American ISee Journal 



clover plants two years old furnish the crop. 

 White clover plants over two years old are not 

 in evidence in the production of a crop of 

 honey. It takes a good spell of wet weather 

 to germinate a seed crop — a few showers will 

 not do it." 



From this and what precedes, it ap- 

 pears that Mr. Lathrop considers white 

 clover a biennial, and perhaps sometimes 

 an annual, for he says : 



"My conclusions are that white clover 

 is not an annual ; neither is it strictly 

 biennial." 



Very likely this is a common view. 

 We are familiar with the fact that red 

 clover must be reseeded every 2 years, 

 and as there is little sowing of white 

 clover, and we are thus not familiar with 

 its habit of growth, we at once take it 

 for granted that white clover is like red, 

 a biennial. 



Examine a red-clover plant. A leaf- 

 stem may start close to the ground, or 

 it may start high up on the stalk. The 

 whole plant is connected with only the 

 one root, and the whole affair, root and 

 branch, dies outright in 2 years or less 

 from the time the seed started. 



Now look at a white-clover plant. 

 Every leaf starts from close to the 

 ground, never high up on a stalk like 

 the red clover. A still more striking 

 difference is that the white clover does 

 something that the red never does. It 

 sends out a stolon, or runner, just like 

 a strawberry plant, which takes root at 

 the end, thus forming a new plant, which 

 in its turn may again send forth run- 

 ners, and so on indefinitely. It would 

 be interesting to know how many — 

 rather, how few — who are familiar with 

 strawberry-runners have ever thought of 

 such a thing as a white-clover runner. 

 It will thus be seen that a single white- 

 clover plant in the middle of a lo-acre 

 field, given years enough, might cover 

 the whole field if it never matured a 

 seed. Any bee-keeper who takes the 

 trouble to observe the growth of white- 

 clover the coming spring, will easily be 

 convinced that the botany is right in 

 classing white clover, not as an annual 

 nor a biennial, but as a perennial. 



That still leaves it a matter of interest 

 to know what about the value of single 

 plants of white clover of different ages. 

 Who will tell us whether a plant, say 5 

 years old, is likely to be' worth anything 

 to bees? We know something in that 

 respect as to strawberries. If we want 

 to set out a strawberry-bed, we do not 

 select old plants to transplant. If we 

 start the bed in the fall, we use plants 

 that have started from runners only a 

 few days or weeks previous. And in 

 general, an old strawberry-bed is con- 

 sidered of little value. Yet if the run-, 

 ners are kept cut off, a plant will con- 

 tinue fruitful after it has become old, 

 forming a large stool, yielding abund- 

 ance of berries. That makes it, if we are 

 to reason from analogy, that an old 

 plant of white clover may or may not 

 be a good nectar-yielder according to 

 circumstances, with the chances in favor 

 of the younger plants. 



that bee-keepers as a rule will do better by 

 having the top of the hive sealed, and covered 

 with warm packing. We have worked both 

 schemes at our yard here at Medina; and while 

 some years the absorbing cushions gave the 

 better results, yet year in and year out the 

 sealed cover comes out ahead." — E. R- Root, 

 in Gleanings. 



Is there not a little confusion about 

 that "absorbent" business? Some use 

 cushions with the idea that the air will 

 slowly pass up through them, carrying 

 with it all moisture. In that case there 

 is no absorbing, and the cushions are 

 hardly "absorbents." If there be no pas- 

 sage of air through the cushions, the 

 moisture merely passing up into the 

 cushions and condensing there, then the 

 cushions are surely absorbents. Per- 

 haps generally there is a compromise, 

 part of the moisture passing out and 

 part of it condensing in the cushions. 



In any case, when the cushions be- 

 come charged with moisture, there is 

 advantage in drying them out when a 

 favorable spell of weather comes. 



The great harm with sealed covers 

 comes about in this way : The cover is 

 a single thickness of board, very cold, 

 upon which the moisture from the bees 

 condenses and falls in drops upon the 

 bees. If cold enough, the moisture con- 

 denses as frost upon the under side of 

 the cover, constantly accumulating until 

 the weather becomes warm enough for 

 it to melt, and then there is a small 

 deluge. Something of this kind "may 

 occur even in a cellar, and it is easy to 

 see that cold water falling upon the clus- 

 ter is not conducive to good wintering. 

 But there will not be the same conden- 

 sation, if, as Mr. Root says, the sealed 

 cover be "covered with warm packing." 

 The point is that in the colder portions 

 where bees are wintered outdoors, there 

 should be cushions or packing of some 

 kind, whether there be sealed covers or 

 not. Whether that packing should be 

 under or over the cover is not a point 

 here considered. Possibly that ubiquit- 

 ous factor — locality — ^may have some- 

 thing to say in the case. 



In this connection it may be proper to 

 say that in case of sealed covers there 

 is not the same need of packing or cush- 

 ions, if, instead of a single board, the 

 cover be one of two layers of board, an 

 air-space between. This, at least to 

 some extent, takes the place of cushions, 

 keeping the under part of the cover 

 warmer in winter and cooler in summer. 



Sealed Covers vs. Absorbent Cushions 



We recommend sealed covers to the average 

 bee-keeper because such persons will secure 

 better results than with absorbing cushions. 

 While Mr. Dadant raay be able to do better 

 without the sealed covers, it is our opinion 



Priority Rights in Imperial Valley 



In the United States a man has a legal 

 right to plant an apiary wherever he has 

 a legal right to plant a potato patch. 

 While some think that a jnan has a 

 inoral right to do the same wherever he 

 has the legal right, a considerable num- 

 ber of bee-keepers think that no one has 

 a moral right to establish an apiary in 

 a field already occupied. Of this latter 

 class there are not wanting those who 

 believe that there should be legislation 

 sufficient to secure by law what may be 

 considered moral rights. 



Without waiting for any legislation, 

 the bee-keepers of Imperial Valley, in 

 California, have determined, according 

 to a report from J. W. George, in Glean- 

 ings, to punish any one who, in their 

 judgment, unjustly encroaches on the 



territory of established bee-keepers. 

 Imperial Valley, be it said in passing, is 

 one of the richest spots on the face of 

 the earth for bee-pasturage. As a pre- 

 liminary step, an organization of bee- 

 keepers has sent out a circular which 

 reads in part as follows : 



1. The average yield per colony of extracted 

 honey for 1908 has been about 100 pounds, 

 or about half as much as the two preceding 

 years. 



2. During the fall and winter of 1907, 5,000 

 colonies of bees were shipped into Imperial 

 Valley, and now with those previously located 

 comprise about 30 apiaries ranging in size 

 from 50 to 300 colonies, and located all the 

 way from one to 3 miles apart. 



3. The second statement goes a long way 

 toward explaining the first; for, while the 

 shortage has been in part accounted for in 

 various ways, the difference in the amount of 

 honey obtained from different valley apiaries 

 is easily traceable to the number of colonics 

 kept in their respective neighborhoods. 



4. The distance apart which apiaries may 

 be run with profit in an alfalfa country de- 

 pends altogether upon the amount of alfalfa 

 grown in proximity to the apiaries, and the 

 size of the apiaries. In Imperial Valley 2 to 

 3 miles is considered close enough. 



Then at the October meeting of the 

 Imperial Valley Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion the following resolution was adop- 

 ted : 



Rcsoh'cd, That the adjustment committee be 

 instructed to accept all bees offered to them, 

 and to use said bees in any manner, and as 

 long as they are deemed necessary for the pur- 

 pose of discouraging any person from placing 

 or maintaining an apiary at any place where, 

 in their judgment, said apiary might be detri- 

 mental to the interest of any bee-man, who, 

 by right of prior location, had the best right 

 to said location. 



"After the adoption of the above reso- 

 lution," says Mr. George, "on roll-call 

 every member present except 2 offered 

 10 percent of his bees for the purpose 

 of carrying out the resolution," and Mr. 

 George grimly adds ; "It looks very 

 much as if any one corning into the Val- 

 ley and undertaking to override the cus- 

 tom here would get just what he de- 

 serves." 



Put in plain language, the idea is that 

 if any one improperly encroaches upon 

 territory already fully occupied, he will 

 be smoked out by having so many colo- 

 nies set down beside him that his bees 

 will harvest nothing, even if takes 

 a tenth of all the thousands of colonies 

 in Imperial Valley. 



The outcome of this move will be 

 watched with interest. 



Editor Sick and Journal Late 



Owing to two attacks of tonsilitis and 

 one of "la grippe," the editor of the 

 American Bee Journal has been laid up 

 at hoine so that he was unable to get 

 out this number earlier. It was his 

 longest illness in nearly 20 years. He 

 has been singularly fortunate in this re- 

 gard, as the Bee Journal, even when it 

 was published weekly, was never late on 

 account of the illness of this editor. He 

 hopes it may not occur again very soon ; 

 and also indulges the further hope that 

 the readers may be patient and forbear- 

 ing, for this issue, which is 50 per cent 

 larger than usual, was really gotten out 

 under difficulties and circumstances that 

 are always most trying when the edi- 

 tor, upon whom falls the chief work, 

 is scarcely able to be about on account 

 of a sickness that is very weakening, 

 and for a time continuously so. 



