1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



891 



Special Notices by A. I. Root. 



A SELF-WINDING CLOCK. 



Ever since the advent of the dry battery, especially 

 since batteries of so much power have been offered at 

 so low a price, I have been predicting that we should 

 have timepieces very soon run by dry batteries instead 

 of daily or weekly winding-. This has been done to 

 some extent for several years with jewelers' regulat- 

 ors: but Ihave only just now gotten hold of a timepiece 

 for every-day use that winds itself. They are made by 

 the National Self-winding Clock Co., Champaign, 111., 

 and 1 believe they are now on sale by all first-class jew- 

 elers. If your jeweler does net keep them the company 

 will send you particulars, prices, etc. The prices are 

 but little more than for an ordinary eight day clock. 

 The batteries will run them a year or more, without 

 any care whatever. The clock is more durable and 

 more accurate, because there is no great strain or power 

 on any of the machinery. A very light steel spring, 

 something like what runs a lady's watch, carries all 

 the mechanism. This light spring will carry the works 

 only 8 or 10 mmutes; then this bright enterprising little 

 battery goes to work to wind the spring up again, and 

 so on. A similar device winds up the striking part. 



CLOVERS, AND HOW TO GROW THEM. 



The above is the title of a new book bound in cloth, 

 337 pages, that has just come from the O. Judd Co. It 

 is the first good-sized book that the world has ever had, 

 so far as I know, devoted entirely to our clovers; and as 

 clover is almott if not quite the sheet anchor of good 

 farming, I wt Icome this book as a valuable accession to 

 our rural publicati >ns. I think it would pay big for ev- 

 ery farmer to get and read it over and over. It discuss- 

 es briefly the new " bacteria " matter of " nitrogen nod- 

 ules." and I guess it is about correct in regard to it. Of 

 course, the book is largely devoted to the medium and 

 red clovers. There is a long chapter on alfalfa and 

 anoher on alsike, and still another one on mammoth, a 

 shorter one on crimson clover, and a considerably long 

 one on white clover- The value of the different clovers 

 for honey is touched on in many places; and it very 

 clearly refutes the notion that sweet clover ever ought 

 to be classed as a noxious weed. The Japan clover that 

 has been ii quired about several times of late is discuss- 

 ed very fully; but it does not tell whether or not it is of 

 value to the bees. My impression is it must be, under 

 favorable circumstances. The book is by Thomas Shaw, 

 perhaps as good an authority as we have at the present 

 time in m-tters of this kind. Now, the book looks like 

 a $1.50 one; but I am glad to tell you that we can fur- 

 nish it at the very reasonable sum of 90 cts or $1.00 if 

 wanted by mail. 



PEACHES FOR HOME AND MARKET. 



The above is the title of Bulletin 170. from our Ohio 

 Experiment Station. It is full of half-tone pictures 

 taken of the trees themselves at different stages; and 

 the information it gives for the early management of 

 peach-trees, especially piuning, is worth a five -dollar 

 bill to me if I could not get the pamphlet otherwise. 

 It corroborates nieely the conclusions I had been coming 

 to i working with my peach-orchard of 100 trees in 

 Northern Michigan. Let me go over it briefly: 



Clean cultivation is perhaps the cheapest and best 

 when your land is level or pretty nearly so, to be lollow- 

 ed in July with some cover crops such as soy beans, cow 

 peas, crimson clover, etc , to be turned under the fol- 

 lowing spring. If your land is hilly, mulching does 

 quite as well. Cover the ground all around the tree, at 

 least as f . r as the branches grow, with straw, clover, 

 grass, weeds, or any thing that will smother all growth. 

 This is the plan I have practiced myself. There are 

 two objections mice, and the danger of fire getting at 

 it No mice have ever meddled with my trees so far; 

 but they are right on the edge of the woods, and the 

 mice probably get plenty of feed elsewhere. No fire 

 has ever gotten in except once, and that damaged one 

 tree a little but did not kill it. Now in regard to prun- 

 ing: 



You must prune your trees regularly every spring if 

 you want to keep down dead limbs and long sprawling 

 branches. Keep cutting back the new growth a half or 

 a third; and when the trees begin to bear, when the 

 buds are out enough so you can see how much fruit is 

 setting, thm the fruit by a severe cutting back. A 

 conibination of thinning by both pruning and hand- 

 picking seems to be best; but pruning should be so 

 managed that you never have a great lot of peaches 

 away on the ends of long sprawling limbs to break your 

 trees down and ruin them. In fact, old neglected 



trees that have become unsightly and useless may, by 

 judicious and intelligent pruning, be made so as to look 

 very much like handsome young trees, and do a lot of 

 service. 



This bulletin tells the whole business by means of a 

 lot of beautiful pictures; and then there is a discussion 

 of varieties, that ought to be worth much to a good 

 many people. Why, my friend, if you have only one 

 peach-tree you ought to have this bright up-to-date 

 little treatise on growing peaches. Address Experi- 

 ment Station, Wooster, Ohio. 



DECORATING OUR DOORYARD; TREE PEONIES, ETC. 



A year ago I wrote up tree peonies, and there was 

 quite a number of inquiries ai to where they could be 

 found. I mentioned that Storrs & Harrison, Painesville, 

 O., said they were very difficult to grow, etc., but I fin- 

 ally purchased three plants of Good & Re^se, Spring- 

 field, O. I think they cost about 50 cents each. They 

 were rather small and insignificant-looking, and I did 

 not expect much of them. This spring, however, to my 

 surprise they were "up and dressed" almost before 

 any thing else, and all three are making strong rank 

 thrifty plants. I also bought eight of the low-down 

 peonies for about 20 cents each. They also started well, 

 every one of them, and two of the plants have given us 

 some beautiful blossoms. 



Now, there is one more beautiful flowering plant that 

 I want to mention, that stands over winter and takes 

 care of itself. It is the campanula, known in many 

 places as "Canterbury bell." I bought half a dozen of 

 these plants from G. W. Park, LaPark. Pa., at an ex- 

 pense of only 4 cents each, selected from his collection 

 of plants. Just now they are covered with cup-shaped 

 blossoms of different shad«s, and I think they give more 

 beauty for the money than almost any other plant I 

 know of. They attract much attention because they 

 are not very common— at least in this locality. We also 

 bought of Good & Reese, Springfield, O., half a dozen 

 Japane e maples that have ntw wintered safely two 

 winters planted on the north side of the house; and the 

 blood- red ones are as handsome as flowers, and they are 

 always in bloom. I think they cost about 50 cents each; 

 and if they prove as hardy everywhere as they have 

 here, I should consider them a wonderful acquisition in 

 the way of ornamenting your grounds. 



T. W. BRYAN, FICKLIN, ILL. 



Mr. Bryan is still at it— see page 762, June 1; and the 

 Missouri Valley Farmer \i st\\\ aX it. Here is the lat- 

 est, which we cli;- from the Farmer: 



NATURAL SWARMING. 



I am thoroughly convinced that natural swarming is 

 the only successful way to increase your bees. In the 

 hands of an expert, artificial swarming can sometimes 

 be made to work successfully, but no beginner should 

 attempt it. One has only to pick up a bee journal or 

 the old-fashioned bee books, which were written 25 or 50 

 years ago, to find all sorts of plans for swarming and 

 handling bees. We hear of all sorts of methods, such 

 as clipping the wings of the queen; also patent swarm- 

 catchers, queen- traps, and a lot of other nonsense. As 

 stated some time ago in this paper I have long since 

 turned all Euch propositions down. If my readers will 

 only stop a moment and ask themselves why it is that so 

 many bees run off; why it is so many bee-trees are found, 

 and if a swarm of bees in running off just happens to 

 hit a hollow tree, cornmon sense will answer the ques- 

 tions. It was not a " happen bo " at all that the home- 

 seekers of that swarm found a hollow tree. They were 

 attracted to that particular spot by certain laws of na- 

 ture which govern the honey- bee as well as everr thing 

 else in nature's plan of life. It took me years to learn 

 just how to prepare and fit up empty oee-hives so as to 

 attract and catch my own swarms of bees. My booklet, 

 which is fully protected by a copyright in 1904, will teach 

 you just how to prepare your hives placed in your own 

 dooryard so as to attract and catch swarms. 



We give place to all this because letters are coming in 

 almost everyday, asking if we advise sending Mr. Bryan 

 a dollar, etc. 



THE NEW GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 



When the Lieutenant-governor was informed of the 

 death of Governor Pattison, and told that he must now 

 take Pattiton's place, he replied: 



" I can only say that I will do my duty as God grives 

 me power to see it." 



May God grant that we may have more Governors wha 

 can honestly make the same declaration. 



