382 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



eover crop and is used as a green manure 

 to be plowed under before spring sowings. 

 A short bulletin entitled Melilotus in- 

 dica (Circular No. 126), summarizing- facts 

 about sweet clover, and giving directions 

 for inoculation and preparing the seed-bed, 

 has been published by the Agricultural Ex- 

 pei'iment Station. Berkeley, Cal. Tt may 

 be obtained free of charge by those inter- 

 ested. 



Lots of Reading on Bees 



" Read the bonks on beekeeping " is a 

 frequent word of advice to men taking up 

 the work. Very good; but it should not be 

 carried out literally, of course. The simple 

 fact is that if a man were to read all the 

 books he can read on this absorbing subject 

 he would have no time to do anything else 

 for the rest of his life. 



The experts of the apicultural laboratory 

 of the Department of Agriculture, Wasli- 

 ington, have compiled a bibliography of all 

 known works on bee culture. The number 

 of books listed up to date is 2295. It would 

 take an entire issue of Gleanings to print 

 this list once, assuming that each title took 

 two lines of print. 



Besides this list of books the laboratory 

 also has a bibliogi'aphy of articles and other 

 contributions to the science, much greater 

 in extent. Together with the list of books 

 this numbers 22,440 titles, approximately. 



Photographs for Reproduction 



Scarcely a week passes that we do not 

 receive photographs submitted for publica- 

 tion in Gleanings that are so poor that one 

 can hardly distinguish the details in the 

 photograph itself. Of course, in the proc- 

 ess of making an engraving some of the 

 detail is lost, and in printing there is a still 

 further loss. Consequently, a photograph 

 suitable for reproduction must be very good 

 indeed. 



As we have stated before, we receive far 

 more photographs than we can possibly use. 

 Ordinarily, we prefer those which are in- 

 structive, or which are necessary to illus- 

 trate some point in an article. 



Lately we have received several photo- 

 graphs from different parties that were 

 almost ruined by pencil-marks made on the 

 back with a hard pencil, the indentation of 

 which showed on the face of the picture. 

 We always like to have the name and ad- 

 dress written on the back of the photo- 

 graph; but in doing this o)ie should use a 

 ])en nr soft pencil, and lay the picture on 

 something hard. If a hard pencil is used, 

 and the photograph lies on a blotter, for 



instance, every mark shows thru. No writ- 

 ing of any kind, either with pencil or pen, 

 should be done on the face of the picture. 



Bee Inspection in Connecticut 



In a small state the problem of eradicat- 

 ing bee diseases is just as important as in 

 the larger states, altho the smaller area to 

 be covered reduces traveling expense so that 

 the cost of inspection can be kept low. 



In Connecticut there are two inspectors — 

 H. W. Coley, of Westport, who has the 

 four southern counties, Fairfield. New Ha- 

 ven, Middlesex, and New London, and A. 

 W. Yates, of Hartford, who has the four 

 northern counties, Litchfield, Hartford, Tol- 

 land, and Windham. The inspectors have 

 the situation well in hand, according to the 

 report of the Connecticut Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station for 1915. European foul 

 brood is tlie disease found most frequent- 

 ly, altho there is some American foul brood 

 as well as sacbrood. In 1915 a larger pro- 

 portion of apiaries and colonies were found 

 free from disease than ever before. 



A summary of the inspection is as fol- 

 lows : 



Apr. Col. 



Number inspected 424 1494 



Infested European foul brood. . . .129 441 



Per cent infested 26.1 10.3 



Infested American foul brood. . . 4 8 



Per cent infested 8 .18 



Pickled or sacbrood 10 20 



Average No. colonies per apiary. 8.58 



Cost of inspection $746. .31 



Average cost per apiary 1..51 



Average cost per colony .175 



Favorable Spring for Bees 



While the spring is a little late, and 

 fruit-bloom has been delayed, the conditions 

 were never better for bees. With the ex- 

 ceptions noted in our last issue, bees have 

 wintered unusually well. While the spring 

 has been backward it has not been such as 

 to cause serious spring dwindling. In fact, 

 none has been reported. The very fact that 

 fruit-bloom has been delayed by the inclem- 

 ent weather makes it apparent that the bees 

 will have a good chance to get at the blos- 

 soms without spells of bad weather shutting 

 them off. When trees come into bloom in 

 April in our locality, it means that the bees 

 may not have more than a couple of hours' 

 work on the blossoms. But here it is May 

 8. Cherry-trees have just opened, and fruit- 

 trees are just starting. One of our colonies, 

 accoiding to one of the bee-inspectors, Mr. 

 A. C. Ames, has already l.i lbs. of new hon- 

 ey; and others have quite a sprinkling all 



