April, 1909. 



Amarican Hae Journal 



tank. The honey is lifted into the 

 house instead of carrying it on wheel- 

 barrows. The remainder of the house 

 is used as a dining room by the men 

 and a bedroom by the owner and wife, 

 and is partioned off from the rest. It 

 has screen halfway down each side and 

 canvas flaps, which enable the operators 

 to have plenty of ventilation. 



The illustrations show many other 

 conveniences 



Redlands, Calif. 



Sweet Clover as a Honey- 

 Producer 



BY ISAAC F. TILLINGHAST. 



During the past season I have been 

 traveling quite extensively through sev- 

 eral different states, visiting bee-keep- 

 ers, and noting the comparative results, 

 under different kinds of management, 

 and in different locations. 



One fact forcibly brought to my at- 

 tention by this inspection of localities 

 was that the most profitable apiaries I 

 found were in sections where large 

 quantities of sweet clover were found 

 growing in vacant lots, along railroad 

 embankments, and in fact wherever it 

 had been able to gain a foothold. 



So striking and remarkable were the 

 results in some of these cases that I be- 

 came convinced that this plant is really 

 one of the most valuable sources of 

 honey that we have in this country, and 

 in order to try and profit by the discov- 

 ery, I procured 100 pounds of the seed 

 which I have been quietly scattering in 

 every possible nook and corner within 

 a mile or two of my apiary. ■ 



I think that the chief value of this 

 plant, over many others, lies in the fact 

 that it continues in bloom for so long a 

 time that it bridges over the periods of 

 dearth between our natural supplies, and 

 furnishes a great amount of nectar 

 when the bees otherwise would have 

 nothing whatever to keep them busy. 



And again, unlike buckwheat, and 

 some others, which seem to supply onlv 

 during the early part of each day, sweet 

 clover will be found covered with bees 

 from early dawn till dusk, day after 

 day, from July to September. 



One peculiar thing about sweet clover 

 is that it will grow rampantly in new 

 railroad cuts and embankments, con- 

 sisting of sand and gravel, or rock and 

 hardpan, which contains no humus or 

 soil of any richness which would sup- 

 port any other kind of plant, and as it 

 has the property, like other clovers, of 

 gathering nitrogen and feeding it to the 

 soil in which it grows, it is no doubt 

 one of the greatest soil-improvers in 

 existence, and well worthy of a place on 

 every farm for this purpose alone. 



I have a five-acre field of old worn- 

 out farm land which I am seeding to 

 this plant which will be allowed to re- 

 main undisturbed for several years for 

 the double purpose of improving its 

 fertility and at the same time supplying 

 bee-pasturage. 



The Mohawk valley, in New York 

 State, through which runs the New 

 York Central, the West Shore, and vari- 

 ous trolley lines of railroad, as well as 

 'he canal, has many pieces of company 



land lying between these thoroughfares, 

 which through disuse have become seeded 

 with sweet clover, both white and yel- 

 low, making an aggregate of hundreds 

 of acres between Albany and Syracuse, 

 and I found that bee-keepers in this belt 

 were invariably securing larger returns 

 from their apiaries than any in sections 

 not covered with this plant. 



Right in the city of Syracuse are a 

 number of large apiaries which are mak- 

 ing almost phenomenal records which I 

 attribute almost entirely to sweet clover 

 which is scattered all around the city on 

 vacant lots, parks and street ways. One 

 instance I may mention was the case of 

 Mr. F. A. Salisbury, who showed me 

 hives from which he stated he had taken 

 an average of 266 pounds of box honey 

 during the past season. 



I think that the same condition exists 

 in some of the suburbs of Chicago, and 

 if so I am led to ask why we do not 

 hear more about the value of this plant? 

 Is it because those who have it and know 

 its great value wish to keep "mum" and 

 profit by their knowledge rather than 

 publish it to the world? 



I. for one, shall be pleased to hear 

 from any person who is in position to 

 say anythin.g either for or against it. 



Factorvville, Pa. 



Comments On Several Topics 



BY HARRY LATHROr. 



My bee-keeping life has been spent 

 entirely in the great white clover belt 

 of Southern Wisconsin, and of course 

 I look at bee-keeping from a different 

 point of view from some whose fields 

 and resources are far different. 



^fy advantages are an unlimited field 

 during good seasons, a grade of honey 

 that is the standard for the whole 

 world, and record yields during good 

 seasons. My disadvantages are crop 

 failures, owing to the occasional failure 

 of the white clover crop, and a climate 

 in which it is necessary to house or 

 otherwise protect bees in winter. These 

 two objections have, I believe, pre- 

 vented a great many from going into 

 the business of bee-keeping in this part 

 of the country. 



It requires years of study to be able 

 to contend with the conditions, and 

 work bees here at a minimum of ex- 

 pense and obtain the maximum of yield. 



I have two yards at present — one on 

 a strictly clover location, and the other 

 here on the Wisconsin river where there 

 is the chance of an occasional crop of 

 very nice fall honey. 



This year C1908) after the white hon- 

 ey was all through, I secured 2000 

 pounds of buckwheat, golden-rod blend 

 that is about as nice as any good maple 

 syrup for pan-cakes. I always ask the 

 same price for such honey that I do 

 for the best white clover and basswood, 

 as there are some who prefer it. I 

 also find that the amber honey of this 

 rcf^ion makes good winter stores, be- 

 ing, as a rule, well ripened by the close 

 of the season. 



Late Extracting of Honey. 



The dark honey mentioned above was 

 not removed from the hives until it 

 was too late to extract without artificial 

 heat. I have a small building that I 



use as an extracting room. I would 

 carry in enough combs for an even- 

 ing's work, start a fire in a cheap sheet- 

 iron stove of the air-tight variety, and 

 by 8 o'clock, when I am through with 

 my other work, the honey would be 

 nicely warmed through. I would then 

 extract, sometimes as late as midnight. 

 I have had no trouble to extract honey 

 even in winter by using proper heat, but 

 I would not want to depend upon any 

 sort of an oil-stove. I use a capping 

 melter run with a common gasoline jet, 

 and it does the work in such a satis- 

 factory manner that I will probably 

 never go back to the fussy plan of 

 keeping a lot of cappings on hand to 

 drain out and take up room until ren- 

 dered by the usual process. 



Rendering Combs Into Beeswax. 



I never learned anything about wax- 

 rendering until the last year. My wife 

 always made the wax on an old cook- 

 stove, using a common wash-boiler. I 

 think she got at least two-thirds of the 

 wax, and tlie balance was lost. But we 

 live to learn, and so one day I shut 

 myself up in the little shop and melted 

 up a lot of combs and scraps, using my 

 new Hatch-Gemmill press. Now I know 

 how to render and get it all, except, 

 perhaps, a very small percent. It is not 

 hard to learn. You want a warm room, 

 plenty of hot water, and some nice, 

 loose-woven burlaps for making the 

 cheese in. However, I have not yet 

 learned how to refine wax so as to get 

 large cakes of the pure stuff. I sup- 

 pose the comb foundation makers have 

 very good facilities for this purpose, 

 and I have been sending them some 

 of my wax in the rough and letting 

 them refine it. It is a safe thing to do 

 when you are dealing with such honest, 

 faithful men as we have in that line of 

 business. 



I would like to see an article on re- 

 fining wax, by some one who has the 

 thing down to a fine point. I think 

 probably Mr. C. A. Hatch could make 

 the matter clear, and no doubt there are 

 many who would like to have Iiis in- 

 structions. If I were to make a guess 

 at what would be a good inethod, I 

 would say, re-heat the wax that comes 

 from the press or from the solar ex- 

 tractor, in deep cans or pails; allow it 

 to stand quietly in a melted condition, 

 and dip off the top into clean moulds. 

 Put in more unrefined wax, heat up 

 and dip again. Am I correct? 



My Ijees_ went into winter quarters 

 much heavier in stores than last year. 

 The few light ones were set to one 

 side in the cellars and I will place on 

 them supers containing some No. 2 sec- 

 tion honey. That is about all the use 

 I have for sections. 



Retail Prices for Honey — A Rap at 

 Glucose. 

 At one time I made a specialty of 

 fancy comb honey, but of late I always 

 think it is produced only at a loss here. 

 The trouble is that the price of comb 

 honey is down so near what I can get 

 for good extracted honey in pails that 

 it doesn't pay to bother with it. My 

 principal package is the lo-pound pail, 

 which I sell at one dollar, and "Jones," 

 or whoever else buys the honey, "pays 

 the freight." My wholesale price for 



