MAY 1, 1916 



ever have been returned marked "Not a 

 beekeeper.'' These are mostly from the 

 smaller beekeepers, who aie finding that 

 specialization pays best. It is an indication 

 that the industry is getting on a better busi- 

 ness basis from year to year. 



Clover prospects seem very good thruout 

 the Province. The latter part of the season 

 of 3 915 being wet gave the new seeding an 

 excellent start, and the scarcity of farm 

 labor has increased the acreage seeded 

 down. On the whole, present indications are 

 for a good season, and beekeepers are even 

 more optimistic than usual. 



The Combless-package Business has 

 Come to Stay 



Gleanings was the first to start the 

 Ijusiness of selling bees in combles^ pack- 

 a2:e.s. Away back in tlie early '80's A. 1. 

 Root did a tln-iving business; but owing to 

 some difficulties encountered it was dropped 

 for the time being. Later on we took it up 

 again, and succeeded, and our- success has 

 been duplicated by a good many others. 

 Bees in pound packages are now being 

 offered at vei-y low prices, and what is sliip- 

 ped in this way is being guaranteed.* And 

 this fact makes it po.ssible for the honey- 

 producer to bring his weak colonies up to 

 the proper strength for building up in time 

 for the harvest. A pound or two of bees in 

 a colony in the spring will make a money- 

 maker, whereas without the boost it will be 

 only an expense and a drag on the business 

 that season. 



There is probably no danger in trans- 

 mitting bee disease when bees are sent with- 

 out combs. Bees by the pound by express 

 are much cheaper than nuclei or colonies by 

 express or by freight in carload shipments. 

 Tn time, legislation may prevent the ship- 

 ment of bees in any other way, or except 

 under certain restrictions. The business 

 has come to stay. 



More Milk from Sweet-clover Hay than 

 from Timothy; the Hay Not Injured 

 by being Wet down 



On page 510 of July 1st of last year we 

 referred to that patch of yellow sweet 

 clover from which we took two cuttings that 

 we had on our place. It will be remem- 

 bered that it furnished a great deal of hon- 

 ey, so that the bees of our home yard were 

 going back and forth to that patch in a 

 perfect roar. 



We cut this sweet clover, and fed il to 



* The prosj)ectivp Imyer should first, nscertain 

 whether safe arrival is guaranteed; if not, buv of 

 one who does. There is no use in paying express 

 on dead or half-dead bees. 



341 



our stock. Tt looked as if the stumps left 

 would never grow. But they did, and we 

 took ofi" a second cutting. Just about as 

 we were taking it into the barn it rained 

 every day for two or three weeks. It looked 

 as if the hay were ruined; but we gave it 

 to the stock, and they ate it readily. It was 

 so wet when put in the barn that it mil- 

 dewed and turned white; and yet, remark- 

 able to relate, our cows are eating it in 

 preference to timothy or any other hay ; 

 and what is more, says our teamster, the 

 cows are giving more milk than he had been 

 getting from any other fodder the cows 

 have. 



Ordinary timothy, red clover, or aLsike, 

 if if has been left out in the wet for two 

 or three weeks, as this has been, would have 

 been ruined, not only for milk but for 

 fertilizer as a top dressing; and yet the 

 facts are that, with all this wetting and 

 mildew, the cows prefer this .sweet-clover 

 liay and give more milk. The proof of the 

 pudding is in the eating. What would the 

 cows have said of it, if they could talk, if 

 they could have had it without this wetting 

 and if it had not been mildewed ? 



It is a well-known fact that sweet clover 

 is not injured much by 'rain after it is cut, 

 and this one thing is a great point in its 

 favor. The farm papers are beginning to 

 advocate it ; and the time is not far distant 

 when sweet clover will be grown from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Great 

 Lakes to the Gulf. When that day comes, 

 the old proverb about " milk and honey 

 shall he eat " will come true if it ever did 

 in all the world's history. 



Beekeeping in Wisconsin 



A PiECK of work managed by N. E. 

 France, Platteville. Wis., is sure to be man- 

 aged well. H. F. Wilson, Chief of the 

 Wisconsin Department of Economic Ento- 

 mology, says of him: 



It is now about 18 years since N. E. 

 France began his work as State Apiary 

 Inspector; and no greater tribute can be giv- 

 en him than to record the fact that thou- 

 sands of the beekeepers of the state believe 

 in him, and depend upon him for guidance. 

 All these years he has worked steadily and 

 unselfishly in the interests of Wisconsin 

 beekeeping and beekeepers. 



It is not sur})rising, therefore, that Bulle- 

 tin No. 264, of the Agiicultural Experi- 

 ment Station of the ITniversity of Wiscon- 

 sin, by N. E. France, ably assisted by his 

 son, L. V. France, should be an interesting 

 and valuable report, well worth the careful 

 reading of any beekeeper. 



