1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



355 



iPgorTORIAC 



^- e.R.^ROor 



I WISH to call special attention to a valuable 

 article by Chalon Fowls, on the treatment of 

 severe cases of stings. It will pay every one 

 to read it. 



A FRIEND, who wishes his name kept pri- 

 vate, has sent us 810 for the .Shawneetown 

 sufferer, Mr. Thomas McDonald. The amount 

 has been forwarded. 



Our space is so crowded that, notwithstand- 

 ing the extra pages, I have been obliged to 

 leave out of this issue a continuation of my 

 visit among the great buckwheat -fields of 

 Schoharie Co., N. Y. I hope to begin the se- 

 ries again in our next issue. In the mean 

 time I gladly give place to some excellent ar- 

 ticles touching vital questions of our industry. 



In a private letter just received from Mr. 

 W. Z. Hutchinson, in referring to the size of 

 worker-cells, as discussed by Mr. Cowan and 

 myself, he says: 



I think that you and Mr. Cowan misunderstood Mr. 

 Cheshire. See page 201 of April 1 Gleanings. When 

 Mr. Cheshire says that the h'liolJi of a worker-cell is 

 J5. and a drone cell ,';, ni leiiglli, I think that he means 

 the di'pt/i of the cell. In one sense that h the length 

 of the cell. Perhaps this is not important, but Mr. 

 Cheshire has enough to answer for without this. 



I think Mr. Hutchinson is right. I can see 

 how Mr. Cowan might have misunderstood 

 Mr. Cheshire; but, as Mr. H. has explained it, 

 the measurements of both men are correct. 



PROF. COOK AND SWEET CI^OVER. 



My attention has been called to the follow- 

 ing paragraph in the Bee-keepers' Revieiv for 

 April : 



" vSweet clover is an excellent honey-plant. The 

 amount and quality of honey from it is rarely surpass- 

 ed. I have grown the plant in Michigan for bee-feed 

 for years; but I have never been able to get my cows 

 or horses to eat it. I think the plant is worthless 

 except for bees." — Prof. Cook. 



The above is all right, with the exception of 

 the concluding sentence. Now, if Prof. Cook 

 really did write and sign his name to the 

 words, " I think the plant is worthless except 

 for bees," I can not believe he meant to say 

 just that. For years past, not only our bee- 

 journals but most of our agricultural period- 

 icals have been discussing the matter as to 

 why farm stock eat sweet clover with such 

 avidity in some localities, and do not in 

 others. Certainly our good friend Cook is 

 aware of this. If so, how could he ignore 

 such testimony, even if he has never been able 

 to get his own cows or horses to eat it ? An- 

 other thing, nobody that I know of has ever 

 questioned its great value as a crop when 

 plowed under to enrich poor soils. On the 

 alkali lands of Arizona and Utah, sweet clover 

 is almost the only remedy for soils so strong 

 with alkali that nothing else will grow. After 

 the crop of sweet clover is turned under, al- 



most any thing else may he planted. Our ex- 

 periment stations have made repeated tests in 

 regard to its great value for plowing under, 

 and I have never yet heard of a failure. There 

 is an immense traffic in the seed, north, south, 

 east, and west, and thousands of people are 

 buying the seed, and sowing it, who have no- 

 thing to do with bees, and no interest in bee 

 culture. I am sure Prof. Cook will modify his 

 statement, or tell us what he meant to say when 

 he used such a sweeping assertion. — A. I. R. 



THIEVES AT OUT-YARDS; HOW THE 8100-RE- 

 WARD SCHEME IS WORKING. 



Some time in the early part of last winter, 

 you will recall that thieves had been making 

 inroads at our out-yard, and that we had a 

 sign put up, offering i?l(lO reward for the ar- 

 rest and conviction of the parties who were 

 stealing honey from our apiary some two 

 miles north of town. The "reward" did its 

 work admirably. I visited the yard a few 

 days ago and found that it had not been 

 touched, although it had been tampered with 

 several times previous to the putting-up of the 

 sign. 



This is the way the scheme works: The 

 thing got to be talked of around town, and 

 one or two said they were going after that 

 $100. The guilty party, whoever he was, 

 must have " smelled a rat " or rather the cat; 

 that is, heard that two men were after him; 

 and if these lines should reach his eyes I wish 

 to notify him that we are still after him, and 

 that the $100 will be planked down very 

 speedily as soon as he is convicted. 



But at Neighbor H.'s out-yard, some two 

 miles south of town, the sign did not have 

 quite the same effect. It was torn down, and 

 his biggest colony was robbed of its honey, 

 and half a dozen others had evidently been 

 "hefted," to get at their weight, for the 

 frames of the loose-spaced kind were all 

 chucked together, the hives evidently having 

 been turned over on one side. Perhaps the 

 thieves at Neighbor H.'s yard thought he 

 VFOuld not follow them up as closely as we 

 would have done; but I have asked him to 

 put up another sign, and make a little effort 

 to find out who has been looting his hives. 

 If he makes a general stir in the immediate 

 neighborhood, and says The A. I. Root Co. 

 has $100 all ready to turn over as soon as the 

 thief is arrested and convicted, that may have 

 the desired effect. But one conviction would 

 do more good than a dozen signs, or " scares," 

 and we are rather aching to turn over the 

 money. We made a general stir in the neigh- 

 borhood at our out-yard, and the neighbors 

 are on the watch, for the work is usually done 

 at night. 



A. I. ROOT on the cost OF IMPROVEMENTS. 

 I BELIEVE that so far, dear friends, I have 

 had little or nothing to say in regard to this 

 matter. Perhaps some of you might like to 

 know what I think about it. In the first 

 place, nobody is obliged to adopt the plain 

 section unless he chooses. We furnish both 

 kinds, and expect to keep on doing so. I 



