214 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



April, 1920 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



activities I bought far and wide to sample 

 the bees and the breeders who advertise 

 their wares. I now shall use his queens till 

 he or his bees depart from the high standard 

 that they now hold. 



Hendersonville, N. C. J. J. Slattery. 



RELATION OF ALSIKE AND BEES 



Yield of Alsike Seed Per Acre Strikingly Increased 

 by Proximity to Apiary. 



In the spring of 1918, while considering 

 the location of an outyard, a farmer asked 

 me to place some bees in his 40-acre alsike 

 field. He had some relative that told him 

 of the increase in yield due to the proximi- 

 ty of bees. I placed 75 three-pound pack- 

 ages in his field. His yield was three bushels 

 per acre. By inquiry I found that fields 

 more than two miles from bees were not 

 worth threshing that year. This farmer was 

 well pleased, but insisted that there were 

 not enough bees. As he had 40 acres for 

 1919, and several of his neighbors had sown 

 alsike, I placed 100 old colonies on his farm. 



I have made a complete survey of the 

 township, and got all the information from 

 threshers and other sources, concerning 



about 80 square miles, giving the location 

 of bees, with the number of colonies, and 

 the location of alsike-clover fields, with acre- 

 age and yield. 



The accompanying map shows in circles 

 the location of bees, with the number of 

 colonies. The numerator of the fractions 

 represents the number of acres in alsike, 

 and the denominator denotes the number of 

 bushels threshed. 



The yield was not heavy at any place, as 

 drought shortened nectar flow at least three 

 weeks. It will be noticed, however, that 

 near a large number of colonies the yield is 

 three to four bushels per acre, while two 

 miles or more from bees the yield is not 

 more than one bushel per acre. 



The lesson of this article is interesting 

 to the farmer as well as the apiarist. The 

 farmers near the bees received more cash 

 per acre from the seed than they did from 

 any other crop produced, and at the same 

 time they were storing fertility in their soil. 



Another lesson learned is that the majori- 

 ty of farmers are ' ' from Missouri ' ' — they 

 must be shown. Notice the number of al- 

 sike fields near some of the bees, while mile 

 after mile where there are no bees there is 

 no alsike. I plead guilty to doing mission- 

 ary work near my bee-yards. 



Grover Hill, O. Ernest Kohn. 



The circles show the location of tlie colonies. The numerators of the fractions represent the number of acres 

 of alsike and the denominators the number of bushels threshed. 



