THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



59 



very much whether my bees have that power — 

 Ihougli tliey may have, for that is a very nice 

 point to detect; I)ut Galkip is "tremendous" on 

 these mysteries of the honey bee. 



Gallup says that bees do make a very nice 

 article of honey from maple sap, and then, to 

 prove it, says — "reduce sugar syrup quite thin 

 and feed it to bees in July or August, and they 

 will make it into thick honey." Well, friend 

 Gallup, bees do not, in this part of the country, 

 work very much on majile sap in July or Au- 

 gust. Maple generally flows most here in the 

 spring of the year, when it is fully as cool as it 

 was any time last fall when the bees were gath- 

 ering that thin honey. 



If bees ran gather "maple sap" that contains 

 only one drop of honey to every twelve drops 

 of sap, and reduce it to a "good article of hon- 

 ey," could they not, by the same law, reduce 

 tiie thin honey that our friend Gallup says they 

 gathered last fall, and which gave them the 

 dysentery, or the disease that he saj^s don't ex- 

 ist ? Friend Gallup says he would like to say 

 much more on the subject of dysentery, but his 

 "dose" was large enough for "friend Puckett." 

 Friend Gallup's "dose" puts me in mind of a 

 quack doctor I once heard of. The story is 

 thus : He was called in haste to visit a child 

 that was very sick ; but being unable to detect 

 the cause of the trouble, he -went to work and 

 ])repared a "dose," by taking some of all the 

 medicines he had, which made a large " dose." 

 He was about to administer it to the child, 

 when the anxious mother remarked — ''do you 

 think, doctor, that this ' dose ' will cure my 

 child ?" '■'■Cure your child I" replied he, "why 

 no, but it will throw itintoj?/s, and I am h — 1 

 on fits !" But as I never take friend Gallup's 

 "doses" as he prepares them for me, I get clear 

 of his " fits." 



Now, friend Gallup, as you have much more 

 you want to say on the subject of " dysentery," 

 I refer you to y<}ur article in the February num- 

 ber of the Bee Joukkal, page 145, where you 

 say there is no such disease. Is it, or is it not 

 a disease ? This you can answer without mak- 

 ing your "doses" so very large. But never 

 mind the size of the "dose," only confine your- 

 self to the proper material of which it is com- 

 posed. There is one prominent article in all 

 your "doses" that might be left out, and the 

 "dose" act fully as well, at least on me. The 

 "m?/" and the "i" might be let\ out, until 

 there are more indicitions for tlieir peculiar ac- 

 tion. But if the "dose" is merely prepared "to 

 see what effect it will have," regaidless of the 

 life of the patient, you need not offer it to me, 

 as I will not take it until I aualyze it; and then, 

 if there should happen to he any goxl in the 

 compound, I may take it — if I need the article. 



Is there, or is there not, such a disease 

 among bees as the dysentery ? Gallup's bees, 

 of course, excepted— tliey "know better." 



B. Puckett. 



Winchester, Ind., Aug. 1869. 



How oft, when wandering far and erring long, 

 Man might learn truth and virtue from the Bee. 



BOWRIKG. 



[For the Amei-icaa Bee Journal.] 



How to Save and Clean Alsike Clover 

 Seed. 



Mk. Editor :— In the last number of the 

 Bee Journal, I noticed an article from the 

 pen of Mr. Nesbit, of Cyntluana, Ky., in which 

 he requests those having knowledge in regard 

 to saving and cleaning alsike clover seed, to 

 communicate through the Bee Journal. I 

 have had quite a number of years' experience 

 with it, and will freely give it for the benefit of 

 those having seed to save. 



I let my alsike stand about two weeks longer 

 than I should for a hay ciop alone, as until a 

 majority of the blossoms have turned brown or 

 dark (which here, in Canada, is about the last 

 week in July), then, if the weather is fine, I 

 cut it one day and draw it in the next. It does 

 not do to let"it get too dry, as it shells out badly 

 when very dry. Then, early in tiie winter, so 

 that I can have the hay to feed after it is thresh- 

 ed, I get a clover tliresher, the same as is used 

 here for threshing red clover. These are taken 

 from one farm to another, by men who make a 

 business of threshing clover, the same as other 

 men do of threshing wheat and oats. A ma- 

 chine will thresh from twelve to twenty bushels 

 in a day, charging fifty cents a bushel for thresh- 

 ing. The seed comes from the machine sepa- 

 rated from most of the chaff. In this state it is 

 left by the thresher, for the farmer to clean fit 

 for market, which is much the most difficult to 

 do, and is often not done at all, but the seed 

 taken to market as it is, full of dust and dirt; 

 as was undoubtedly the case with that which 

 friend Nesbit and others got from various 

 sources. 



M)^ plan for cleaning the seed is this : I pass 

 it through my through my fanning mill and 

 blow it hard. A portion of the seed comes 

 down under the mill into the chess or seed box, 

 and a portion is blown over with the dirt in 

 front of the mill. That I take up and put 

 through the same as before, and repeat it, until 

 all comes down into the seed box. Then you 

 have it clean from dirt and dust : but there will 

 be fine bits of hay or any other seed that may 

 be mixed with it in it still. These I take out by 

 means of a fine wire sieve, that will, with con- 

 siderable shaking, let the alsike seed through, 

 but retain all of the broken hny and any other 

 seeds larger than the alsike. This part I do by 

 hand, and it is |quite a labor to sift a hundred 

 or two hundred bushels of seed, as I have done, 

 and shall do aga'n this winter, if spared. But I 

 have the satisfaction of selling the pure alsike 

 seed. Parties cleaning the seed for their own 

 use, if there be no other seeds in it, miglit dis- 

 pense with the hand sifting, as for their pur- 

 pose the bits of hay would not hurt it in the 

 least. 



This has been a bad season in Canada for 

 bees. There is not much surplus honey, and 

 stocks will not be in first-rate condition for win- 

 ter. But they would have been much Avorse, if 

 it had not been for the alsike clover pasturage. 

 H. M. Thomas. 



Brooklin, Canada. 



