1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



439 



vented those who met him for the first 

 time from fully appreciating him. But 

 those who read his writings grasped 

 the full value of this able observer. 

 His descriptions, his enlarged photos 

 of the nests, the eggs, the larva of 

 Bumbus, his colored plates of this in- 

 sect, show a minuteness of details 

 which place him among the men 

 whose work cannot be excelled. 



Although his book on "Queen-Rear- 

 ing in England" is not indispensable 

 to the practical American queen- 

 breeder, it has some excellent cuts 

 and a number of good points not to be 

 found elsewhere. ' The beekeeping 

 world loses in him one of its best sci- 

 entists. 



More Bee Pasture 



The extension of the area planted 

 to sweet clover is opening hundreds 

 of new locations suited to commercial 

 honey production. The change of at- 

 titude toward this plant is one of the 

 remarkable developments of recent 

 years. From a despised weed it has 

 come to be regarded as one of the 

 most dependable agricultural staples. 

 Farmers are sowing it everywhere and 

 there is every indication that within 

 the next ten years there will be at 

 least ten times the amount of sweet 

 clover grown on the farms that is to 

 be found now. It seems adapted to 

 almost every type of soil which is not 

 lacking in lime, and succeeds from 

 Canada to the Gulf States. 



As a soil builder it has no superior, 

 and this fact is largely responsible 

 for bringing it into the favor of the 

 farmer. The new annual now being 

 boomed under the name of "Hubam 

 Clover" fits in with a crop rotation 

 'nuch better than the biennial form. 

 Since its general use w'ould greatly 

 increase the available forage for the 

 bees, beekeepers should lend every 

 encouragement to its further spread. 

 Sweet clover has doubled the average 

 of surplus in many places and has 

 wade many good locations where bee- 

 keeping was not profitable prior to 

 its coming. 



Evei-ywhere one goes, one hears 

 stories of success with this plant as 

 a farm crop. Not long since, the 

 writer heard of a man who bought a 

 run-down farm in New York and 

 sowed a field of sweet clover. A for- 

 tunate combination of a good seed 

 crop and a high price enabled him to 

 pay for the farm with the one year's 

 crop. It is farther west, however, 

 •where it seems to be most popular. 

 In almost any section of the Missis- 

 sippi Valley one hears of many fields 

 of it being sown. 



Wintering Bees 



One of the profuse bee writers of 

 40 years ago, James Heddon, wrote 

 this axiom: "Beekeeping is a busi- 

 ness of details." This is certainly 

 correct, for though a bee owner may 

 harvest large crops when he neglects 

 the details, he will not have complete 

 .success unless he looks after them. 



Wintering is probably more a mat- 

 ter of details than any other part of 

 the business. 



The honey, or the food, whatever 

 it be, must be of good quality and 



sufficiently plentiful. Fruit juices kill 

 bees as promptly as paralysis or the 

 l^le-of-Wight disease. Honeydew is 

 not much better, neither is honey 

 which is loaded with numerous pellets 

 of pollen. But it is also necessary that 

 the food be located properly, above 

 the cluster as much as possible. Our 

 Canadian neighbors who feed sugar 

 syrup, after the crop, so as to fill all 

 the room that the bees may have 

 above and under the cluster, have evi- 

 dently found out that this food helps 

 cai-ry the bees with very little residue, 

 until a good part of the bad season is 

 over. 



The strength of colonies at the 

 opening of winter is very important. 

 If they do not have a good number 

 oi young bees, there is much chance 

 for them to become reduced in 

 strength before the queen has occa- 

 sion to breed again. But they must 

 not be breeding at the opening of 

 winter, for quiet is indispensable. 

 They must not be disturbed in the 

 least, especially when the weather is 

 cold and the bees that wander from 

 the cluster may be chilled. 



Comparatively weak colonies may 

 be wintered safely if in good condi- 

 tion and if they do not have a large 

 space to keep warm. We have win- 

 tered colonies on 5 combs, when these 

 were full and the cluster covered 

 them readily. 



Shelter against polar winds is of 

 importance. The name of polar 

 winds, used by Mr. Langstroth, seems 

 very appropriate, for the Mississippi 

 Valley and the Lake region do not 

 have a single good-size mountain to 

 shelter them against the winds that 

 biow from the direction of the north 

 pole. A splendid windbreak is one 

 of thickly planted pine trees or other 

 evergreens. The thermometer is 

 often several degrees warmer on the 

 south side of such a shelter. But an 

 iirtificial windbreak is readily made, 

 tiiough it is not quite so efficient. 



A good cushion over the cluster, 

 which would act like a heavy woolen 

 blanket over your bed, absorbs moist- 

 ure without allowing a draft of air, 

 and is of great importance where the 

 bees are confined for several weeks 

 without being able to fly. 



How shall we winter, in the cellar, 

 in the open air with outer cases, or 

 with only temporary shelters? 



This is a question of locality. What 

 will succeed in one part of the coun- 

 try will not do in another. If our 

 bees can get a flight in fairly mild 

 temperature once evei'y 3 or 4 weeks, 

 tkey will winter readily without much 

 protection. If the cold spells are pro- 

 tracted they will require more 

 warmth. When they are to be con- 

 fined 2 months at a time without any 

 let up in the cold weather, they will 

 probably be best in the cellar. 



But don't let us forget that "Bee- 

 keeping is a business of details." The 

 little details effect the difference be- 

 tween success and failure. 



Food Value of Honey 



We are in receipt of an extract, in 



bulletin form, from the American 



Journal of Physiology on the "Vita- 



mine Content of Honey," by Messrs. 

 Philip B. Hawk, Clarence A. Smith 

 and Olaf Bergeim, of the Labora- 

 tory of Physiological Chemistry of 

 Jefferson Medical College, Philadel- 

 phia. 



The details given in this bulletin 

 are too scientific for the average 

 reader, but the conclusions are in 

 plain English which anyone can un- 

 derstand. We quote: 



"An examination of the chart will 

 show that the bread with honey was 

 digested and left the stomach as 

 quickly as the bread alone. Similar 

 pepsin values were obtained; and 

 while there was a slight depression of 

 acidity, such as always follows the in- 

 gestion of foods containing much 

 sugar, digestion was completed as 

 soon as with bread alone, although 

 the addition of the honey had practi- 

 cally doubled the food value of the 

 product from the energy standpoint. 



"The use of honey with bread and 

 in similar ways would, therefore, ap- 

 pear to be e-enerallv nreferable in 

 the case of children to the eating of 

 candies. Honey serves to make the 

 highly nutritious bread more palat- 

 able, leading to a greater consump- 

 tion of body-building foods instead of 

 depressing the appetite, as is likely 

 to be the case with candies which are 

 eaten betwen meals. At the same 

 time, honey furnishes to the body 

 very considerable amounts of energy 

 ia the most available forms. The 

 high place given to it in the diet is 

 therefore well deserved." 



Death of Miss Godfrey 



It is with regi-et that we learn of 

 the rather sudden death of Miss Mat- 

 tie C. Godfrey, which occured in Sac- 

 ramento, Calif., on September 28. 



Miss Godfrey will be rembered by 

 our older readers as compositor with 

 the American Bee Journal previous to 

 1918. She had been a faithful em- 

 ployee of the American Bee Journal 

 for thirty-five years, seeing a suc- 

 cession of editors during that time. 

 To anyone who has known her and 

 realized her untiring integrity and 

 devotion to her work, as have we in 

 this office, her death comes as a per- 

 sonal loss. 



Death of Pioneer Beekeeper 



We regret to announce to our read- 

 ers the death of Mr. W. Muth-Ras- 

 mussen, who died at his home in In- 

 dependence, Calif., some weeks ago. 

 Mr. Muth-Rasmussen was one of the 

 oldest of California's beekeepers. In 

 our January issue Mr. Pleasants men- 

 tions him as having been one of the 

 first users of the Peabody extractor, 

 having had one shipped to him in 

 1871. 



Looking back over the files of the 

 American Bee Journal, we find Mr. 

 Muth-Rasmussen's name prominent as 

 early as 1874, when he was one of the 

 charter members of the Los Angeles 

 County Beekeepers' Association. In 

 May of the same year he wrote an ar- 

 ticle for publication, giving notes on 

 the honey flora, crops, etc., of Cali- 

 fcrnia. Since that time he had been a 

 regular correspondent. He was a suc- 

 cessful beekeeper till the time of his 

 death. 



