248 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Apr. 15 



WESLEY FOSTER'S SWEET-CLOVER COW IN HER FAVORITE PASTURE. 



sweet clover as many a German daddy does 

 in teaching " Bubschen " to sip beer. Any 

 way, we never could taste the sweet-clover 

 taint in milk and butter as soon as our 

 neighbors, and so our cows always had good 

 exclusive pasturage upon which our neigh- 

 bors' animals were not permitted to forage. 



Here is our cow that we raised from a calf. 

 She has a sweet-clover appetite and we let 

 her gratify it. She eats the tips of the stems 

 that are tender, and we have never been 

 troubled m ith the taint in the milk except 

 in the spring. You see in the picture that 

 our sweet-clover cow is "belly-deep" in her 

 favorite eatable, and there are hundreds of 

 bees all about her, but she never pays any 

 attention to them. 



Boulder, Colo. 



THE BEST PAINr FOR HIVES 

 UPON LOCALITY. 



DEPENDS 



Two Coats of Paint that Lasted Eighteen Years. 



BY W. A. PRYAIi. 



The question of the best paint for hives 

 has cropped up again. It always seems to 

 be an interesting one, though there appears 

 to be quite a diversity of opinion in regard 

 to the subject. I firmly believe the editor 

 is right when he states that locality has 

 much to do with the durability of the dif- 

 ferent paints. I have used lead paints in 

 different forms for years; and, though a 

 pure lead-and-oil paint lasts for several 

 years without need of renewal, still I find 

 that our climate causes it to calcine sooner 



than is desirable. This is owing, no doubt, 

 to the fact that our air is chareed, I believe, 

 with saline mixtures, as I am not more than 

 18 miles from the Pacific Ocean, and only 

 four east of San Francisco Bay — almost op- 

 posite the Golden Gate. 



The most durable paint I ever used was 

 composed of white lead, yellow ocher, and 

 boiled oil. I have hives that were painted 

 two coats eighteen years ago with this mix- 

 ture, and they are still in good condition. 

 Another coat would make them look bright- 

 er, and, perhaps, put them in a way to last 

 without further painting for, say, fifteen 

 years longer. I have photographed one of 

 these hives, which is shown in the accom- 

 panying half-tone. The lower story is of 

 our native redwood. The upper one is of 

 Oregon spruce. The first -named wood 

 makes a good material for hives, though it 

 is best to have it well seasoned before put- 

 ting it up into hive material. Then it does 

 not rot nearly so readily as the wood that 

 hives are generally made of. On the other 

 hand, spruce rots the fastest of any hive 

 material I am acquainted with — not enough, 

 though, to prevent its being used for this 

 purpose. Its worst features are that it 

 shrinks much, cracks or checks considera- 

 bly, and often warps. The latter objection 

 is shown in the rear end of the hive here il- 

 lustrated. In nailing such wood together it 

 is well to see that the " heart " side is on the 

 inside of the hive. A couple of checks even 

 show on the side of the hive pictured; but 

 usually these are not very objectionable. 

 They can be closed with putty. When I 

 make my own brood-frames I always prefer 



