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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



October 



small grain has been removed. This 

 will not only add greatly to the pro- 

 duction of the grains through soil 

 improvement, but it will increase the 

 area of bee pasturage by untold thou- 

 sands of acres. 



Another Variety 



The thing of latest interest is an 

 early blooming variety of the bien- 

 nial sweet clover. Last May, as 

 Henry Dadant was making a journey 

 to the outapiaries he was surprised 

 to see a few plants of sweet clover 

 in full bloom. Since it seldom reaches 

 its period of bloom so early, he be- 

 gan investigating to see whether 

 there was a strain which might be 

 used to fill in the gap following fruit 

 bloom, when the bees have no nectar 

 available. From County Agent J. H. 

 Lloyd, of Hancock County, he secured 

 the following information : 



"Mr. Foot has called my attention 

 to a paragraph in the circular letter 

 from Grundy County as follows: 



'A new type of two-year white 

 blossom sweet clover has been grown 

 in Grundy County for the past few 

 years. The direct origin of this is 

 n'ot known; however, it is very evi- 

 dent that this sweet clover is distinct 

 and dififerent from the large, coarse 

 and later maturing white blossom 

 sweet clover. The Grundy County 

 sweet clover is nearly three weeks 

 earlier in maturing, is shorter, grow- 

 ing about waist high on the average; 

 is a heavy seed producer and ripens 

 more uniformly. It has several ad- 

 vantages over the large sweet clover, 

 although for soiling purposes it is 

 hardly as good. Fields of this va- 

 riety of sweet clover may be seen on 

 the farms of Clifford Collins, north- 

 east of Morris; Maurice Walsh, 

 northeast of Mason, and Robert Mc- 

 Luckie and James Huml, southwest 'of 

 Coal City. The Grundy County sweet 

 clover will soon be ready to harvest 

 for seed. (July 13). This type and 

 the large growing kind may both be 

 seen on the farm of Alex Bell, three 

 miles southeast of Morris. " 



With an annual variety which 

 blooms the same season the seed is 

 planted, and early and late blooming 

 varieties of the biennial variety, the 

 beekeepers may hope for greatly in- 

 creased honey flows in the sweet clo- 

 ver districts. A mixture of the seeds 

 of all these varieties, sown on waste 

 land will give bloom every year, and 

 for a long period. Where farmers 



sow for permanent pasture, as some 

 are beginning to do, a mixture will 

 insure better results for the farmer 

 as well as the beekeeper. The great 

 interest in the plant on the part of 

 the farmers of the country offers un- 

 limited possibilities for beekeeping 

 over a very large area. 



The American Bee Journal hopes to 

 be able to secure some seed of the 

 early blooming variety for trial next 

 season. 



ANNUAL SWEET CLOVEk 



A Testimonial 



Last fall I secured from the Henry 

 Field Seed Co. two ounces of the 

 Annual White Sweet Clover. I 

 shipped the seed to my father in 

 Italy, asking him to pay it the best of 

 his attention and care. Confident that 

 you would be glad to hear the result. 

 I herewith transcribe the following 

 from his letter, just received: 



"The annual melilot sowed by me on 

 the 15th of Apiil is all in bloom, not- 

 withstanding the drought, which has 

 never been equaled here. The bees 

 come to it extraordinarily, and at all 

 hours of the day. It has reached the 

 height of 1.50 meters (557 inches), 

 July 9, and none of our peasants has 

 the least idea of this plant with its 

 millions of flowers. I will take care 

 of gathering its seed." 



Don't you think that such results 

 have been very satisfactory and en- 

 couraging, in spite of the unfavorable 

 conditions? D. BARONE. 



New York City, Sept. 1. 



BEES KILLED BY SMELTER 

 SMOKE 



Camp Verde, Ariz., Aug. 15, 1920. 



Will you please make a correction 

 of the article by Kennith Hawkins on 

 page 275, August issue of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, entitled, "Bees Killed 

 by Smelters ?" 



The "complete investigation" made 

 by the State Entomologist and Plant 

 Pathologist, under instructions from 

 Governor Campbell, was a hurried 

 visit to some eight or ten apiaries, 

 scattered over an area of 30 miles in 

 length, all made inside of two days. 

 Somewhere near 1,000 colonies of bees 

 are involved, owned by four different 

 parties. Any investigation of any 

 value, over that of the practical bee- 

 men who are being injured, would 



have to extend over at least several 

 months and be conducted by men fa- 

 miliar with the practical side of the 

 businfess. The smelter people are 

 spending what has been estimated by 

 those outside as at least $40 per day 

 for several months, in an attempt to 

 prove that their smelters do not in- 

 jure crops or bees. 



The charge "that sulphur is depos- 

 ited in the bloom of honey plants 

 which are visited by bees and that 

 this causes the honey to taste like a 

 good variety of parlor matches," is 

 evidently a part of that "excellent 

 write-up of the case" in the last Los 

 Angeles Times, and is a fair sam- 

 ple of the journalism for which 

 the American people are paying such 

 a price, and getting so much rot. 



The facts in the case are that, if our 

 honey has any sulphur in it it would 

 take a chemical analysis to show it. 

 The quality, to all appearances, is as 

 good as it ever was. Our only com- 

 plaint is that, from some cause not 

 yet fully determined, our adult bees 

 disappear just when they would be 

 useful in gathering a crop. This is 

 not a new condition, by any means, 

 but has occurred in other localities 

 where smelter smoke has driven, in 

 one instance, as many as 10,000 colo- 

 nies of bees out of business. A case is 

 to come up in the Federal Court of 

 this District, in September, instituted 

 by one of the beemen of this section, 

 which will be one of the most inter- 

 esting cases of its kind that has ever 

 come into court. Three different 

 State Bee Inspectors have, in the past 

 four years, given us a clean bill of 

 health for our bees, as far as any dis- ^ 

 ease is concerned. Unless the smelt- 

 ers put on some method of removing 

 the poisonous matter from their 

 smoke we will be compelled to give up 

 one of the best bee ranges in the 

 State and move; but where, is the 

 question? L. B. BELT. 



Arizona. 



Mr. and Mrs. George W. Burdette, in their apiary at West Union, West Virginia. 



LATIN NAMES OF PLANTS 



By E. G. Baldwin 

 In the July issue of the good old 

 American Bee Journal, page 229, ap- 

 pears an editorial on the terminology 

 of English scientific names, apropos of 

 the Latin name for white sweet clo- 

 ver. Attention is there called to the 

 fact that the Italians call the plant 

 "Melilotus albus," while the English- 

 speaking races say "Melilotus alba." 

 "Ye editors," in the editorial men- 

 tioned, commend, in passing, the end- 

 ing "us" of the Italian usage as being 

 the correct form, and add as their 

 reason for so doing: the termination 

 "us," of melilotus, is masculine, the 

 termination "a," of alba, is feminine, 

 etc. While our own Latin days are 

 not so far past, may we suggest that 

 the statement regarding adjectives is 

 quite correct; "us" in an adjective, is 

 always and only masculine, "a" al- 

 ways and only feminine; but nouns, 

 on tlic contrary, are not always gov- 

 erned in their gender by their term- 

 inal syllables. Certain rules govern 

 gender of nouns, by meaning, not by 

 endings. For example, names of 

 males arc always tuasculine, natues of 

 females always feminine, even if the 



