GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



43 



10 cts., pbople will buy it in preference to one 

 that costs 15 or IS cts. The dime is usually 

 handy, and it is very easy to throw it out on 

 the counter and walk off with the goods. The 

 point that I think you overlook is this: Con- 

 sumers are more apt to buy goods in ten-cent 

 packages than in 15 or 25 cent sizes. That is 

 the reason why manufacturers almost univer- 

 sally, where they can, try to put their products 

 in such shape that they will retail for an even 

 dime.— Ed.] 



cell foundation, or comb with cells only % inch 

 deep. Full-depth combs are not desirable or 

 practicable for comb honey.— Ed.] 



Then we have to get news from England 

 about the uses of honey in our own national 

 household. 



The new Union evidently has a field here for 

 the exercise of its talents, and a wide field it is, 

 to find out where honey is used, for what pur- 

 pose, how much, what quality, and at what 

 price; and also where not used, and why. 



Please tell Anthony Opp to desist from tell- 

 ing any more bear-hunting stories. They have 

 a demoralizing effect upon Mr. Wilder, my 

 friend and celebrated hunter. We prefer Mr. 

 W. to stay in California; but that story, IS 

 bears in 30 days, leads him to cast longing eyes 

 toward Arkansas. I have traveled with Mr. 

 W. I know just how he feels— he feels for his 

 rifle. 



The fiber of the commom nettle is attracting 

 some attention as a commercial product. Net- 

 tle-farming might be a very profitable industry 

 in this State, for they grow to an enormous size, 

 and bees gather a good quality of honey from 

 the blossoms. A nettle-farm and an apiary 

 would work well together, and the bee-keeper 

 would be perfectly at home with the stinging 

 vegetable. 



There is much said of late about drawn combs, 

 and I should like to know just what is meant 

 by that term. Must we understand that a 

 drawn comb is drawn to the full depth of the 

 cell, and ready to cap as we find it in an ordi- 

 nary section? or is a drawn comb merely a 

 piece of foundation started or drawn out half 

 an inch or thereabouts? From my experience 

 I can recognize the value of the latter, but I 

 have never had good results from comb drawn 

 full depth, or from which honey has been ex- 

 tracted. Furthermore, bees will not work upon 

 a section with full-depth cells as readily as 

 they will upon new foundation. The late B. 

 Taylor recognized this fact, and hence the in- 

 vention of his comb-leveler. Therefore, please 

 state the most profitable depth of cell in drawn 

 combs. [By drawn comb we have meant deep- 



Bu R L Athin 



ALFALFA- growing; ITS VALUE AS HAY ; SOIL; 



irkigation; a valuable article. 



Since leaving my home at Loveland, Sept. 3, 

 I have traveled through the territory just east 

 of and parallel to the mountains nearly 300 

 miles. In that distance there is a large per 

 cent of the country unsuited to bee culture be- 

 cause of lack of pasture. All that distance we 

 were crossing the streams from the mountains 

 that supply that district with water. For 

 nearly 200 miles down the Arkansas River 

 there is a strip of country from almost nothing 

 to perhaps 10 or 13 miles wide that is partially 

 irrigated and planted in part to alfalfa. Either 

 side of the Arkansas River for many, many 

 miles out from the irrigated strip, is a large ter- 

 ritory covered only by buffalo grass, and would 

 not support bees at all. 



About the culture of alfalfa outside the irri- 

 gated land, it is somewhat experimental as yet, 

 though it is grown in many places in a small 

 way. I have found it in small fields in Eastern 

 Nebraska and Western Iowa. A few days ago 

 I saw a nice little patch in Page Co., Iowa, that 

 was planted for hog pasture. It looked quite 

 flourishing. 



The alfalfa plant seems quite tender the first 

 few weeks after it comes up, and then is the 

 time it is most likely to be killed. In my own 

 locality they usually plant it in the spring with 

 spring wheat. The wheat does not come off 

 till July, so the plants get quite well rooted by 

 that time, but give no crop that year. The 

 second year it will give two fair cuttings of hay, 

 and the third year three cuttings. I suspect 

 some have become discouraged because it is 

 slow at the start. Do not give up and destroy 

 it the first season unless it is very thin. Re- 

 member that the roots enlarge for two or three 

 years, and that a two-year-old root will grow 

 two or three times as large a head as a one-year 

 old. Sow it in the spring with grain, and the 

 next year it will begin to "get there." 



Perhaps this will seem to many a large 

 amount of space to devote to a description of 

 country, irrigation, and alfalfa culture; but I 

 think when you have read this and what fol- 

 lows, you will feel that it is important enough 



