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a r. K A N T N (I S I \ I'. K K (' I' \. T I' U V. 



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SOME ONE ASKED G. F. Deiimth at dim 



of the short ('Oiirs(; meetings in (yolunibiis, 



()., what the proper 



Necessary 



to Successful 



Cellar Wintering 



temperature of 

 bee-cellar is. His 

 prompt answer was, 

 "that depends." 

 The Government Bureau of Entomology has 

 proved that the most quiescent state of a 

 cluster of bees on combs in a hive — a state 

 where the bees eat the least stores and win- 

 ter the best — is about 57 degrees Fahr. 

 outside the cluster in the hive. Getting 

 down to the exact question Mr. Demuth 

 said that the temperature on the inside 

 of the cellar should be such as to favor 

 a temperature of 57 degrees inside of the 

 average hive. He recommended placing 

 a thermometer on the bottom-board of a 

 few of the hives. If the temperature of 

 the bottom-board is above 50 degrees, but 

 below 57, the colony cluster should be some- 

 where about 80; or, in other words, the tem- 

 perature of the cellar should be regulated 

 according to the size of the average colonies 

 and the size of the average entrances. Where 

 the colonies are all strong and the entrances 

 small, the temperature might be much lower 

 than where the reversed conditions would 

 apply. In the former case, 43 degrees might 

 be about right for the cellar; in the latter 

 case, 50 might not be too high. 



Mr. Demuth 's answer reveals the fact 

 that, on the subject of cellar temperature 

 and ventilation, we all may have been lead- 

 ing each other astray. The exact temperature 

 of the bee-room is not vital; but the tempera- 

 ture of the hive is, and the nearer it is to 

 57, the better. It is not practicable to run a 

 thermometer down among the bees, because 

 then the temperature would immediately 

 rise. The only thing to do is to test the 

 temperature of the air between the bottom - 

 board and the bottoms of the frames. Should 

 that temperature show close to 57 or above, 

 the cellar should be cooler or the entrances 

 greatly enlarged; if 5"2, the cellar tempera 

 ture is about right provided the colony is 

 an average one. 



In the average bee-cellar it is not always 

 easy to regulate the temperature with ex- 

 actness. If the temperature is a little 

 high, the entrances of the hives should be 

 larger. If it is a little low, the entrances 

 should be smaller. Sometimes when the 

 temperature is too low it is advisable to 

 close both the cellar ventilators, when the 

 natural heat of the bees will raise tlie tem- 

 perature iu the cellar. In this connection 

 the Bureau has experimented to show that 

 the ventilation in a bee-cellar is valuable 

 only as it affords means for raising or lower- 

 ing the temperature — not because the bees 

 iieed fresh air. 



The work of Dr. Philli])s and of Mr. De- 

 muth, of the Bureau of Entomology, on this 

 point is very interesting. A careful reading 

 of the j)reeeding will show why one man 

 1'avors a low temperature in a cellar and an- 

 othei- a high one, and yet both may have 



fiiually good results. It also shows why 

 some favor ventilators and some do not, be 

 cause the vital thing is the temperature of 

 the cluster itself rather than that of the 

 cellar. 



.C8= 



A FEW years ago we were accustomed to 

 think of alfalfa as the main source of honey 

 in the Bocky Moun- 

 Sweet Clover tain States, if not the 

 At the Top main honey plant in 



I Of the List. the entire United 

 States. During the 

 last few years conditions have changed. • We 

 must now put sweet clover at the top of the 

 list for actual quantity, and in quality it is 

 second to none. It has come to pass that in 

 some of the alfalfa States sweet clover will 

 run about fifty-fifty with alfalfa in aggre- 

 gate production. In the dry-farming areas 

 it would stand about seventy-five to twenty- 

 five of alfalfa. There are some portions of 

 the United States where sweet clover is pro- 

 duced as an exclusive crop. Over much of 

 the territory of the Eastern States north of 

 the Ohio River, it yields no surplus, but is 

 valuable as a brood-booster. 



A few days ago we ran across an in- 

 stance of the increasing popularity of sweet 

 clover only a few miles from our home. A 

 farmer, who had ^ come here from a much 

 better farming section, had purchased a 

 rather stiff clay farm of about 200 acres. 

 We asked him how he farmed such land af- 

 ter being accustomed to much better soil. 

 His reply was: "Sweet Clover." In very 

 fact he was making sweet clover the one 

 big, essential crop on his 200 odd acres of 

 clay land. 



In northern Alabama and Mississippi and 

 a good deal of the mountain areas of the 

 Eastern States the legume is a very impoi-- 

 tant honey plant. In ' Oklahoma, Kansas, 

 and Nebraska it is going to the front as it 

 ]iever did before. If the new annual that 

 A. I. Root talks about in his department h 

 as good a producer of nectar as the two bi- 

 ennials and if that new annual can be grown 

 in localities too hot for either of the bien- 

 nials, we may expect a much larger percent- 

 age of ' sweet-clover honey. 



When we look back to the days when we 

 put out our first sweet-clover booklet, days 

 when town counci's and state legislatures 

 tabooed sweet clover, days when even ex- 

 periment stations gave it scant recognition, 

 days w'hen we were persecuteil because we 

 tried to spread the truth regarding this won- 

 derful legume, we can only wonder that the 

 transformation has taken place so rapidly 

 as it has. There is scarcely an experiment 

 station that does not extol the praises of 

 sweet clover. It is endorsed by the Agri- 

 cultural Dei)artment of Washington, D. C. 

 Laws legislating it out of existerice have 

 been repealed and today some lands that 

 won't produce hardly anything else are now 

 I roilucing sweet (•l.)\-er, i'at cattle, and last 

 Itut not least, milk and lioncN.. 



