^ Tmm mjs(im.mi€M.M mmm jOTsmmmi^. 



59 



*— •*— ■*-^*-^*— •■^■^*-^*-^-' 



not get into their homes during the 

 day, on account of the cones, will then 

 gladly enter, and prepare for a vigor- 

 ous defense for the next daj'. 



These cones are very easily made, 

 and are from 2 to 3 inches long, and 

 one or more are tacked over one-inch 

 auger-holes, made in a thin strip of 

 wood, as long as the entrance, about 

 IJ inches wide. 



A few of these strips with cones can 

 be kept conveniently near, and will be 

 found useful in other ways, such as 

 preventing swarms from entering some 

 hive tliat you do not wish them to 

 enter, etc. 



UeeM SM'anning Out. 



The first fine days next spring, look 

 out for weak colonies to swarm out, 

 and do not forget that prevention is 

 ver}' simple, by placing a piece of per- 

 forated zinc at the entrance of the 

 hives of all the weak colonies. 



Last season, a swarm, after being 

 hived in good condition, took a notion 

 to desert, and as I was on hand at the 

 time, with a piece of perforated-zine, 

 ■which I got over the hive-entrance be- 

 fore the queen had gotten out, of 

 course the liees returned, and the next 

 day they tried it over again, with the 

 " laugh " still on my side. 



Winchester, Ky. 



S'WEET CLOVER. 



It§ Hone}'- Value in the Region 

 of Salt Lake City. 



Written fur Oleunings in Bee-Culture 



BY J. C. SWANER. 



Sweet clover grows here along the 

 water-courses, moist waste places, 

 along the roadsides, and in neglected 

 fields. It grows from six inches to as 

 many feet in height, according to the 

 location, and it is covered with an 

 abundance of bloom from top to bot- 

 tom, yielding in most seasons an abun- 

 dance of nectar, which, after being 

 gatliercd and stored, produces honey 

 of the very best quality and color. It 

 does not generally bloom in the first 

 year ; but in the second it commences 

 about tlie first of July, and keeps up a 

 continual bloom until killed by frost, 

 furnishing bees with pasturage, gen- 

 erally from the middle of July until 

 the latter part of August. 



Sweet clover is sometimes used for 

 pasturage, and also for making hay, 

 if cut wiien young, though it is a long 

 way beliind alfalfa for that purpose. 

 Thougli it is sometimes relished l)y 

 stock, very few woidd sow it for feed- 

 ing. If eaten while green, it is in a 

 mea.sure a cause of hoven, or bloat, in 



cows. If you wi.sh good milk or butter 

 you had better not feed it to milch 

 cows, as it imparts a ver}' disagreeable 

 taste to it. If eaten off by stock it will 

 soon recover, and produce an abun- 

 dance of Ijloom for the bees. 



It is a very fair fertilizer ; and it is 

 also claimed that; if planted on alkali 

 land, it will feed on the alkali and ex- 

 haust it, besides bringing to the sur- 

 face, with its long roots, elements 

 necessary to plant-life. 



As sweet clover is biennial, it is not 

 a very hard weed to eradicate, and 

 verj" seldom troubles cultivated fields, 

 though it will sometimes seed a field ; 

 and if such field is planted to grain the 

 following season, it will come up, and 

 is cut off only with the reaper. Next 

 season, if the same field be neglected, 

 it will quite likely be covered with 

 sweet clover, and that, too, sometimes 

 as high as your head. If a field is 



Sweet Clover. 



cultivated as it should be for two sea- 

 sons, the clover will entirely disappear. 

 The plant requires a little moisture in 

 the soil the first year ; but after that it 

 will grow without. I consider it, for 

 my part, a great deal better to see a 

 roadside lined with it than the sun- 

 flowers, etc., that genei'ally grow in 

 such places. 



Now, to sum up, sweet clover is our 

 main honey crop in this locality. It is 

 our best honey ; and ^hathonej-, I may 

 say without boasting, compares favor- 

 ably with the best grades known. 



I do not think it will pay to sow it 

 for honey alone, unless on such land as 

 is considered worthless ; but I think it 

 would be a benefit to such land. 



As to the amount of nectar it will 

 produce per acre, I am unable to say ; 

 but I think it will compare favorably 

 with white clover; in fact, it produces 

 fullj- two-tliirds of our honej- crop in 

 this locality, ami I should consider 

 this a poor country for lioney, if it 

 were destroyed ; but as it is, we gen- 



erally get a crop ; that is, the bees gen- 

 erally have some honej' to spare. 

 Salt Lake City, Utah. 



Mr. Root adds : " Mr. Swaner has- 

 been quite careful and conscientious in 

 giving the olijectionable features of 

 sweet clover in the region of Salt Lake 

 Citj-, as well as the good qualities. In 

 that localit)- there are a very few plants 

 that will stand the fierce drouth of 

 summer ; but sweet clover seems to be 

 one of them, and it might be easily 

 grown on thousands of acres that now 

 bear notlung but weeds of no value. 

 Much of tliis desert land is so light, 

 that it is very easily prepared for a 

 seed-bed. After sweet clover has once 

 got a start, it furnishes about as per- 

 manent bee-pasturage as anything I 

 have ever found. In fact, I could not 

 find any of the bee-keepers around 

 Salt Lake City or Ogden who say thej' 

 ever have seasons of no honej- at alU 

 such as we have had here several times- 

 during the past twenty years. Not 

 only does sweet clover yield honey, 

 but, after testing it in a good many 

 places, I pronounced it equal in ap- 

 pearance and flavor to any honey we 

 have in the world. 



"The first time I tasted it at friend 

 Woodmanse's I uttered an exclama- 

 tion of surprise, and asked him what 

 was the source of the beautiful honey. 

 Even before he spoke, there seemed 

 something familiar in the delicate 

 flavor ; and when he said sweet clover,. 

 I recognized it as plainly as if it were 

 but a piece of stalk in my mouth. It 

 tastes very much as sweet clover smells 

 when its green leaves are bruised 

 slightly. The flavor is not rank 

 enough to be at all disagreeable. The 

 extracted honey is very thick, and has 

 the same beautiful flavor as the comb 

 honey. It seems to me that these fact-s 

 give us a wonderful opening for start- 

 ing a honey-farm where land is cheap, 

 and nothing else will grow on account 

 of the long severe drouths." 



[Sweet clover possesses this advan- 

 tage, that while it comes into bloom 

 late, with the fall floweils, it produces 

 nice, thick honey which is second to 

 none as to quality and flavor. Let all 

 who have waste land sow it for the 

 honey which it so bountifully yields. 

 The seed can be obtained at this office^ 

 in any quantity. — Ed.] 



A Favorable IVortI from any of our 

 readers, who speak from experience, lias 

 more weight with their friends than any- 

 thing we might say. Every one of our 

 readers can lend us a helping hand, in this 

 way, without much trouble, and at the same 

 time help to scatter apieultural knowledge 

 and promote the welfare of our pursuit. 



