608 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



so as to keep out all dust. Later I filled 

 half a dozen of them, again using' one of 

 the empty paraffined bags as a cover. So 

 tight was the fit that the smallest of ants 

 couldn't have got through to the honey, and 

 yet the} went on easily enough. At present 

 they are about as hard as a frozen turnip. 

 I am keeping them to hasten granulation 

 in next summer's extracted honey. I proved 

 by trial last summer that the mixing- in of 

 some candied honey hastened the granula- 

 tion of new honey. 



I have been asking myself some other 

 questions: Would the mixing of half a 

 pound of candied honey that has a fine 

 grain, with 60 lbs. of new honey that, left 

 to itself, would have SLCoarse grain, cause 

 the latter to have any finer grain than if 

 the same amount of candied honey of its 

 own kind were mixed with it — the amDunt 

 of mixing done to be the same in both cases? 

 Also would Ihe mixing of candied honey, 

 that has a rapid granulation, with new 

 honey that has a slow granulation, cause 

 the latter to granulate any more rapidly 

 than if an equal amount of candied honey 

 of the same kind as the slow-granulating 

 honey were mixed with it? I shall seek to 

 answer them later. I might add that I pro- 

 duce mostly comb honey. But the home de- 

 mand for extracted honey keeps growing so 

 each 3 ear that I keep producing more and 

 more of it. John S. Callbreath. 



Rock Rift., N. Y., Feb. 22. 



[In speaking of Eastern honey I did not 

 have in mind honey produced east of Ohio, 

 in New York, or the New England States, 

 but, rather, that produced east of the Miss- 

 issippi. Residents in the far West think of 

 Ohio and Illinois as eastern States; and 

 now that our country has become so large, 

 and is populated west as well as east, it is 

 becoming more and more the custom to 

 speak of all territory east of the Mississip- 

 pi as Eastern United States. 



Western honey, especially alfalfa, can- 

 dies much more quickly, as a rule, than 

 Eastern honey. If I had said clover and 

 basswood, perhaps you would have under- 

 stood me better. There can be no doubt 

 that mixing granulated honey with ordina- 

 ry liquid honey will hasten the process of 

 granulation in the whole mass; but wheth- 

 er the fine-grained article would have a 

 tendency to make other honey all fine-grain- 

 ed is something I can not an iwer. I should 

 be glad to get reports from those who have 

 tested it.— Ed.] 



HONEY FROM THE OPIUM-PLANT DE- 

 STRUCTIVE TO BEES. 



In the May 15th issue J. A. Leonard asks 

 about the poppy as a honey- pi ant. Let me 

 give you my experience with that plant. 

 About six 3 ears ago a friend of mine asked 

 me to look at his bees, four hives. We 

 found the bees crawling about on the ground 

 and all over the hives, and dying by the 

 thousand. They had plenty of honey, very 

 few bees in the hive, and would not sting. 



They finally died out. We did not find 

 the cause. This was early in May. His 

 wife had a very large patch of poppies of 

 all colors in the garden. She gave my wife 

 some seed, and also some to our neighbors. 

 Next 3'ear we had a patch about 30 ft. 

 square. I was taken sick about the time 

 they came into bloom, and, while lying 

 there, I could hear the bees humming on 

 the poppies as if a swarm were out. When 

 I got well I went first to the beeyard and 

 found the same condition there as at my 

 friend's. I thought it must be paralysis. 

 I then went to two of my out-apiaries, but 

 found them all right. On opening the hives 

 you could smell the opium. We then de- 

 stroyed the poppies and got our neighbors to 

 cut theirs down also, and the bees finally 

 were all right. I lost eight colonies and 

 had about ten more weakened so that they 

 made nothing that year. W. J. Dawson. 

 Benton, La. 



soil infected with sweet- clover BAC- 

 TERIA TO MAKE sweet CLOVER GROW. 



If Dr. Miller will order some soil infected 

 with the sweet- clover bacteria to sow with 

 his sweet-clover seed I think he then could 

 get a small patch started, and, once so 

 started, he could in a few years infect his 

 whole farm and successfully raise sweet 

 clover. Some Champaign County bee-man 

 would gladly furnish a sample of soil con- 

 taining said bacteria. Ben D. Hall. 



Ogden, 111., May 26. 



[This was referred to Dr. Miller, who 

 replies:] 



I'm inclined to think that there would now 

 be no great difficulty in getting a stand of 

 sweet clover almost anywhere on my place. 

 Plants here and there have grown upon it 

 in difl'erent years, enough to establish the 

 bacteria. Enough of these bacteria will be 

 in the dirt attached to the seed to give at 

 least a little start anywhere; and if the 

 plants are allowed to grow year after 3 ear 

 in the same spot there will be bacteria ga- 

 lore. So all any one need do to get a stand 

 of sweet clover is just to keep at it. 



The same thing is true of alfalfa — the 

 specially interesting part being the fact es- 

 tablished by the Illinois Experiment Sta- 

 tion, that the bacteria of alfalfa and sweet 

 clover are the same, so that alfalfa will 

 flourish on any ground where sweet clover 

 shows plenty of tubercles on its roots. A 

 little infected soil on the elevated spots of a 

 field will soon infect the whole. 



I don'i know, but I think that, when the 

 ground becomes well filled with the proper 

 bacteria, so as to produce a vigorous growth 

 of alfalfa, it will give down nectar east of 

 the Mississippi as well as west of it. 



C. C. Miller. 



I should like to know if " alabastine " 

 has ever been tried as a bee- hive paint, or 

 if it is of any use as a lasting paint. 



Wanatah, Ind. L. A. Werner. 



[I have never heard of its being put to 

 such use. — Ed ] 



