THE AMERICAN APICULTXjRIST. 



287 



ITEMS OF I^' IE RE ST. 



In an article on preparing bees- 

 wax for the market an English writer 

 says the great secret of having a 

 nice-looking product lies in the melt- 

 ing of it. He states that direct heat 

 must not be applied, but that a 

 water-bath furnishes all that is de- 

 sired. To clear the melted wax and 

 throw down any little particles of 

 dross that may be present, he added 

 one drop of sulphuric acid to every 

 fifteen pounds. It will be well for 

 our readers to remember the impor- 

 tance of the water-bath in making 

 cerates that contain beeswax. The 

 writer states that glucose, flavored 

 with oil of rose, is sold for honey, 

 and a mixture of earth, wax and par- 

 affin, perfumed with oil of citronelle, 

 is labelled "pure beeswax" and 

 placed upon the market. — Exchange. 



Mr. Charles Faust, Harvard, 111., 

 says, that melilot or sweet clover grows 

 along the highway in his vicinity, and 

 farmers, fearing that it will spread and 

 make them trouble, are cutting it down 

 before it blossoms. Mr. F. says that 

 where sweet clover does not grow, rag 

 or mayweed, which he thinks causes 

 hay fever, will be found. While I 

 have no knowledge on this last point, 

 I do know, having grown sweet 

 clover for several years, that it is beau- 

 tiful, both in foliage and blossom. It 

 is much superior as an adornment of 

 the roadside to either rag or may- 

 weed. It is a most excellent honey 

 plant, comparable to Avhite and alsike 

 clover, or to basswood in value. It 

 is slow to expand and in meadow and 

 pasture is soon choked out by our 

 cultivated grasses. When once in 

 possession of a spot, it is easy to ex- 

 tirpate it if it is desired to do so. As 

 is well known, sweet clover is a bi- 

 ennial and so must come from the 

 seed once every two years. The 

 plants grow from seed one year, and 

 the next year blossom and die. Thus 

 we have only to cut the plants while 



in bloom before the seed matures to 

 extirpate the plants in toto. Two 

 such cuttings in adjacent years will 

 do the work most thoroughly. In 

 view of all these facts we can hardly 

 find a more safe and valuable plant 

 for waste places, and for roadside 

 planting. Farmers should encourage 

 its growth both for its beauty and 

 worth. 



The North American Beekeepers' 

 Society has a nie.i bership of one liun- 

 di-ed and twenty-i.ve, and it repre- 

 sents a territory in which more than 

 300,000 people Iveep bees, the annual 

 honey production of wliich amounts 

 to more than 100,000,000 pounds with 

 a value of §5,000,000. 



If you want tlie best bee-book ex- 

 taut send one dollar and ten cents 

 and get a copy of the Third Editiox 



OF THE BeKKKKPERS' HaNDY BoOK, 



ou Twenty-two Years' Experience 

 IX Queen-rearing. Tl'e autlior of 

 this work has had nearly thirty years' 

 experience in queen-rearinir, and has 

 probably reared more queens than any 

 person living. 



It is a fact, though perhaps it should 

 not be staled under the above headmg, 

 as it is not at all interesting, that 

 honey never sold at such low prices as 

 it does the present season. 



Hemedy. Do not ship lioney to com- 

 mission houses to be sold at any price 

 a buyer sees fit to ofl'er. 



November second was a fine, warm 

 day, the first clear one after about eight 

 days of rainy weather. While in the 

 bee yard, we saw an Italian bee trying 

 to sip honey from a lieadof red clover, 

 a remarkable circumstance for the 

 season. Since then, a friend who lives 

 in another part of Wenluun lias in- 

 formed me that, on Nov. 4, while pass- 

 ing through one of his fields, he heard 

 considerable humming of bees and 

 found a large number of them at work 

 on wliat we call here " wild mustard" 

 or cliarlock {Eaphanus raphanistrum), 

 a very pernicious weed among grain. 

 The bees seemed to be gathering pol- 

 len mostly. 



