THE AMEBIC AN APICULTURIST. 



35 



tiful sunshine and of flowers ; the 

 speech of the drone lover is coarse 

 and uncouth beside it. Their 

 trysting place is upon the balmy 

 breeze, and never was a lover en- 

 ticQd by a more siren tongue, for 

 one embrace of that beautiful form 

 leaves our rash lover in the throes 

 of death. 



Should our queen and her sub- 

 jects decide upon an expedition to 

 foreign parts, the settlement of a 

 new country, and the building up 

 of a new empire, how proudly she 

 marches forth ! how loudly she 

 calls the roaring, shouting thou- 

 sands around her in mid-air, as 

 with huzzahs they charge across 

 the plain ! 



The public speeches of our queen, 

 like the ro^^alty of England, are 

 only upon great occasions ; but of 

 the private speeches, who knows 

 anything about them ? In the cen- 

 tre of that mysterious realm, either 

 at rest or at her arduous household 

 duties, surrounded by faithful sub- 

 jects who attend to her every want, 

 who feed her when hungry, who 

 defend her when in danger, who 

 embrace her in crowds when cold, 

 — is there no speech so low that it 

 is not understood by her subjects 

 but which cannot reach the human 

 ear. The microphone tells us that 

 the common fly trumpets for its 

 mate ; why may not our queen 

 have a similar way of expressing 

 her needs? 



Let us then stud}^ the speeches 

 of our queen ; perhaps we shall 

 find more in them than the mind 

 of man has ever dreamed. 



Hartford, N. F., May 14, 1883. 



ARTIFICIAL PASTURAGE 

 FOR BEES. 



By C. M. Woolver. 



Beekeepers who are perma- 

 nently located are seeing the need, 

 more especially with each unproduc- 

 tive year, of furnishing their bees 

 with artificial pasturage. Their 

 first inquiry is, What shall I plant 

 or sow that will make up for the 

 loss in poor seasons ? For a mod- 

 erate and continuous flow of nectar, 

 I would suggest catnip, motherwort 

 and other plants that bloom for 

 long periods. But for a flow of 

 nectar as large as or larger than that 

 Avhich the basswood tree furnishes, 

 Alsyke clover takes the lead. It 

 should be sown every year ; it gives 

 its largest yield of nectar the 

 second year, and to get the best 

 results the apiarist should have a 

 crop in its prime for every year. 

 As it comes in bloom in advance 

 of basswood, it does not interfere 

 with that crop. While it is a pay- 

 ing crop for honey, it pays quite 

 well for a seed crop, and after the 

 seed is taken out it is very good 

 fodder for stock. 



The season of 1881 1 had twenty- 

 seven colonies of bees that had 

 access to eighteen acres of Alsyke 

 clover. I extracted over 150 lbs. 

 per colony before basswood came 

 in bloom, which was superior to 

 basswood honey. The clover was 

 threshed and the yield of seed was 

 over four bushels per acre. 



Richfield Spa, N. Y., 

 April 16, 1883. 



