'578 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug 1. 



For hay this clover should be cut while the 

 stalks and leaves are a bright green, and 

 before any seed-stalks appear. A large amount 

 is grown on an acre when a good stand is 

 secured. 



The plant is not so hard to get rid of when 

 desired as some suppose. When the land is 

 broken up and cultivated the plant is gone, 

 and no further trouble need be feared, any 

 more than from other clovers. Pasturing the 

 field so no seeds mature has the same effect if 

 kept up one or two summers. Some farmers 

 in this State are growing large fields of this 

 clover for feeding to stock in pasture and hay, 

 so I am credibly informed. 



In sowing the seed the ground should be 

 made fine and rather firm, as better results 

 are so secured than when the ground is left 

 loose to quite a depth. It blooms the next 

 year after sowing the seed. 



DOES ALSIKE CLOVER WINTER-KILL? 



My article on alsike clover, which is pub- 

 lished in July 1st issue, page 503, was writ- 

 ten in February, and its wintering qualities 

 given were up to the past winter. At this 

 writing I am forced to report that it badly 

 winter-killed last winter, as did the white 

 clover where it had been fed down closely 

 last fall, as too many do. Last winter was 

 here the most severe on trees, vines, grasses, 

 etc., that we have known in the 40 years we 

 have lived here. The ground was bare most 

 of the time, and only one or two inches of 

 snow at any time. 



I wish to make this correction so that no 

 wrong impression may prevail in reference to 

 alsike clover here. All its other good quali- 

 ties named on page 503 I have proven conclu- 

 sively. 



Our abundant rains this reason have brought 

 on a fine growth of the clovers, which are now 

 in bloom, but yield little honey so far. Bass- 

 wood has just closed, and yielded lightly in 

 honey. F. A. Snel.l. 



Milledgeville, 111., July 7. 



SPRAYING OUT OF SEASON; RESULTS. 



Inclosed you will find something about 

 spraying fruit-trees while in bloom, and the 

 results. The same was taken from the Gran- 

 ville Sentinel, a local paper of Granville, N. 

 Y., not far from here. Dorset is in Vermont. 

 We know of others not far from here who are 

 spraying out of season. It is high time that 

 we bee-keepers were looking into the matter. 



Caldwell, N. Y. F. A. LockharT. 



IT KILLED THE HONEY-BEES. 



As will be seen by the Sentinels Dorset correspondent 

 this week, the spraying of trees with a poisonous 

 solution, in an effort to exterminate the worm-pest, 

 has resulted in destroying nearly all of the honey-bees 

 in that section. One poor woman lost forty colonies. 



WORM POISON KILLS HONEY-BEES. 



Many of our citizens have been engaged in waging 

 a fierce war upon the worm pest that has attacked the 

 foliage of our shade and fruit trees. The worms have 

 appeared in great numbers. The vermicide in gener- 

 al use is a solution of Paris green and lime. It is only 

 partially successful. An unexpected and serious re- 

 sult has immediately followed its use, so that it is a 

 question whether the worms or the poison can prove 

 the more destructive. Nearly a hundred colonies of 

 bees have proved a total loss in this immediate vicin- 



ity. Many more will probably suffer the same fate. 

 As a rule, the class of people thus afflicted can ill af- 

 ford the loss of these bees. Their income largely de- 

 pends upon their labors. Foliage of trees in blossom 

 or bloom should not be sprayed with this rank poison. 

 One person, a widow, in moderate circumstances, has 

 lost her entire stock of bees of forty-two colonies. 

 These were in a healthy condition, and, up to the time 

 of the spraying of the trees, were actively at work. 



[For two or three years back, just following 

 fruit-bloom, or about that time at least, we 

 have been having some dead brood in our 

 hives. It is not like foul brood in appearance, 

 and always disappears in a short time. We 

 have finally come to the conclusion that it 

 must be the result of spraying when the bloom 

 is in. Most of the farmers in and about our 

 vicinity are intelligent reading people ; but it 

 is evident that there is some one or ones who 

 are spraying at just the wrong time, and we 

 shall make an effort to find out who it is. If 

 reason and facts will not stop it we may have 

 to resort to the more powerful arm of the law. 



In many States there is no law against 

 spraying during the time the trees are in actu- 

 al bloom, notwithstanding all the best author- 

 ities admit and teach that jusf as good and 

 better results may be secured before and after 

 the bloom. The bee-keepers of Vermont and 

 the vicinities referred to should bestir them- 

 selves to see that there is not a repetition of 

 such work. If it is not ignorance it is ugli- 

 ness that is at the bottom of it. — Ed.] 



WELL-FILLED OLD-STYLE SECTIONS. 



I see you highly recommend the fence sep- 

 arator and tall sections. I have been having, 

 for two years, as finely filled sections as can 

 be desired, with old-style separators and \% X 

 4 % sections. I bore four holes opposite each 

 section, y% inch, for bees to pass through, with 

 good results. A. L. Buterbaugh. 



Utah, Pa., May 26. 



[By boring the holes in the separator, jou 

 make of it, in effect, a fence — that is, a sep- 

 arator through which the bees can pass back 

 and forth. You will secure a part of the ad- 

 vantages of the fence system, but not all. — 

 Ed.] 



strong testimony for the fence and 

 plain sections. 

 I have just read Editor Leahy's editorial on 

 " Fence Separators and No-beeway Sections." 

 It leaves me with the impression that this 

 man Leahy must have a slight prejudice 

 against these things. If he can only succeed 

 in convincing all the other honey-producers 

 that it is a sad mistake to use fences and plain 

 sections, then I will be the Root Co.'s only 

 customer for these things. No, gentlemen, it 

 did not worry me the least bit, upon reading 

 this article, to think that I have been and gone 

 and stocked up with 2000 fences, and have 

 just ordered 10,000 more plain sections. If it 

 were necessary for me to buy new fences 

 every year, and throw away the old ones, I 

 am convinced that it would pay me in dollars 

 and cents to do so. Not only this, but if it 

 were necessary to throw away the supers also 

 it would pay me to buy new ones every year, 



