1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1015 



sufficiently large for the entrance of a bee, 

 and giving a general glance over the whole, 

 to see that all is in good condition for leav- 

 ing, I am ready for my journey home. And 

 this is what was done on the tenth visit. 



a" RETROSPECT. 



As I am about to leave I can not help tak- 

 ing a last lingering look at things, as they 

 have so changed since I came at noon. In- 

 stead of tiered- up hives, and those with 

 supers, which have gradually grown up with 

 me during the summer's work, all have as- 

 sumed the appearance of what they had in 

 spring, and I am reminded that the work of 

 the bees is over till another year. A sort of 

 sadness steals over me, and I fall to wonder- 

 ing if both bees and myself will be alive to 

 work so happily together another year. The 

 merry hum, and the fragrance from the 

 hives, which greeted me when coming to the 

 yard during the summer, greet me no more. 

 I find myself wishing it were spring again, 

 and that I were just commencing the fun of 

 working the out-apiary for another year. I 

 seem to see the bees at work again as they 

 did on those bright "clover and basswood" 

 morns. It seems like a real living picture 

 again— a picture fairer than thought; a pic- 

 ture fairer than a dream; a picture with ten 

 thousand pearls glistening in earth's rarest 

 sunlight, on one stretch of verdure green, 

 and reaching out beyond the winter's vale 

 to the bright spring again, when the butter- 

 fly begins to flutter in the pleasant breeze, 

 and the joyous children are chasing after 

 sunbeams. Thus I dream. As I have been 



musing, the clouds have parted in the low 

 west, and the setting sun has dropped down 

 into the clear space between them and the 

 horizon, throwing over hill and vale ten 

 thousand times ten thousand glittering hues 



that glow and shine to beautify the land- 

 scape and cheer the heart of man. Dawn 

 tiptoes over the mountain tops, and peeps 

 into the valley far below with eager, tender 

 eyes, while darkness gathers up her sable 

 robes to skulk and hide away into the crev- 

 ices and mountain caves; but in the eve- 

 ning come the long light sunrays, beautiful 

 to gild the world and gladden it with kisses, 

 lovelier, sweeter far than the rarest, gentlest 

 kiss of dawn. So, too, the evening tide of 

 life may grow more beautiful and blest if 

 life is rightly lived, believing upon Him who 

 was and is the light and life of men. And 

 the bees, now in the evening tide of 1905, 

 are enjoying a rest sweeter by far than their 

 restless sleep during the dawn of their ac- 

 tivity, six months ago 



"Hello there! Gone to sleep?" comes in 

 stentorian tones from my farmer landlord, 

 and I am aroused to the fact that it is fully 

 time that I be on my journey home. 



4^ 



^tmog 



■ EYA.LROOT 



WHERE DID THE CLOVER SEED COME FROM? 



Some four or five years ago a huge trunk sewer was 

 run through our town from the southern end of Boston 

 to the sea— some fourteen miles. This sewer was an 

 open cut in some places; in others it was tunneled. As 

 it was planned to build a 100-foot boulevard over it, the 

 material excavated was, for the most part, spread over 

 this 100- ft. space as the work was completed. It con- 

 sisted mostly of fine sand or gravel, and in some places 

 clay or quick sand. Well, everywhere this material was 

 spread a dense growth of v."hite and alsike clover sprang 

 up, and this year there is quite a crop, althoug h it is 

 running back to weeds now. What I should like to 

 know is, where did the seed come from to cover so thor- 

 oughly every part of this new ground dug from depths 

 varying from twenty to forty feet ? Some say the seed 

 was in the sand, and only needed the sun and air to 

 spring into life. This theory seems foolishness to me. 



East Milton, Mass. Robt. Forbes. 



Friend F. , this is indeed a puzzling ques- 

 tion; and had I not heard of instances simi- 

 lar to it I should say that somebody sowed 

 the seed of white clover in the alsike, and I 

 think now that it must be this seed was 

 sown by the company that built the sewer, 

 or by somebody else without the knowledge 

 of the residents along the route. Clover 

 can not come up where no clover seed has 

 been sown, any more than corn can come up 

 where m com has been planted; and vari- 

 ous experiments at our experiment stations 

 have pretty well settled the question that 

 clover seed can not germinate after a cer- 

 tain number of years. I can not put my 

 hand on the table just now. but I think the 

 vitality will all be gone in fifteen or twenty 

 years— may be more or may be less. In our 

 own experience in handling seeds we find 

 some clover seeds lose their vitality entirely 

 in less than a dozen years. This has hap- 



