936 



gleani:ngs in bee culture. 



Dec. 



This honey she has placed on sale at the leading 

 grocery stores in this city, and in the adjoining 

 city of Hallowell, two miles distant, as well as in 

 the city of Gardiner, six miles distant. From this 

 it will be seen that Mrs. Glidden has a fine local 

 market; and in placing the honey on sale she has 

 made all the contracts ana done all the business 

 herself. For comb honey she receives 20 cts. per 

 pound; and lor extracted, one shilling. In addi- 

 tion to her sales at the stores, many come to her 

 house and purchase in large quantities, so that her 

 honey has been in great demand this season, and 

 there is sure to be a greater call for it next year, 

 as this season the prejudice against extracted hon- 

 ey has been overcome, and she now has an assured 

 sale for all she can produce. Her success has been 

 most gratifying, but she deserves it all. Her in- 

 telligence, courage, and enthusiasm have the 

 promise of sure reward. But, did you ever think, 

 friend Root, that bees work faster and better, and 

 store more honey for some than for others? 



Mrs. Glidden is an earnest worker, and most 

 esteemed member in the church to which she be- 

 longs; and she is also a member of Capital Grange, 

 P. of H., this city, and all her brothers aud sisters 

 of the Grange hold her in high esteem as a sister 

 and a friend. Calling at her home a few evenings 

 ago with my wife (she has three tine children, the 

 eldest a young lady of sixteen, a pupil of Cony 

 Academy), I asked her how she first came to be in- 

 terested in bee-keeping. She replied, that she 

 " always thought honey was nice," and that she 

 " wanted to have some "—a woman's reason. It is 

 nice, as we can attest, as a sample of comb honey 

 made by her bees in June last is certainly the 

 whitest, clearest, and tinest-tiavored honey I ever 

 ate. Samuel L. IIo.\rdm.\n. 



Augusta, Mo., Nov. 11, IbSH. 



THE MERITS OF ALSIKE CLOVER. 



WILL, IT PAY FAR.MEKS TO RAISE IT, WITHOUT ANY 

 REFERENCE TO BEE-KEEPING AT ALL? 



fllE above lieadiiig suj^gests itself to me 

 wliile reading an article from IVie 

 Fanni'i\ of St. Paul, Minn. The arti- 

 cle has not a word in it in regard to 

 alsike for bees. It simply speaks of 

 its value for stock, and for raising seed to 

 sell. As there are some n^w points in the 

 subject, we make the following extract : 



About ~0 years ago I bought my first alsike clover 

 seed, and sowed it alone on the south side of a hill. 

 The season was dry, and it grew only about a foot 

 high; and as it was said the fti-st crop produced the 

 seed, I cut it for seed and felt disappointed at get- 

 ting so little that I was ready to pronounce it a 

 humbug, and plowed it up the same fall. Some 

 years afterward 1 saw a bushel of seed at the Dane 

 County Fair, at Madison. J inquired of the owner, 

 Mr. Woodward, how he liked it, and if it was a prof- 

 itable crop. He said he got four bushels of seed 

 per acre, and sold it at $10 per bushel; that the hay, 

 after l)eing hulled, was better than the best red- 

 clover hay. and that his cattle ate it in preference 

 to any other hay. 1 bought two bushels of the seed 

 and sowed about one bushel to twelve acres, mix- 

 ing one-third timotiiy. by measure, where I wanted 

 it for pasture or hay, and a,bout the same quantity 

 of pure alsike where I wanted it for seed. It does 

 not raise seed the same year it is sown. but. like red 

 clover, the next year. I have sown it with wheat, 

 barley, and oats. It does best with spring wheat or 

 barley. 



I hulled 110 bushels this year from ;iO acres. I ex- 

 pect to get $7.00 per bushel, and I have at least 3.5 



tons of good hay, after hulling, worth enough to 

 pay all expenses of cutting and hulling. Some 

 years ago 1 sold my whole crop on the Board of 

 Trade in Chicago for Sll.OO per bushel. 



Mr. George Harding, of Waukesha, a breeder of 

 Cotswold sheep and short-horn cattle, and one of 

 Wisconsin's most wide-awake farmers, showed me 

 a small tleld of one of his neighbors that he said 

 produced seven bushels of alsike seed per acre, and 

 that he sold it in Milwaukee for *12.00 per bushel. 

 I have 80 acres in alsike; and so long as it pays me 

 as well as it has done, 1 will sow it. 



The first crop the next year after sowing is the 

 seed crop. It can be cut for seed tor several years. 

 It is not a biennial plant like red clover, but a per- 

 ennial. It has one tap root with many tiranches, 

 and does not heave up by frost, like red clover, 

 which has but one tap root. 



I prefer it to red clover for several reasons. 

 When sown with timothy it matures with timoth.w 

 (Medium red clover matures before timothy is fit to 

 cut.) lent about the 10th lo l.'jth of .luly : red clo- 

 ver should be cut (here) about the ~Olh of June. Al- 

 sike is not easily injured by dew or light rains after 

 being cut. It has none of the '•fuzz" that red clover 

 has, making it so unpleasant to handle as hay or seed. 

 The stem is not so coarse nor so hollow, and has 

 more branches, leaves, and blossoms. The blossom 

 is of a pink color. Ked clover must be cut when we 

 are in the busiest time working our corn. Alsike is 

 cut after corn work is over. This is of great ad- 

 vantage in a corn region. 



Alsike makes a good fall pasture after the seed 

 is cut. My stock will eat it in preference to red 

 clover, tiiiiothy, or blue grass. Blue grass, or, as it 

 is often called in this country, June grass, is a good 

 early and late grass, but in midsummer it dries up; 

 and had it not been for clover we should have been 

 badly otf for pasture this dry year. 



Hon. Matt. Anderson, Dane Co., Wis. 



PRESENTING BEE CULTURE IN TOO 

 " ROSY" COLORS. 



WHAT IS THE OUTLOOK; 



tELOW we have made a few extracts 

 from the reply of the editor of the 

 Cdnddian Bee Journal to an article 

 headed, •' What Is the Outlook?'' The 

 writer of the article spoke of the re- 

 cent bad seasons and the low prices, and the 

 general discouragement of many bee-keep- 

 ers. The editor answers : 



We will not for one moment question the asser- 

 tion that bee-keeping may have keen painted " in 

 its most rosy colors," possibly in some cases too 

 much so; but almost any one will admit that there 

 were good reasons for appropriating the " paint " 

 to that purpose. Bee-keeping then was a business 

 in which there was much profit and little loss— pro- 

 portionally speaking. The principal trouble now 

 seems to be the disposal of the crop at a fairly re- 

 munerative price. Bee-keeping is now down to a 

 business level, while it formerly was a special pur- 

 suit; with extra advantages, of course there will be 

 lots of bee-keepers disgusted, just as there were 

 lots of store-keepers disgusted with that line when 

 they found that "sitting on a nail-keg" in their 

 stoic was not going to give them a living. Since 

 bee-keeping has taken a legitimate stand amongst 

 other branches in the commerce of th3 country, 

 neither writers nor supply-dealers have to any ex- 

 tent painted it in "colors" others than of which it 

 was deserving. There aie. even at the present 

 price of honey, large profits in successful years, 

 while in jHiorer years the profits are not so large. 

 1 1 must be admitted, that during the past four years 

 theie has not been much above an average yield; 

 but " dejiression " is the cry in almost every de- 

 partment ot the commerce of the country, and bee- 

 keepers can nf)t always expect unexceptional 

 favors. The little couplet which is often used with 

 reference to poets is applicable as well to bee- 

 keepers: 



" Not every man can be a poet. 

 No more'n a sheep can be a goat." 



I would especially emphasize the point 

 about bitting on a nail-keg. Tliere may be 



