96 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



has appointed me his sole agent in the United 



States, for the sale of Italian queens reared at 

 his apiaries; and I hope to be al)le to effect ar- 

 rangements in Bremen and New York, by 

 which those who desire to obtain queens from 

 the parent country of tlie apis ligustica, can be 

 supplied directly from abroad on the most rea- 

 sonable terms. I enclose an advertisement of 

 Prof. JMona, and likewise a certificate from under 

 his hand, that I have purchased from him one 

 hundred Italian queen bees of undoubted purity. 

 These I desire to have inserted. Tliey will be 

 followed in due time with a price current and 

 further particulars. 



Yours respectfully, 



Adam Grimm. 



[From the Canada Farmer.] 



Alsike Clover. 



I had a small field of three and a half acres 

 that I had summer-fallowed, and subsequently 

 took a crop of fall wheat from it in the autumn 

 oflSGo. In the following spring I plowed it 

 once and sowed to spring wheat, and seeded it 

 down to alsike clover, putting on only five 

 pounds of seed to the acre, harrowed in Avilh 

 the last harrowing. I should state that the 

 field has had no manure fc'ince if was cleared, 

 some eight or ten years ago. The clover ger- 

 minated and came up well; and last fall I pas- 

 tured it very lightly. In the spring of the pre- 

 sent year, about the 20th of May, I sowed a 

 barrel and a half of plaster on the field, and 

 now I am cutting and securing the crop for 

 seed. I iiave five good size wagon loads in the 

 barn, and lh(!re are fifteen or si.Ktecn more in 

 the field. The average length of the stalks is 

 about two and a halt^ feet; but in some of the 

 hollows it is asliigh as four and a half feet. Of 

 course it was all down in one tangled mass, and 

 it occupied eight long days for one man to mow 

 it. It apptars to be extremely prolific in seed. 

 I think it would have been better to have pas- 

 tured it till the first of June for a seed crop, as 

 it would not then have grown so tall or been so 

 badly laid. 



In regard to its adaptation for bee pasturage, 

 I find it excellent. During about four weeks it 

 produced a multitude of blossoms, and the bees 

 literally covered them from morning till night. 

 Out of curiosity on the 24tli of June, I drove 

 out a common sized swarm of bees into a hive 

 filled with empty comb, and having weighed 

 them set them in one corner of the clover field. 

 After the lapse of a week I weighed them again, 

 and found that they had gained twenty-seven 

 pounds. This additional weight was of course 

 all honey, for there was no comb to build, nor 

 could there have been any weight of brood in 

 that short interval of time. 



IIoNhY may be clarified by placing the ves- 

 sel coutaining it in hot water, and continuing 

 to skim as long as any scum rises. 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



Bee-Hives. 



Bees usually work more from eight o'clock 

 in the morning till noon, than during the rest 

 of the day. 



I have been much amused in reading the re- 

 marks on bee-hives in the Jouunal; so, to amnse 

 others, I return the compliment by sending the 

 article below, taken IVom the Rural Neio Torlcer. 

 It was written in 1801, by "Abram Mudgett, of 

 Great Valley, N. Y." I hope Mr. Mudgett 

 *'still lives," and that the Editor Avill mail him a 

 copy of the Journal containing the republica- 

 tion of the article, as I am not willing to deal 

 with any one "behind his back." 



I wish ]\Ir. M. would let us hear from him 

 through the Journal, with regard to his birch- 

 bark hive; and especially whether his combs 

 still remain "white," and particularly whether 

 he still continues in the "tame mink" business, 

 since many in the West are anxious to get pos- 

 session of something that will destroy the moth- 

 worm. Now for the article: 



"A NO-PATENT HIVE. 



Having seen models of diflerent bee-hives in 

 3'our valuible paper, I will introduce one for 

 the benefit of bee-keepers, which is superior to 

 any other in use. It is made of birch bai k, and 

 costs about five cents. My experience wiili 

 this hive is five years. The comb remains 

 white; it has grown no darker for the last three 

 years; the bees winter on les's honey, swarm 

 earlier, and have one-third more wax. As the 

 hive can be made to hold water, there is no 

 hiding-place for the miller, although I have no 

 millers about my apiary, as I keep tame minks, 

 which exterminate them. I hive kept from 

 twenty to one hundred swarms for the last 

 thirty years, and consider the birch hive, and 

 the minks to catch the millers the two most im- 

 portant discoveries to bee-keepers that I have 

 nia'le in that time." 



This birch-bark hive will doubtless please 

 many readers of the Journal, so far as cheap- 

 ness is concerned. Just think of it, only "five 

 cents" for a good substantial hive that keeps 

 the combs "white," and is in short "superior 

 to any other in use!" 



M. M. Baldridge, 



St. Charles, III. 



[From tlie Iowa Homestead ] 



How I Wintered Bees in the Langstroth 

 Hive. 



I placed them side by side Avithin two inches 

 of the ground, drove stakes in the git)und, 

 and put in shingles and old boards, so as to 

 leave a si)ace of two or three inches all around 

 the hive, except in front, (which was left open). 

 This space I filled with straw; the honey box 

 and honey-boards wore taken otf, and the caps 

 filled with straw. My bees wintered in excel- 

 lent condition, and consumed, I judge, a com- 

 paratively small amount of honey. 



B. p. Snow. 



