674 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



cellar; and still I am just as much In 

 favor of not preventing that chilly north- 

 ern breeze that serves so well to keep 

 the bees at home on days not fit for 

 them to fly. If you can save the old 

 bees through April, you need not fear, 

 for good results will follow ; but if one- 

 third to one-half be lost by the chilly 

 breezes of early Spring, it will be hard 

 to bring them up to good strength for 

 tlie clover honey harvest. «. 



Now (May 6) my 72 colonies have 

 just been overhauled, and found with- 

 out exception in normal and uniform 

 strength of old bees (3 colonies have 

 died since moving from the cellar), the 

 most variation being in the difference in 

 brood-rearing, as some queens arc more 

 prolific, while others do not lay as many 

 eggs as the old bees can keep warm. 

 The reason of this is that no honey of 

 any account has been gathered as yet 

 this Spring. It is cold and rainy, and 

 as there is not going to be much fruit- 

 bloom, I think I will have to feed to 

 keep up brood-rearing. 



If the bees could have gotten out, 

 nectar was quite plentiful both from 

 maple and willow. Again, bees have 

 not as yet been able to secure enough 

 pollen to keep up rapid brood-rearing. 



The loss of bees in this part of Iowa 

 has been very heavy. Just three miles 

 southeast of my apiary, where over 200 

 colonies were in good condition, now only 

 about 40 remain. North of here the 

 situation is some better. Many of the 

 bees were taken out of cellars early, 

 which, with honey-dew, has caused the 

 heavy loss. 



Now, as many of the bees are dead, 

 and much of the white clover is destroyed 

 by the freezing of snowless Winters, we 

 may have clover in proportion to the 

 bees that are left. 



Weiton, Iowa. 



Comli-Honey Srafles SettleJ al Last. 



A. 13. MANN. 



California wants to help Missouri out 

 on his article on pagt? 541). and have it 

 settled. We will settle the grading 

 question on Mr. Weller's basis, and have 

 done with it. 



Her(! we have the true inwardness of 

 the grading question. Make your comb- 

 honey into 7i(.7ic grades, so as to give the 

 middleinan a fair chance (at you), and 

 then mark it so that the " uninitiated " 

 can't " get onto " th(! combination; that 

 will give the middleman nine chances at 



the producer, and nine more at the con- 

 sumer ; and if "practical use indicates 

 the need of additional grades or sub- 

 grades," why, give them nine more I 



Now, here comes "Old Calif orny" to 

 help " Missury " out. The two States 

 have been good friends since "'49;" so 

 we don't mind helping you again. 



Now instead of that W. A. D. of capi- 

 tal letters to indicate the grades, let us 

 have something deeper, that the unini- 

 tiated cannot fathom so easily. Let us 

 do it with colored pictures. We can use 

 the "colors of our country" (just 

 enough for each class). Let us have a 

 Bee rampant, for the Best Class, Red, 

 White or Blue to indicate the grade. 

 Then a Bee Couchant for a Middle 

 Class, grades to be indicated by the 

 colors. Then for the Worst Class, just 

 an ordinary " Be Durned ;" thus a Blue 

 Be Durned would indicate the worst that 

 could be expected. 



If the uninitiated "get onto" these 

 markings, why, change it next year. 



Now that the grading is settled, the 

 rest of the time until honey comes on the 

 market again, can be devoted to convinc- 

 ing the world that comb-honey can be 

 produced for 3 cents a pound, and per- 

 haps it can be, by a certain class, that 

 write for the bee-periodicals something 

 like this : " I bought 2 sv.'arms last 

 Spring, and increased them to 6 ; win- 

 tered them in a trench, and they are all 

 dead ; but I am going to buy a swarm of 

 blacks, and try it again. I am feeling 

 first-rate this Spring." 



I am willing to let "Berlin, Mo.," 

 have this grading sch'eme all to himself. 

 I am running about 200 colonies for 

 comb-honey this season, and if my bees 

 try to ring in any honey on me that I 

 cannot sell in two grades, I will make 

 them eat every drop of it, if I have to 

 wait until next Spring to get the chance. 



California. 



Does Alsite Cloyer Pay ? 



M. M. BAI,Di:iDGE. 



Hon. Matt. Anderson, of Dant; county, 

 Wis.,, writes me under date of Mayo, 

 18i)2, that for a number of years he has 

 sown no red clover, but Alsike instead ; 

 that in 1891 he had 45 acres wliicli ho 

 cut for seed, which gave him 189 

 busliels, and tiiat lie int(uids to save the 

 same 45 acrc^s for sticd tliis year. As 

 Alsike clover seed is worth about $9 per 

 bushel at wholesale, this Spring, the 



