aLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



532 



top-bars without narrower spacing might 

 remedy the matter, for he says " few bee- 

 Iveep-ers would care to scrap their present 

 outfit to change to the inch and a^ halt 

 spacing." In any case there need be no 

 scrapping of outfit, for one frame less m 

 a liive would allow the larger spacing. But 

 // all that's needed is the greater ventila- 

 tion, that can be obtained without any 

 change. Simply stutter the extracting 

 stories, thus giving ventilation to each, and 

 give ventilation to section-supers by shov- 

 ing' forward the first super, and also give 

 ventilation at top by means of the top-venti- 

 latin- cover described on page 121 of the 

 latest edition of Fifty Years among the 

 Bees. 



Another boost for sweet ck)ver. This 

 time it's " Sweet-clover Silage,'' Pmirie 

 Farmer, 440. George Nimmo, of Livings- 

 ton Co., 111., has fed sweet-clover silage for 

 several years, and says he likes it betl^er 

 than corn or any other crop for silage. M. 

 F. Baker, of Kankakee Co., Ill, has been 

 using sweet clover and straw for silage, mix- 

 in «• one load of straw to four of clover, and 

 he^'says : " It can be put into the silo at any 

 time, as the weather conditions do not affect 

 it You can put up silage when the dew is 

 on or after liiiht showers, and it keeps just 

 the same. ... I believe sweet-clover 

 silage is fully as good as corn silage and 

 easier to handle, as it is not so bulky. . • 

 The sweet clover was just as sweet and nice 

 this spring as when it was first put in the 

 silo. A good stand of sweet clover aviII 

 yield six tons to the acre." 



I WAS rash enough to say to Dr. C. 

 D. Cheney, page 357, " Surely, doctor, 

 when you have -biscuit and honey you don t 

 eat it with a spoon." I thought that would 

 squelch him. But he comes back at me by 

 saying- he was talking about eating Jwney 

 not biscuits. And then he tells a story of 

 a newly elected Congressman who went to 

 Washington to "look things over" before 

 the session opened. The lobbyists took^him 

 in tow and made things pleasant. When 

 he got back home his friends were curious 

 to know what sort of a time he had enjoyed. 

 "Fine! fine! Went everywhere, saw every- 

 thing, met all tlie high muck-a-mucks; and 

 suchban(iuets and dinners! Why, 1 scarcely 

 had my knife out of my mouth while I was 

 away!" And that story, after I had ad- 

 mitted that I ate biscuit and honey tvilh a 

 knife! doctor! 



Opening at page 258, 1 looked a long 

 time at those seven pictures showing liow to 

 l)ut frames together, and 1 said, "\oull 

 take more time getting your tnaclunery 

 readv than it would take to put (juite a lot 



July, 1917 



of frames together at all." And yet that s 

 the sort of thing that pays wall. Often it 

 pays to spend more time getting ready than 

 it takes to do the work after you are ready ; 

 as when you spend two hours getting ready 

 to do a job that you can then do m an hour, 

 provided that without such gettmg-ready 

 the job would take you four hours. And 

 then with the right sort of appliances you 

 can do so much better a job. Then 1 took 

 anotlier look at the pictures and thought it 

 would be fun to make frames that way. 

 That scheme of making a hiveful at once is 

 "reat ' [That scheme of nailing frames has 

 been carefully tested out, and experience 

 sliows that it saves a lot of time.— Eu.J 



Always it has been a m>stery to me 

 how it happens that wax-worms may de- 

 velop in a section sealed up moth-tiii it 

 immediately upon being taken from the 

 bees. The only answer I ever had was 

 that the moth sneaked in and laid the eggs, 

 until now J. E. Crane, p. 196, says: 

 "When there are moths, bees evidently 

 carry their eggs about the combs on th^ir 

 bodies, and drop them in all sorts of places 

 inside the hive or on the section combs. 

 Which is the right answer? It's hard to 

 believe that a moth would be allowed to 

 get into a super; but if Mr. Crane is right, 

 how can a bee get the eggs on its body / 

 Doesn't the moth always lay its eggs in a 

 crack? Another thing: With blacks 

 wormy sections are common; with Italians. 

 very uncommon. If eggs are eaiTied on the 

 bees, why not on Italians just as much as on 

 blacks? " But if the moth lays its eggs m 

 the hive, it's easy to believe that the Italian 

 would be the better at keeping out the 

 moth. I wish I knew the right answer. 



Mention is made in The Country Gentle- 

 man of 5000 acres in sweet clover m Liv- 

 ingston Co., 111. JPnre sweet-clover honey 

 ought not to be impossible there. But is 

 it desirable? White-clover honey with the 

 vanilla flavor given by a little sweet clover 

 is delicious; but would not that flavor be 

 a little too strong in the pure article/ 

 [Sweet clover is making rapid headway m 

 the middle West— see tliis issue, page 512. 

 —Ed.] 



Thk British Ihe .lonrnii] deserves credit 

 for giviim' a definition tor a " rii)e " (lueen- 

 (.gll— the' first I think I've ever seen. It 

 says, p. 110, " A (lueen-cell is ' ripe ' when 

 the bees have cleaned away the wax at the 

 lip leaving' tlie cocoon exposed." Now, 

 how long before the emergence of the queen 

 does tliat occur? [Good definition.- Ed.J 

 Junk 2 we still have fire in tlie furnace, 

 and not many days have been warm enough 

 without it. "[The same here.— Eu.J 



