June 7, 1906 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



487 



quotes Sir William Ramsey to show what great efforts are 

 being made to put the artificial production of nitrates from 

 the atmosphere on a commercial basis, in order to produce 

 a cheap fertilizer and enlarge the world's supply of wheat. 



More than 5 years ago, he recalls, Sir William Crookes uttered a 

 warning note that the population of the world was increasing so rap- 

 idly that the supply of wheat would shortly not be sufficient to feed it, 

 but said that before we were in the grip of actual dearth the chemist 

 would slip in and postpone the day of famine. 



Two processes for the manufacture of combined nitrogen are 

 especially promising, in one of which calcium nitrate is produced, in 

 the other calcium cyanamid. Neither of these materials is without 

 objection. The calcium nitrate, while an excellent fertilizer, is very 

 deliquescent; that is, it has great power to absorb moisture from the 

 atmosphere, and if not carefully protected in air-tight containers it 

 will gradually liquefy. The calcium cyanamid possesses properties 

 which produce injurious effects upon vegetation, so that it must be 

 used with care and applied some time in advance of planting the crop. 



Mr. Hopkins then goes on to show that the nitrogen- 

 fixing bacteria, with which practically all the cultivated 

 soils of the world are already abundantly infected, will 

 maintain a sufficient supply of nitrogen in the soil without 

 the purchase of any artificial nitrogen for all time to come, 

 provided the farmers make abundant use of legume crops 

 in rotation with their other crops. " It is impossible to 

 conceive of artificially-prepared nitrogen compounds ever 

 replacing clover and other legumes, because legume crops 

 can be grown and utilized with actual profit entirely aside 

 from the effect produced upon succeeding crops." 



There is more nitrogen in the atmosphere above every 

 quarter section of land than is required for the entire an- 

 nual grain crop of the world. The bacteria " work for noth- 

 ing and board themselves," living on the roots of clover 

 and transforming free atmospheric nitrogen into combined 

 forms and storing it in the soil for use of succeeding crops. 



Agricultural Associations Act 



A revision of the Agricultural and Arts Act was passed 

 at the recent sessions of the Ontario Legislature, with some 

 clauses of importance to bee-keepers. It provides among 

 other things that — 



4. The membership fee of each association shall be de- 

 cided by law. 



5. The constitution and by-laws, and any alterations 

 therein, must be approved by the Minister of Agriculture. 



7. The number of directors, their representation of cer- 

 tain districts or classes of members, and their mode of 

 selection, shall be determined by by-law. This will allow 

 the working out of the plan proposed by me at the last con- 

 vention of the Ontario Bee-Keepers' Association, and put 

 in the form of a resolution at the Brantford convention 

 later : To let the local associations be district associations, 

 and let each district association appoint its delegate to the 

 Provincial convention with the understanding that said 

 delegate, being the representative of his district, should be- 

 come the director for that district, of the Ontario Associa- 

 tion. 



12. The Minister may appoint auditors. 



13. Members who have paid up for the ensuing year 

 can vote at the annual meeting, but the Association may by 

 by-law provide that to vote in election of directors member- 

 ship must b<> paid at least one week in advance of the an- 

 nual meeting. This, in some cases, might be a wise pro- 

 vision. 



— » — ■ 



Spring Notes on Bees 



Don't " spread brood " until you have been keeping 

 bees and working with them for 10 years. There is not 

 much likelihood of your doing a great deal of it after that 

 time. 



It is a mistake to try to run more hives than you have 

 bees and good queens for. 



Don't try to rear queens in May unless yon are an ex- 

 pert. An expert knows better than to try — in this climate. 



A colony with brood on 6 frames at the middle of May 

 this year is a good one. A 5-frame brood-nest is pretty 

 good; a 4-frame one is ■ fair. Anything smaller will prob- 

 ably require help to get ready for clover. 



Don't waste time fiddling with very weak colonies. — E. 

 G. H., in Farmers' Advocate. 



See Langstroth Book Offer on another page of this 

 copy of the American Bee Journal. 



^ 



(Dur* Sister 

 Beekeepers 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, II 



Clipping Queens' Wings— Why and How 



There are several good reasons why a man who keeps 

 bees should have his queens clipped. One of these reasons 

 is intensified in the case of a woman, for it's a harder job 

 for a woman to climb after swarms than it is for a man. 

 The one sufficient reason for clipping queens, if there were 

 no other, is that when a swarm issues with a clipped queen 

 the swarm can not go off. It is trne that sometimes the 

 queen may be lost — although not generally — but it is better 

 to lose the queen alone than it is to lose both queen and 

 swarm. 



It is not a difficult thing to clip a queen, and a woman 

 is better than a man at doing a piece of delicate work with 

 a pair of scissors. More used to handling scissors. 



" The right time to clip a queen ?" Any time when it 

 suits your convenience. Early in the season, before a col- 

 ony becomes very strong, there are not so many bees in a 

 colony to look through. Still, it is a fact that for some 

 mysterious reason a queen will sometimes elude observation 

 when a colony or nucleus is so weak that it seems you can 

 not fail to notice each individual bee. Even when a colony 

 becomes very strong, it is not so very hard to find a queen 

 at any time during the day when a large portion or the 

 population is afield. 



Just hold your queen in the thumb and fingers of the 

 left hand, her head pointing to your left, and with a pair of 

 embroidery scissors (although almost anything short of a 

 pair of shears will do) cut off half or more of the two wings 

 on one side. You will wonder to find how easy it is to do, 

 and you will never again want any but clipped queens ; but 

 be sure never to clip a queen before she begins laying. 



Number of Colonies and the Location 



Most of the sisters keep only a small number of colo- 

 nies, and, no doubt, many a regret is felt at this fact. Yet 

 keeping a small number, provided that no other bees are 

 near by, is not without its compensations. It is well known 

 that in the majority of places the harvest is limited to only 

 a few weeks, sometimes to only a few days. Indeed, the 

 bee-keeper who can be assured of not more than 10 days of 

 heavy flow each year is not so badly off. Not that there is 

 an absolute dearth throughout the whole season, except on 

 the favored 10 days ; but that so little comes at any other 

 time in the year, that where a large number of bees covers 

 the field all that is gathered at any other time is used up by 

 the bees for their daily needs, and often they must draw on 

 their reserve stores to eke out the daily allowance. Although 

 it may not be known certainly just what is that daily allow- 

 ance, it is no doubt far under the mark to say that during 

 the flying season a colony consumes for its own needs SO 

 pounds of honey. 



For the sake of illustration, let it be assumed that the 

 daily bill of fare for each colony during the summer is a 

 half pound of honey. Suppose 100 colonies in one location 

 are just enough to keep the nectar cleaned up each day, and 

 that it is also cleaned up in the hive by the " old folks " and 

 the " babies," so that nothing is left over for storing. At 

 a half pound of honey for each colony, that would make 50 

 pounds of honey daily. Now suppose, instead of 100, there 

 are only 10 colonies in the same yard, and that they are still 

 able to keep the field cleaned, gathering the 50 pounds 

 daily; that would be 5 pounds for each colony, and after 

 deducting half a pound for the family table, there would be 

 left \V Z pounds as daily surplus. Continue that for 100 days, 

 and the colony would have 450 pounds of surplus as its sea- 

 son's work. 



Of course, it is not fair to assume that the 10 colonies 

 could always keep the nectar cleaned up, but it might come 

 close to it, and the illustration is sufficient to show that a 

 small number may lay up a surplus in a location where a 

 large number would face a dearth So if you haven't as 



