618 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1. 



tlir fir t few cells the disease spreads rapidly, 

 sh( uld It be spring when the disease first ap- 

 pears, till the combs become a putrefying 

 mass, generally during the first season, and 

 nearly always during the second, the stench 

 of which, at this stage, can be smelled a rod 

 or two from the hive." 



"Do not any of the larvae perfect into 

 bees? " 



"Yes, at first the most of them perfect; 

 but as the days go by, fewer and fewer of the 

 larvse develop into bees, so that the popula- 

 tion of the hive decreases till they become an 

 easy prey to robbers, when the infected honey 

 is taken off by these robber bees, only to car- 

 ry the seeds of the malady to the robbers' hive, 

 for the disease is spread through the honey 

 mainly. One drop of foul-broody honey going 

 into a healthy colony dooms that colony from 

 that very moment." 



"That being the case, I hardly see how it 

 can be cured at all." 



' ' A careless person rarely cures this disease 

 short of destroying his whole ' outfit ' and be- 

 ginning anew. But a careful, thorough-going 

 man can cure it without losing all of his in- 

 vestment. The cure is to drive all of the bees 

 from the affected hive, and keep them shut up 

 until they shall have digested all of the dis- 

 eased honey they carried with them in their 

 honey-sacs. They are now hived and fed in a 

 new clean hive, or the old one thoroughly 

 cleansed by scalding, when they are free from 

 the disease. Great care should always be ta- 

 ken that no bees get at the contents of the 

 old hive before the combs are rendered into 

 wax, and the honey and hive scalded." 



" Is that the only remedy ? " 



" Other cures have been recommended, but 

 most of them are ineffectual, except in the 

 hands of an expert." 



AI.SIKE VS. RED CLOVER ; THE INCREASE IN 

 THE HAY CROP FROM GROWING THE 

 TWO together; a prize ARTI- 

 CLE CALLED FOR. 



3lr. Root; — I was quite interested in what 

 you have to say on page 537 regarding alsike 

 and red clovers. You say, "It is a difficult 

 undertaking to induce farmers to grow alsike 

 clover in preference to the red ; " and, again, 

 " Farmers will grow red clover in preference 

 to alsike." I know that you are correct in 

 your statements as to the' country in general ; 

 but are you sure that the average farmer un- 

 <lerstands the good points in alsike clover ? 

 and have we done any thing to bring this in- 

 formation home to him ? 



There are farmers in this State who make a 

 business of growing alsike for seed crops, and 

 they claim that the land could not be put to 

 any better paying use. I know localities 

 where farmers, as a rule, will not seed any 



kind of meadow without alsike in it. If they 

 seed to timothy and clover, ,it is alsike and 

 timothy, which makes a heav}' growth of the 

 very finest quality of hay. If the meadow is 

 to be all clover, it is half red or mammoth, 

 and half alsike. This, they claim, increases 

 greatly the amount of hay per acre, as the al- 

 sike, being finer, stools in between the larger 

 clover, and one or the other makes a good aft- 

 er-growth. I am unctrtain now which one it 

 is. Alsike clover is a better self-propagator 

 than red, and stands the moisture of low 

 ground well. It seems to me that, while we 

 are waiting for a race of long-tongued bees, 

 we might profitably do something to increase 

 the acreage of alsike on our respective fields. 

 I will accept the long-tongued bee when it 

 comes. But in the mean time I want some al- 

 sike sown near my apiaries if possible. I am 

 not in one of those favored localities where 

 every farmer sows alsike, but there are always 

 a few patches near by. Why not have a prize 

 article on the subject of alsike clover, bring- 

 ing out its good points, and have it first print- 

 ed in Gleanings and then copied in all the 

 apicultural papers. There are a good many 

 men in Wisconsin who could write intelligent- 

 ly on the subject. Mr. Wilcox, Mr. France, 

 and myself could furnish the names of farmers 

 who understand alsike. 



Harry Lathrop. 

 Browntown, Wis., July 14. 



[We will gladly offer a prize of $10.00 for 

 the best article on the growing of red and al- 

 sike clover, and clovers in general, and $5.00 

 for the second best. These articles are to be 

 submitted to clover experts, and the one which 

 is best will receive the prize of $10 00, and the 

 second best $5.00. They should treat of the 

 growing of clover, both alsike and red, and es- 

 pecially the question of growing alsike in con- 

 nection with the red, and whether the grow- 

 ing of the two increases the hay crop. It is a 

 very fruitful and important theme, and you 

 have my thanks for the suggestion. — Ed.] 



gathering honey and pollen both on 

 the same trip. 



There was nothing in my letter to explain 

 my reasons for believing bees carry honey and 

 pollen on the same trip. I think it very easy 

 to see the movements of bees on white clover. 

 By watching them closely I could see them 

 inserting their tongues into the little petals 

 quite distinctly. The bees I was watching 

 had pollen in their baskets; and by the move- 

 ments of their legs they were still gathering 

 more. 1 think, according to what I have 

 seen, that bees gather pollen with their fore 

 legs, and deposit it in their baskets also with 

 their fore legs while flying. That is the reason 

 why I am sure that bees do both on the same 

 trip. W. W. Brockemier. 



Sewickley, Pa., July 12. 



[I can not say positively that you are wrong 

 in your conclusions ; but to me it does not ap- 

 pear you have offered indisputable proof that 

 bees gather both honey and pollen at the same 

 time. I see no reason why they should not do 



