined it with 

 a microscope, and, sure enough, on the underside of the 

 leaves there they were in great abundance — the cause of the 

 honey-dew. 



Yes, I have seen Italian bees gathering honey from cot- 

 ton. In going to a friend's house one morning, I purposely 

 got over the fence and went through the cotton to see if the 

 bees were getting honey or pollen from that source. I saw 

 several dozen pure Italians, but not a single black bee (al- 

 though at that time there were more blacks than Italians) 

 gathering honey, but no pollen. They worked very earnestly 

 at the very base, or, I might say, rather between the little 

 folds at the base, and appeared to be well repaid for their 

 labor, judging from their actions in hurrying to and from the 



flowers. At the time I wondered why it was that I saw no 

 blacks. Is it possible that their tongues were not long enough 

 to reach the nectar ? 



I never had the opportunity of studying the honey-flora 

 and watching the bees on various flowers as I would have en- 

 joyed doing, from the fact that just at the time to study was 

 the very time I was most closely confined at home, looking 

 after and attending to the wants and demands of my bees, 

 which were so exacting if not provided and cared for at the 

 right time that I would be the loser thereby. 



One siuglar thing about my keeping bees was, that more 

 came to me than I ever lost. I could only account for it in 

 one way, and that was absconding and starved out swarms, 

 in passing, smelled the honey in my apiary, so concluded to 

 stop and be a part and parcel of the same. I very much en- 

 joyed watching the bees as they hung in festoons, building 

 their comb. But one of the strangest things to me in the 

 whole economy of the hive was the wonderful difference the 

 food made, not only in the looks, use, and shape of a queen 

 from a worker, but in her lengthened life. It is indeed mar- 

 velous. 



On one occasion, when I was working with my bees, a wit 

 being present, I showed him several queens, and the cells from 

 which they hatched ; I told him that it was the royal jelly ou 

 which they were fed that caused the difference between them 

 and the worker-bees. 



" Well," said he, " why can't you feed your son on royal 

 jelly, and make a king out of him ?" Bee County, Tex. 

 (To be continued.) 



^ 



Nectar Secretion — Sowing Sweet Clover. 



BY E. S. MILES. 



On page 436, I think Mr. R. C. Aikin tells some as 

 straight and honest truth as has been my good fortune to hear 

 for many a day. There has been some discussion as to how 

 we might mow sweet clover so as to make it bloom later, after 

 white clover is gone. I believe it is like he says — you will do 

 better to let it bloom in its season, as I doubt much if it will 

 yield very much if it blooms out of season. But it will bloom 

 considerably longer if sowed quite thin, instead of thick. 



But speaking about planting for honey alone, he doubts 

 if it will pay, and I think likely he is right for him and his 

 country, but I will tell you what I know. I sowed about one- 

 half bushel of sweet clover seed, one year ago last March, and 

 I don't think I was over a half day harvesting the seed and 

 sowing it, and I know it helped out the honey-flow this year 

 enough to pay me well for that one-half day. 



This was a season when white clover yielded lightly for 

 quite a while, and the sweet clover came on and helped it out 

 nicely. I watched closely both in the field and at the hives, 

 when the bees were working on both white clover and melilot. 

 When the scale hive, with just a medium colony, would gain 

 from two to three pounds per day, I think one-half the bees 

 would have the sweet clover pollen as they went into the hive, 

 and, towards evening, perhaps more than one-half. I know 

 they had good loads of honey, too, by the way they would drop 

 on the entrance, and they worked on sweet clover at the same 

 time they did on basswood, which they would not do unless it 

 yielded well. And there was as much as 50 colonics, and 

 may bo more, and only about as much sweet clover in the 

 whole range as would come from one bushel of seed. 



I don't think that a dry fall hurts sweet clover a particle. 

 I never saw it look as nice as it does here this year, after the 

 driest fall and winter I ever saw. 



I don't believe there is such a thing as death for sweet 

 clover, except old age. Of course, the swfiet clover is all on 

 the highways and waste ground. I don't suppose a person 

 could sow it for honey alone except on waste ground. 



