NOVEMBER 16, 1914 



883 



J. E. Crane 



IFTING 



IWdlelbiuiry, Vt. 



Mr. Halter's estimate of the value of 

 sheep on page 719, Sept. 15, is nut over- 

 drawn. 



* * # 



A capital idea that, of encouraging work- 

 ing men to use sugar instead of alcoholic 

 beverages, as told page 702, Sept. 15. Let 



us all help it along. 



* * # 



When John H. Lovell, page 721, Sept. 15, 

 discusses the question of the relation of bees 

 to black we know we have gotten down to 

 bedrock. It is settled. 



* * * 



That cover picture for Sept. 15 is about 

 the best ever. If that is what Norway looks 

 like I no longer wonder that its citizens are 

 attached to their home land. 



* * * 



Whatever may be said as to the practical 

 value of the hive illustrated on page 716, 

 Sept. 15, and used 2000 years ago, it cer- 

 tainly is quite as ornamental as any thing 



we have to-day. 



* * » 



We are having to feed heavily for winter. 

 I wish that we had some Ohio swamps for 

 our bees. In some locations where our bees 

 have had aster and goldenrod, so many have 

 worn themselves out trying to gather the 

 honey that many colonies are greatly weak- 

 ened in numbers. 



» « * 



We can readily believe what the editor 



says, page 702, Sept. 15, in regard to the 



value of swamps for bee forage. While we 



have had to feed many colonies in our yard 



twenty or more pounds of syrup to the 



hive, in case of one yard near a small 



swamp we shall not have to feed at all, as 



nearly all of the hives in that yard have an 



abundance of winter stores, and many have 



more than enough. 



« « * 



" Occasionallly we find a colony that 

 forges ahead and stores much more honey 

 than the others, though having only an 

 equal show with the others," says P. C. 

 Chadwick, page 575, Aug. 1, and he is right. 

 If he will watch closely he will doubtless 

 find that swarms from such a colony will do 

 the same thing. That is our experience, and 

 such a colony is the one we like to rear our 

 young queens from. 



* » * 



I learned to-day of a farmer within range 

 of one of our yards who has sowed several 

 acres of sweet clover this season. I trust 

 this is the entering wedge. It is now 45 



years since Mr. M. M. Baldridge, in the 

 American Bee Journal, recommended the 

 sowing of this plant for bee-pasturage, and 

 it looks as though something good were to 

 come out of it. If I could only get enough 

 fi'om this source to fill up hives for winter 

 1 should be more than pleased. Since the 

 basswood failed we have had to feed from 

 one to five tons of sugar to winter our bees. 



* * ■» 



When Mr. Holtermann tells us, page 666, 

 Sept. 1, that the yard should be not more 

 than 45 or 50 feet square with a fence eight 

 feet high around it, I beg to differ with him 

 if it is a tight fence. It looks to me as 

 though that is almost too much of a good 

 thing. I have known just such a yard 

 hopelessly ruined in spring by such a fence. 

 If the weather should be sunny, with cool 

 north winds, such a yard wiU be many 

 degrees warmer than outside, and the bees 

 will be liable to be tempted out; and, when 

 outside the yards, to become chilled and 

 drop to the snow to meet a fate like poor 

 Clementine — " lost and gone for ever." 



Again, ]\Ii\ Holtermann, on page 667, 

 advises adding a teasponful of tartaric acid 

 to each 12 lbs. of sugar made into syrup for 

 feeding. I have no doubt this is a correct 

 formula ; but I have fed with cream of 

 tartar, or tartaric acid, and many tons of 

 sugar syrup without it, and so far have 

 failed to see enough benefit in it to compen- 

 sate for the cost and trouble. 



* « * 



We are told on the first page of Glean- 

 ings for Aug. 1 how Milton Robb nearly 

 lost his life in attempting to get a swarm 

 down out of a tree. This reminds me of a 

 rather uncomfortable experience many 

 years ago. I went up a standing ladder 

 some seven feet high and shook a swarm 

 into a basket. In starting to descend I 

 slipped and fell head first. The basket of 

 bees went with a slam to the gxound, while 

 I in some way got my feet caught in the 

 ladder and hung suspended by my legs 

 nearly over the swarm on the ground — a 

 very undignified position for a scientific 

 beekeeper to be in, certainly. By quickly 

 pulling myself up by my hands and releas- 

 ing my feet I jumped to the ground without 

 any serious results except a few stings. I 

 knew one man many years ago who lost his 

 life trying to get a swarm out of a tall elm- 

 tree. 



Moral.- — Better keep our queens' wings 

 clipped where there are tall trees about our 

 apiaries. 



