SEPTEMBER 1, 1914 



659 



Dr. L. D. Leonard, secretary and treasur- 

 ei' of the Minnesota Beekeepers' Associa- 

 tion, writes lliat the organizers ojfer as a 

 suggestion that such co-operative exchanges 

 be organized in different sections of the 

 conntry, say in the different parts produc- 

 ing the same kind of honey, and that the 

 National Beekeepers' Association become a 

 sort of clearing-house for the exchanges of 

 the whole country in the distribution of 

 honey. 



Is Sugar too Expensive to Feed? Can 



as a 



The price of cane sugar has gone to a 

 point now where a beekeeper will hesitate 

 to feed up his bees with sugar syrup tliis 

 fall providing be can get a good grade of 

 cheap honey instead; but on account of the 

 danger of transmitting bee disease, if he 

 does not know its source he should mix in 

 with it an equal volume of water, and boil 

 it for thirty minutes, care being taken not 

 to burn it, for a little burning will cause 

 dysentery in all bees fed before spring. 



Dr. White, of the Bureau of Entomology, 

 has determined that ten minutes' boiling is 

 sufficient to kill the germs; but we advise 

 thirty minutes, because the average bee- 

 keeper may not do as good a job of boiling 

 in ten minutes as Dr. White could do. 



There will be a question whether this 

 honey, even when carefully heated, will not 

 cause some trouble before spring. It is 

 almost a case of being " between the Devil 

 and the deep sea." While sugar syrup is 

 undoubtedly wholesome and safe, it is ex- 

 jjensive. Boiled honey may cause dysentery, 

 and, if not properly boiled, disease. In any 

 event, to be on the safe side the average 

 beekeeper would do well to move his yards 

 of bees to localities where they can get fall 

 pasturage, without any feeding of expensive 

 sugar or bad honey, the same as we are do- 

 doing in our local swamps around Medina. 



The Bee in Advertising 



An elegant little advertising folder, 

 " Lessons in Saving," issued by the First 

 Savings Bank and Trust Company, of Albu- 

 querque, N. M., has just come into our 

 hands. In many ways it is the most unique 

 of any thing along this line that we have 

 seen. It is beautifully decorated and beau- 

 tifully printed ; but the charming feature is 

 that each page contains an illustration of 

 saving, drawn from nature. In verse it is 

 shown that the woodpecker, the dormouse, 

 the beaver, the squirrel, chipmunk, etc., do 

 their best to save and store away for the 



cold season the quantity of food sufficient to 

 last until warm weather comes again. As 

 would be expected, the bee and the ant are 

 also included. The particular page in which 

 beekeepers would be interested shows a hive 

 under the shade of a tree with clover in the 

 foreground, and the bees themselves busily 

 at work. The poem on this page is as 

 follows : 



Now you know the brisk bee, starting off in the 

 morn, 



Will go flying afar o'er the field 

 Where he gorges himself in a businesslike style 



On the sweets that the clover-heads yield. 

 Tlien back home he flies, just as straight as a die, 



Stores his honey away in the hive, 

 Where he keeps it, all sweet, pure and dainty to eat 



When the cold days of winter arrive. 



All this prepares the way for the final 

 statement on the last page, " Save the pen- 

 nies and the dollars will take care of them- 

 selves." 



We have often said that beekeepers might 

 do much toward educating the farmers in 

 their vicinity to the value of sweet clover by 

 getting together facts from noted authorities 

 and having them published in local papers. 

 If all the world could know what a part of 

 tlie world knows about sweet clover, farmers 

 would not be spending good money trying to 

 eradicate what they consider a noxious weed. 



One of our contributors, Mr. Henry 

 Stewart, of Prophetstown, 111., has an espe- 

 cially fine article in his local paper the 

 Prophetstown EcJio, in the issue for October 

 2, 1913. We have not room to quote all of it, 

 but are giving two paragraphs herewith. 



For years I have been an enthusiast on fertilizer 

 and pasture value of sweet clover, also on the first 

 year's growth from the seed for hay. This first year's 

 growth is fine, and resembles alfalfa very closely, 

 but the second year's growth is very rank and sap- 

 py, and hay from this has always looked to me to be 

 a pretty hard propostion to master. But while at 

 the Whiteside County field meeting I had a conversa- 

 tion with Frank Coverdale, of Clinton County, Iowa. 

 Mr. Coverdale is an extensive raiser of sweet clover, 

 having from 100 to 200 acres in sweet clover each 

 year, and he assured me tliat he now has his barns 

 full of the second year's growth of sweet clover, and 

 he says the hard proposition ceases when you know 

 how. 



If going at it in the ordinary way of making hay, 

 failure is inevitable. If allowed to cure in the swatli, 

 the leaves would all drop off long before the stems 

 would be dry; and if cut short, as is ordinary grass, 

 a large per cent of the plants would either be killed 

 or set back in their growth. He cuts his first cut- 

 ting the last of May. He raises his mower to cut 

 about as high as possible. SVeet clover is peculiar. 

 New shoots do not start from the crown, but each 

 stub cut off forms a new crown of shoots ; and if 

 these stubs are cut too short they are liable not to 

 start at all. This hay is just allowed to wilt nicely 

 when it is put into small diameter (but high) cooks, 

 and allowed to cure in the field for several days. He 



