OCTOBER 1, 1914 



761 



Beekeeping Among the Eockiei 



THE HONEY CROP 



The honey crop in Colorado this year 

 came in spots, some localities having a full 

 crop and others a total failure so far as 

 surplus is concerned. 1 have not heard of 

 any very extended district where feeding 

 will be necessarj'. The crop in the Grand 

 \'alley from Glenwood Springs to Fruita 

 is reported vei'y poor. In Mesa County the 

 crop will iDrobably not average ten pounds 

 to the hive. Parts of northern Colorado, 

 the Arkansas Valley, and the southwestern 

 part of Colorado had fair crops, while the 

 western-slope counties of Montrose, Delta, 

 Mesa, and Garfield had very light yields. 

 Prices on comb honey tend to rise, and all 

 the comb honey for shipment will have been 

 moved earlier than last year, and for at 

 least ten per cent more than was realized 

 a year ago. The extracted-honey market is 

 very quiet as yet ; but if sugar stays around 

 $10 a sack it will not be hard to dispose of 

 our extracted honey right at home. 

 * * * 



MORE INFORMATION ON SWEET CLOVER 

 NEEDED. 



Quite a lot of sweet-clover seed put on 

 the market is thrashed out in the wheat and 

 oats, and is gathered up along with other 

 trash, weed seeds, etc., after the thrashing 

 is done. So much of this seed is unripe or 

 blasted, and so mixed with weed seed, that 

 it should hardly be put on the market. But 

 with the demand there is for sweet-clover 

 seed, it will get on the market. Every farm- 

 er who contemplates sowing sweet clover 

 should find out how to test seed or examine 

 it with a microscope before purchase. The 

 United States Department of Agriculture 

 had some enlarged photographs of alfalfa, 

 sweet clover, and weed seeds on exhibition 

 at the land show in Chicago last year, which 

 were very fine. One could soon learn to dis- 

 tinguish the different seeds. If these illus- 

 trations could be placed before all prospec- 

 tive purchasers of sweet-clover seed it 

 would aid them a great deal. 



The Government bulletin on sweet clover 

 should be in the hands of every person who 

 wants to sow the seed. 



Some seedsmen have said that sweet- 

 clover seed should always be sold in the hull 

 in order that there need be no danger of get- 

 ting alfalfa and sweet-clover seed mixed. 

 To the casual observer the seed does look 

 similar when hulled. However, the odor of 

 hulled sweet-clover seed is unmistakable, 

 and there need be no selling of alfalfa seed 



for sweet clover or vice versa, if the odor is 

 known. 



One other point should be emphasized, 

 and that is, the slow germination of the 

 seed. A thirty-day test of seed may bring 

 out but a very small per cent of germina- 

 tion. If all the seed that is good would ger- 

 minate promjDtly, but three to five pounds 

 of hulled seed would be sufficient for an 

 acre. 



Doubtless many will be carried away 

 with the sweet-clover-seed agitation, and 

 will sow the seed when they have no very 

 great need of it ; others will have indifferent 

 results; but in the long run we may expect 

 sweet clover to be with us as red clover and 

 alfalfa now are. 



Notes from Canada. Continued from page 750 



few fine fields since the rain, and quite a 

 ^ot of white clovv3r has shown up also since 

 the change in weather conditions. 



Buckwheat fields were plentiful with us; 

 but the yield of honey is very light. The 

 first two weeks of August, which is always 

 the best time for buckwheat honey with us, 

 were very cool and dry, and then the next 

 two weeks were very wet — that explains 

 matters. We shall do well if we have 

 enough buckwheat honey to pay for feeding 

 the colonies that are light in the brood- 

 nests; and many localities that I know of 

 have not even that much. Thanks to a late 

 flow from willowherb, etc., bees are in much 

 better condition at the north yard, as the 

 brood-nests are heavy, while in addition the 

 bees there stored a nice little surplus. 



Owing to the high price of sugar and the 

 difficulty of getting it at any price, many 

 have written me as to the advisability of 

 feeding the little dark honey they have in 

 lieu of granulated sugar. In many sections 

 of Ontario what little honey has been stored 

 is mixed with honey-dew, and I would not 

 feed such stuff under any conditions. If 

 the buckwheat honey is in such shape that 

 it has to be extracted, then I would prefer to 

 feed sugar syrup instead of the honey, even 

 if I paid as much per pound for the sugar 

 as I could get for buckwheat honey. If the 

 latter is in good realed worker combs, then 

 I would lower such combs into brood-nests 

 instead of extracting the honey and feeding 

 it back, or of selling the honey and buying 

 sugar. In feeding extracted honey, at least 

 one-third as much water should be added, 

 and the mixture brought to a boil before 

 feeding. 



