For the American Bee Journal. 



Best Bee Pasturage. 



JOHN H. MARTIN. 



After perusing Prof. Cook's valuable 

 essay upon bee pasturage, as read before 

 the National Convention, I am incited 

 to give my experience. 



At the close of the season when the 

 bee-keeper has time to sit down and 

 count up his pounds of honey, he finds 

 that his surplus has been gathered in the 

 space of a few days of spasmodic yield. 

 As he jots down his last figures he heaves 

 an audible sigh, Oh ! for a continuous 

 honey yield, and thinks that if he had 

 such and such plants growing by the 

 acre what piles of honey he would have. 

 If he has the land upon which to sow 

 honey-producing plants the question is : 

 will it pay tosowexclusivelyfor bees ? 



Nearly all plants can be kept in blos- 

 som through the entire season by sow- 

 ing at different periods. And a few 

 plants continue to blossom naturally 

 through the entire season, but do they 

 secrete honey at all times ? Our experi- 

 ence is somewhat limited in this matter, 

 but we think nearly all plants have their 

 season of growth, 'flowering, secreting 

 honey and maturing the seed. It is the 

 nature of buckwheat to mature its seed 

 during the cool nights of August and 

 September, and if sown at an earlier 

 date than about the first of July, it fails 

 to produce a crop, or to secrete honey. 

 We usually have a fine yield of bass- 

 wood honey of beautiful quality, but a 

 few years since we saw a near neighbor 

 sowing several acres of buckwheat 

 about the first of June, to be plowed 

 under for green manure. We knew, as 

 a natural consequence, that the buck- 

 wheat would blossom at the same time 

 of our basswood yield, and we got some- 

 what excited about it, thinking our 

 beautiful honey would all be spoiled. We 

 were going to hire our neighbor to plow 

 his buckwheat under before it blos- 

 somed but he would not, and soon the 

 field was white as snow. We visited it 

 anxiously several mornings and were 

 happy to find not a bee at work upon it ; 

 not an ounce of honey was gathered 

 from it, and our basswood honey was as 

 beautiful as ever. Since then we have 

 had little faith in sowing continuous 

 crops for honey. If you have buck- 

 wheat in continuous bloom from early 

 spring until fall you will get honey only 

 in the fall months ; it is probably so with 

 many other flowers. Our clover 

 removed one month earlier or later 

 would be a failure : even in the height 

 of its season how much it depends upon 

 the elements for its successful yield. 



It may be different with a flower that 

 blossoms continuously, for instance the 

 blue thistle {Ichium vulgar e), blossoms 

 from June until frost and bees work 

 upon it at all times, but its main vield is 

 in July. 



The subject of pasturage will proba- 

 bly receive more attention at no dis- 

 tant day, and those plants most useful 

 to the bee-keeper will find their place 

 upon every honey farm. We hope to 

 have an acre of mignonette next season 

 and will report its success or failure. 



FEEDING GLUCOSE. 



I wish to protest against feeding bees 



glucose or kindred substances. Every 

 ee-keeper has a local reputation, and 

 if he studies his own interests he will 

 strive to keep that reputation good. 

 Many in my neighborhood are aston- 

 ished at my yield of honey (an average 

 yield of 100 lbs. per colony), and scores 

 have asked me what I feed my bees. 

 Suppose a local purchaser should come 

 into my bee house and see a box or 

 barrel of glucose, would any argument 

 of mine'convince him that I did not get 

 my yield from that substance ? I should 

 be ashamed to have even a barrel of 

 sugar in sight, for I find many people 

 have a prediliction for thinking we can 

 feed sugar and make it into honey, and 

 sell said honey cheaper than the sugar 

 before being fed ! The best argument 

 is to keep all foreign matters, not only 

 out of sight but off your premises, 

 unless it is to feed for the salvation of 

 your bees, in times of drouth. 

 North Granville, N. Y. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Shrew, or Bee Mole. 



W. J. WILLARD. 



I see an article in the March number 

 of American Bee Journal, on the 

 " Bee Mole." I know the little fellow, 

 have known it for the last 18 years ; its 

 proper name is shrew, and it is the 

 smallest member of the shrew family, 

 I do not know its Latin name, but I do 

 know it personally. Have kept it in a 

 cage until it became tame enough to eat 

 from my hand and allow itself to be 

 handled. Its food consists entirely of 

 insects and worms, though if very hun- 

 gry it will not refuse a bit of raw beef. 

 It delights to live about bee yards in 

 winter, where the bees are left on their 

 summer stands. And during such a 

 winter as we have just experienced it 

 will do serious damage. I had two 

 strong colonies of bees destroyed this 

 winter by the shrew mice, and several 

 more much injured ; they do not trouble 



