476 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



" That which is worth doing at all is worth 

 doing well " applies especially to painting 

 a hive; for if so painted, and repainted 

 every five to ten years, a hive will never 

 have to be replaced on account of age. A 

 neighbor of mine is now replacing hives 

 that are 12 or 15 years old, as he says they 



are too rotten to stand any manipulating. 

 My first hives, purchased 23 years ago, are 

 as sound and tight as ever. 1 have purchas- 

 ed many un painted hives not in use 20 

 years, that 1 have thrown away because of 

 rotting around the edges so that they were 

 no longer bee-tight. 

 Dunlap, Iowa. 



WHITE CLOVER AND ITS DISTRIBUTION 



BY JOHN H. LOVELL 



[The following by John H. Lovell is from the new edition of the "ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture." 

 We are glad to give it a place in these columns at this time, for we believe the illustrations of this celebrated 

 honey-plant are finer than anything that has ever been reproduced before.- — Ed.] 



In the central and eastern states no other 

 honey-plant is so universally known as 

 white clover, and white-clover honey is the 

 honey par excellence — the honey with which 

 all other honeys are comparcid. It is a 

 delicious white honey of the linest quality. 

 While not so thick and heavy as goldenrod 

 nor so pronounced in flavor as buckwheat 

 or basswood, it yet possesses the qualities 

 which satisfy the largest number of consum- 

 ers and fills most perfectly the demand for 



\Vhite-clover blossom — first stage. 



a table honey of the highest grade. It is 

 given the preference by most purchasers, 

 and the highest encomium which can be 

 bestowed on any honey is to i^ronounce it 

 equal to that of white clover. As a confec- 

 tionery its appearance is most attractive, 

 while for medicinal purposes it is unsur- 

 passed. 



In general in America where it is suffi- 

 ciently abundant white clover usually yields 

 excellent lioney harvests, which are not far 

 from surpassing all rec- 

 ords. In 1913, at Ma- 

 rengo, Illinois, Dr. C. C. 

 Miller obtained from 72 

 colonies, spring count, 

 19,186 sections of chiefly 

 white-clover honey, or 

 an average of 266.47 

 sections per colony. The 

 three best colonies yield- 

 ed 390, 395, and 402 sec- 

 tions respectively. This 

 phenomenal surplus was 

 largely due to a most 

 favorable season consist- 

 ing of a succession of 

 hot humid days, altho 

 the strain of bees and the 

 care they received were 

 important factors. The 

 flow began about June 1 

 and continued until the 

 last of August, the bees 

 then gradually changing 

 to sweet clover and 

 heartsease. During this 

 long even flow there were 

 up to September 1 only 

 two rainy days. At other 

 times the rain came dur- 

 ing the night, the weath- 

 er becoming clear again 

 before the bees were 

 ready to begin work in 

 the morning. In centi'al 

 Kentucky, in 1906, 115 



