THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



91 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Various Topics. 



The Sainfoin. 



The sainfoin (healthy hay) is a plant very 

 convenient for soiling cattle, or for dry fodder. 

 All herbivorous animals are very fond of it. 

 It is, as its name imports, very healthy food for 

 all. Even horses can be fed on it freely, in its 

 green or dry state, without the least danger. 



In France it is generally sown on poor dry 

 soils, where the clovers or the lucerne grass 

 cannot thrive. It succeeds best on calcarious 

 and sandy soils, and on stony spots. I have 

 known it to yield more than two tons of hay to 

 the acre, on soils so covered with small stones 

 tha r hardly an atom of ground could be seen 

 on the sjrface. Its rose-colored flowers, bluish 

 when faded, are so pretty that they would not 

 disparage a flower garden ; and afford for three 

 or four weeks an abundance of delicious honey 

 for the bees. It is to sainfoin that the Gatinais 

 honey owes its well deserved reputation in 

 the Paris markets. 



If any beekeepers wish to try it, I would ad- 

 vise them to select a dry and porous soil for it, 

 for even in France it will not last more than 

 one or two years on rich ground not naturally 

 well drained. 



I do not doubt that, with our fine Indian 

 summers, it would here produce a second crop 

 ample enough to be worth cutting and curing, 

 besides affording abundant fall pasturage for 

 bees. 



The Lindens. 



Although the nurserymen's catalogues show 

 only two varieties of the linden tribe, the one 

 American and the other European, there are 

 at least three American varieties known — the 

 Tilia alba, (white lime) ; the Tilia Americana, 

 (the American lime or bass-wood) ; and the 

 Tilia pubescens, (the downy lime). The 

 European varieties are : — The Tilia plataphylla, 

 (broad-leaved lime) ; the Tilia microphylla, 

 (the small-leaved lime) ; and the Tilia argentea, 

 (the silver-leaved lime). 



All these varieties are of rapid growth. The 

 first two European varieties should prove a 

 good acquisition, for, as in France they blos- 

 som in June, it is probable that in this country 

 they would lengthen out the harvest of that 

 delicious honey. 



The silver-leaved linden is probably too ten- 

 der for the cold winters of the northern, east- 

 ern and middle States, as its native country is 

 the south of Europe. 



While residing in Fr:mce, the thousands of 

 linden trees which adorn the walks and the 

 roads around the city of Langres, were one of 

 the main resources of our bees. These lindens 

 were mainly of the broaddeaved variety ; yet 

 some of the small-leaved lindens intermixed, 

 blooming later, prolonged the aromatic crop for 

 one or two weeks. 



Mellextractor. 

 The honey-emptying machine is named mell- 

 extracteur, in France, from two Latin words. 



That name, being shorter, would, I think, be 

 more convenient than the term Ave use. 



The mellextractor can be made cheaper, by 

 using a cord winding around a vertical stem, 

 as used in wind-mill toys, instead of the iron 

 cog-wheels. 



The Ruchee. (Rooshai.) 



In English we have no term to designate the 

 bees together with the combs, brood, &c. The 

 words stand, stock, &c, are too vague, and 

 designate too many things. In France, they 

 call a swarm essaim, a hive ruche, (roosh), and 

 the inmates of the rushe, ruchee, (rooshai). 

 Why should we not borrow these names from 

 the French dictionary, as the scientists have 

 already borrowed their chemical nomenclature ? 



The Shallow Hive once more. 



Though I see from Mr. J. T. Langstroth's arti- 

 cle in the last number of the Bee Journal, 

 that he thinks that ad the criticisms directed 

 against the Langstroth hive, come from men 

 making indiscriminate attacks on anything con- 

 nected with the Langstroth name, or who will 

 prove all things and hold fast to that which U 

 good, yet, setting aside these little courtesies, I 

 wish to submit my humble criticism relative to 

 his hive. 



The Bee Journal is an arena where all 

 ideas and opinions can meet and struggle. 

 The common sense of the public will, sooner or 

 later, judge without appeal, and decide in favor 

 of the true and the right. A thing valued as 

 good today, may be rejected to-morrow, and 

 replaced by something better. All this is very 

 plain, and fair. 



The Langstroth hive has received, in the Oc- 

 tober number, many praises — five, if I do not 

 mistake. Yet I find in the same number, page 

 G9, a few lines from the pen of Mr. C. S. Payne, 

 which destroy those praises, in part, if not alto- 

 gether. 



The fact that the queens do not lay as many 

 eggs in the shallow as in the square hives, 

 agrees with the habits of the queens. Indeed, 

 the queen always begins to lay in the centre of 

 the comb, placing her eggs around those first 

 laid, and so on in a regular circle. The bees 

 give to the young grub the food found in the 

 nearest cells, so that the queen after her turn 

 around the brood, finds the cells ready to re- 

 ceive her eggs ; and so on till all the combs 

 are filled with brood. In the shallow frame, 

 the bottom and the top of the comb are soon 

 reached, and the queen is disturbed in her cir- 

 cuit, and loses time in seeking for empty cells. 



This is, in my opinion, one of the greatest 

 defects of the Langstroth hive — a defect not 

 compensated by the tacility of drawing the 

 frames ; that greater facility being more in ap- 

 pearance than real. Indeed, the bees, in order 

 to put more honey in the top of the combs, 

 lengthen the cells so as to hardly leave room for 

 a bee to pass between the two adjoining combs; 

 while the lower part of the combs — that is, three 

 or four inches below, destined for brooding 

 purposes, is always of equal thickness, not 



