212 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[March, 



unless great care is taken to have the hives 

 strong, and everything in readiness, the yield 

 will be very small. Besides the season, short as 

 it is, is liable to be too wet or too dry ; and thus 

 •we have another cause of failure. IBnt if the 

 season could be prolonged three months, with 

 jiasturage equal to that furnished by the white 

 clover, tlie amount of honey would be more than 

 quadrupled, besides the increase of swarms. 

 This fact needs no argument ; it is self-evident 

 to every bee-keeper. 



There seems to be an opinion prevalent that 

 it will not pay to cultivate plants for bee-pastur- 

 age alone ; but that such plants as buckwheat, 

 alsike clover, &c., must be cultivated, from 

 which the farmer can get a crop that is valuable 

 for other purposes -making his bee-pasturage a 

 secondary object. And almost universally the 

 honey crop is considered "small potatoes." 



The alsike, blooming simultaneously with the 

 white clover, makes it of little value to prolong 

 the season. Buckwheat, for a honey croj^, is a 

 failure four times in five. The question then 

 arises, will it pay to cultivate plants for the 

 honey crop alone, and especially to prolong the 

 season ? The cost of hives and bees, the care 

 and expense of wintering and sirring feeding, 

 are the same whether the yield is twenty pounds 

 or two hundred pounds per hive. All the profit 

 derived must be after the hive is made strong in 

 stores, so that every pound gained by artificial 

 pasturage is so much net. Let us figure, and 

 see how bee-farming will compare with other 

 farming— corn growing, &c. The average crop 

 from a field of twenty acres, that I have planted 

 iu corn for three successive years, has been 

 nearly fifty bushels per acre : average price per 

 bushel, fifty-five cents. 



Amount per acre $27 50 



Cost of raising and marketing . . . 11 70 



Profit per acre . $15 80 



The average yield, per acre, of corn in the 

 State of Ohio, for 1869, was 27i bushels per 

 acre ; while the average cost of production was, 

 no doubt, less than in my own crop, and my 

 profit per acre more than the average of the 

 State. 



The cost of sowing an acre of melilot clover, 

 includiog the seed, is $ 8 55 



Aftording pasturage for ten hives, yield- 

 ing a surplus of 20 lbs. per hive=200 

 lbs. at 20 cents per pound . . . , 50 00 



Profit i)er acre $41 45 



M. M. Baldridge states, that the melitot will 

 yield from 300 to 500 lbs. per acre. R. Miller, 

 by artificial pasturage, with 45 hives, old and 

 young, averaged 52 lbs. per hive. He liad three 

 acres of melilot ; but does not state what other 

 amount of pasturage he had. (Bee Journal, vol. 

 v., page 16(5). G. B. Avery thinks "that two 

 acres of alsike would, in a good season, furnish 

 honey sufficient for one hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred colonies of bees. {Bee Journal, vol. iii., 

 page 157). 



The many reports of honey yield in the 

 "Joitrnal,^^ will show that my estimate of 20 

 lbs. per hive is a low one ; and I have no doubt, 



when once attention is called to it, that bee- 

 keepers, with the aid of the melextractor and 

 artificial combs, will show that my figures are 

 the minimum instead of the maximum. There 

 are very few farmers that realize $20 per acre off 

 their farms, instead of $40. Besides, we have 

 only begun to pay any att.ention to honey-])lants 

 — once there is a demand — fiowering plants will 

 be tried and tested, until we will have results 

 superior to any yet realized, and "Novice's" 

 vision of " miles of honey-jars, " be a fact. Let 

 every bee-keeper who has land, test some honoj'- 

 plant, and give ns the result in the "Journal," 

 and soon would we have a volume of facts that 

 would startle old fogies "in the baggage train." 

 And now, if we are going to have artificial 

 combs so cheap that Mr. 13ickford '■'■dare not 

 tell," we want liDuey enough to fill them ; and 

 why not have it all in 1871 ? 



A. L. Brown. 

 London, Ohio, Jan., 1871. 



P. S. - Do you think it would pay to cultivate 

 the aster and the golden rod in this locality? 

 Where could I obtain seed? Has the iMCM?'fta< 

 clover, ment\one({\nihQ Bee Journal, vol. ii., page 

 234, and vol. iii., page 201, ever been tried in the 

 United States? 



[These plants would doubtless grow in Ohio ; 

 and, indeed, according to Gray, several varieties 

 of each are native there, though it is not stated 

 whether they are honey producing. Whether 

 they could be cultivated for bee-pasturage with 

 advantage, we do not know; but from their 

 abundance around Washington, it is not unlikely 

 they might. It would be difficult to procure seed 

 now, care would be required to obtain it from 

 the right kind of i>lants, as many varieties of 

 each produce no honey — at least not on all soils. 



We do not know that "Incarnat clover" has 

 ever been tried in this country for bees, though 

 it is a favorite for that purpose in some sections 

 of Germany. It has been tried l)y farmers in 

 Pennsylvania as a forage crop, but being an 

 annual did not find favor. — Ed] 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Hurrali for Figures ! 



Mr. Editor : — In the February number Mr. 

 Jasper Hazen has an article on the advantages 

 of non-swarming hives. I think he has one or 

 two errors in his calculations ; and by a differ- 

 ent mode of statement, I believe it has a very 

 different appearance. I will take his data and 

 calculate from them. And first take the swarm- 

 ing Jiive. 



10 Colonies cost $5 each, $50 

 10 hives " $1 " 10 outlay $60 00 



Ajinual cost. Int. on $60, at 



7 per cent, $4 20 



j\ cost of hives, .... 1 00 



i " " bees, 12 50 



10 new hive-s, 10 00 



27 70 



