292 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 14, 



large markets, would do well to give 

 us the desired information. 



Another important factor to accom- 

 plish success, is, accurate and reliable 

 statistical reports regarding the yield 

 of both comb and extracted honey 

 from all the States, in time for Sep- 

 tember journals, at the latest. In 

 this, a weekly journal can be of much 

 value, as we might obtain the desired 

 information in many instances, in 

 time to accept or refuse an open offer. 



At the coming Convention of our 

 North American Society, I trust they 

 will take this question into consider- 

 ation, discuss it thoroughly, and take 

 immediate action on the conclusions- 

 arrived at. I know of but one way to 

 accomplish the desired object, and 

 that is through our National Society. 

 The President should appoint en- 

 ergetic Vice Presidents for every 

 State. They in turn shall demand of 

 each and every Secretary of the dif- 

 ferent Associations within his State, 

 to collect the correct reports of the 

 yield within his territory ; to report 

 the same to the Vice President, who 

 shall report to the Secretary of the 

 National Association, and he be re- 

 quired to cause the same to be pub- 

 lished in all the journals, no later than 

 Sept. 1. There should also be a unity 

 of action in all our Slate and local As- 

 sociations. They should instruct their 

 members to report to th'eir Secreta- 

 ries, promptly and accurately. We 

 must have co-operation if we wish to 

 promote and protect our interests. 

 and compete with other branches of 

 industry. 



Fayetteville, N. Y. Aug. 20, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Rocky Mountain Bee Plant— Cleome. 



T. J. DODDS. 



Dr. Keene, in the Bee Journal for 

 August, asks for information as to the 

 best plan of raising this plant. Your 

 note in answer thereto is good, but not 

 correct. Here, in the streets of Le- 

 Claire. Scott county, Iowa, the plant 

 is growing in all its splendor, and has 

 been for several years past. In quan- 

 tity and area of occupation it is rapidly 

 on the increase, and in appearance it 

 is indeed beautiful and pleasing to the 

 eye. Its ad vent here was in this wise: 

 A returned prospector from Montana, 

 some 12 years ago, brought a few seeds 

 and presented them to our now worthy 

 Mayor, It. A. Edwards, as the seed of 

 a beautiful flowering shrub. These 

 were planted and carefully nursed un- 

 til the second season, when they blos- 

 somed beautifully, but their peculiarly 

 offensive odor made them objectiona- 

 ble, and they were plucked up and 

 thrown into the streets. But like 

 Banquo's Ghost, they " would not 

 down." The seeds, carried by the 

 winds and wash of the streets in all 

 directions, took root and prospered, 

 and to-day the sides of our not-much 

 traveled streets are adorned with the 

 bee plant in luxuriant and abundant 

 growth— a great improvement on fen- 

 nel, jimson and ragweed. 



All that Dr. Keene says about it as 

 to its honey-producing qualities is cor- 

 rect, as is fully demonstrated here by 

 the constant appearance of the honey 

 bee from morn till high noon. 



Its habitat is clay, gravel, rock and 

 limestone. Our river bluffs are car- 

 bonate and magnesian limestone, our 

 streets and gutters are Macadamized 

 and paved with this stone, and in this 

 the bee plant finds its most attractive 

 home. Hundreds of plants can be 

 counted in sight by the writer of this, 

 that will measure 5 feet in circumfer- 

 ence and 5 feet in height ; how is that 

 for your 30-inch drills and 6 inches 

 apart r Before commencing this arti- 

 cle, through curiosity and to be able 

 to speak from actual knowledge, I 

 went across the streetand counted the 

 pods on one stalk alone out of hun- 

 dreds of the same kind all around. 

 They numbered 272; the space occu- 

 pied was 5 10-12 ft., height 5 8-12 feet, 

 circumference of stalk iy inches. No 

 rain here for nearly 3 months, yet they 

 are green, luxuriant and beautiful. 



No animal will touch them, and they 

 outgrow everything they come in con- 

 tact with, thus proving the " survival 

 of the fittest. 1 ' Sow the seed any- 

 where — among rocks, on craggy hill- 

 sides, along the highways, in fence 

 corners where nothing useful will 

 grow, and where the winds and rains 

 will spread them, and in a few years 

 your waste places will prove attractive 

 to the eye, and yield abundance of 

 sweets for the table. 

 LeClaire, Iowa, Sept. 1, 1881. 



[Mr. Dodds has our thanks for his 

 very interesting article, which our 

 readers will appreciate. We have 

 never seen it growing so luxuriantly 

 as he describes ; but if we had, we 

 would not modify our advice regard- 

 ing planting distance in the drills, as 

 not every seed sown will grow, nor 

 will the majority. -It is much easier 

 to cut out a stalk here and there, if 

 necessary, than to replant.— Ed.] 



Western Stock Journal. 



Management for September. 



o. CLUTE. 



The long continued drouth has, in 

 some sections, cut off all hope of a 

 fall honey harvest. During the last 

 of August bees should be gathering 

 honey rapidly from buckwheat, hearts- 

 ease, Spanish needle, golden rod, as- 

 ters, etc. But this year the dry weather 

 has cut off most of these flowers so 

 badly that the bloom is very light, and 

 but little honey is coming in. Some 

 of the hives are storing a small amount 

 of surplus ; others are getting scarcely 

 more than is needed for brood rearing. 



Probably the most profitable thing 

 for every bee-keeper, is to see that his 

 hives are now put in good condition 

 for winter. 



1. See to it that there is plenty of 

 honey in the brood chamber for the 

 bees to winter on. About 25 lbs. is 

 the amount needed. This should be 

 good sealed honey. 



2. Contract the hives to 8 frames, 

 and put in the division boards. This 

 gives smaller space for the bees to 

 keep warm during the winter. 



3. Have the covering of the frames 

 fit close and tight, so that there are no 

 currents of air passing upward through 

 the hive. 



4. It is a good plan to cut a winter 

 passage through the combs, about 2 

 inches below the top bar. A hole half 

 an inch in diameter will do. This 

 gives the bees a passage from comb 

 to comb, without going around the 

 side of the frame. Hence in cold 

 weather, when the bees are closely 

 clustered between the combs, they 

 can go from comb to comb through 

 these passages, and so reach honey 

 which would otherwise be inaccessi- 

 ble. Two small strips, a foot long, 

 li an inch wide, and i 4 ' of an inch 

 thick, laid % an incli apart across the 

 tops of the combs, will answer the 

 same purpose. 



The bees that live over winter and 

 start work in the hive early in the 

 spring, are the young bees that are 

 hatched in the fall. Now if no honey 

 is comine induringthe fall, the queens 

 stop laying, brood rearing ceases early, 

 and the bees go into winter quarters 

 with none but old bees in the hive. 

 These naturally die off during the win- 

 ter, or in early spring, before young 

 bees are reared in their places. This 

 is one of the causes of much of the 

 disaster in wintering. The remedy is 

 to feed the hives a small amount each 

 day for two or three weeks after honey 

 gathering ceases. They can be fed at 

 night, by putting the feeders into the 

 rear end, or into the top of the hives. 

 Two ounces of sugar made into a thin 

 syrup and fed to each hive daily until 

 after Oct. 1, will insure a good quan- 

 tity of young bees in each hive. 



With plenty of honey, plenty of 

 young bees, and a small warm hive, 

 the bees are in a good condition to 

 withstand the most rigorous winter. 



It is a good plan to provide now for 

 doing good work with the bees another 



year. To this end the bees should be 

 Italianized. Those who have already 

 Italian bees can testify to the supe- 

 riority of this breed. Those who have 

 black bees should now prepare to Ital- 

 ianize next summer. 



One method of Italianizing is to buy 

 of a queen breeder a fertilized queen 

 for each hive, and introduce her. As 

 soon as she is accepted the work is 

 done. All bees produced from her 

 eggs will be Italians. Soon all the 

 old bees will die off, and the young 

 yellow-backs will take their places. 

 But this method is somewhat expen- 

 sive, and we do not advise it. It is 

 much cheaper, and wiser, for the bee- 

 keeper to buy 1 good Italian queen, 

 introduce her now to a good colony of 

 bees, and then another year grow 

 queens from her eggs for all his hives. 

 Of course the queen can be bought 

 next spring, but often it is not so easy 

 to get them in the spring. Moreover, 

 as they cannot be sent out by mail or 

 express until the weather is some- 

 what warm ; your operations in queen- 

 rearing in the spring will be some- 

 what retarded. 



To buy an imported Italian queen 

 from a reliable importer is a good way 

 to begin. In our apiary we have 2 

 queens of Dadant's importation. One 

 was bought in 1880, for which 88.00 

 was paid ; and one bought in June, of 

 this year, for which $4.00 was paid. 

 Prom these queens and their progeny 

 we have reared all our queens. 



But it is hardly necessary now to 

 get an imported queen. The Italians 

 that have been carefully bred in 

 America, are fully equal to their an- 

 cestors in Italy. A good, home-bred 

 Italian queen will Italianize an apiary 

 just as well as an imported one, and 

 can usually be bought for about half 

 the cost of an imported one. Good 

 tested, home-bred Italians can be 

 bought at from $2.00 to $3.00. Un- 

 tested queens can be bought for some- 

 what less. 



Having got your queen, whether 

 imported or home-bred, put her in a 

 small wire-cloth cage, made by roll- 

 ing up a small piece of wire cloth 

 about 4 inches long, and putting a 

 plug into each end. A short piece of 

 corn-cob makes a good plug. Put the 

 queen in the cage, then select the hive 

 in which you desire to put her, smoke 

 it, open it, blow smoke on the tops of 

 the frames if you are much afraid. 

 But it is best not to smoke much, for 

 it makes the queen hide. Then lift 

 out the frames one by one, and exam- 

 ine each for the queen. If not on the 

 frame, set it in an empty hive at one 

 side, and go on to the next, and so on 

 until the queen is found. When found, 

 kill her. Then put your Italian queen 

 between two combs, pressing them 

 against the cage, so as to hold it in 

 place. Shut the hive and let it stay 

 shut for 48 hours. Then open, smear 

 the cage with honey, take out one of 

 the plugs and smear honey on the 

 open end of the cage ; set the honey 

 running by drawing a knife over the 

 honey near the cage. The queen will 

 come out, and the bees, busy with 

 honey, will accept her for their queen. 

 Often the introduction can be made 

 in 24 hours, and without so much 

 trouble to smear with honey. But for 

 a beginner the course here recom- 

 mended is safer. 



Iowa City, Iowa. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Ants in the Apiary. 



A. B. MCLAVY. 



The remedy I use strikes at the 

 root of the trouble, and if persisted 

 in for a short time, will effectually re- 

 move them. 



First, with a weeding hoe clear the 

 ground in and around the yard of 

 weeds and tufts of grass ; now, in a 

 day or two, the ants will have estab- 

 lished a trail from their beds to the 

 hives. By this means you can readily 

 trace them home. Now to a five gal- 

 lon can of water, add say, 10 ounces of 

 cyanide of potassium ; 'let it dissolve. 

 Now with a trowel dig gently in the 



ant-bed until you find the nest, which 

 will be known by the white eggs. 

 Then pour on your water, and make 

 the dirt into a thin mud, right in the 

 nest, and pour the water on plenti- 

 fully, so as to effectually poison the 

 very earth. By this means you dis- 

 pose of ants and queen ant, and unlit 

 the larvae for reproduction. You may 

 miss destroying it the first trial, but 

 you will eventually clean them up. 

 Keep the cyanide of potash out of 

 reach of children, as it is a violent 

 poison. It retails at the drug stores 

 for about SI per lb. 



I would thank you to tell me why a 

 young queen which has 2 or 3 combs 

 of brood, with the combs built from 

 worker foundation, lays drone eggs 

 here and there in the brood nest, right 

 among the worker cells. I have one 

 which has some 13 drone cells capped 

 in the worker comb. She seems to be 

 prolific, and her bees are nice work- 

 ers. They do not seem to have bar- 

 gained for the drones, as I found one, 

 upon lifting the frame out, tugging 

 manfully at one poor drone which was 

 not capped, and, as I lifted the comb 

 clear of the hive, off it went with its 

 load. 



Allow me to express my own thanks 

 (with those of others), to Prof. Cook, 

 for his valuable contributions to your 

 columns. They are always to the 

 point, and invaluable to the bee- 

 keeper. I wish the Bee Journal 

 wealth and prosperity. 



Bastrop, Texas. 



[The laying of drone eggs in worker 

 cells is of frequent occurrence, espe- 

 cially with queens that are tardy in 

 mating.— Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Improving Honey Plants. 



D. K. BOUTELLE. 



For several years past, much has 

 been said in the bee-papers in rela- 

 tion to securing honey from red clo- 

 ver. Some have proposed lengthen- 

 ing the tongues of the bees, while 

 others have talked about shortening 

 the corollas of the clover. In the last 

 weeks' Bee Journal, Mr. Dadant 

 recommends going at the business 

 "both ways." That is it exactly; 

 breed both ways. I now have a recol- 

 lection which may possibly throw a 

 ray of light in the clover direction. 



From some .50 to 60 years ago, when 

 a boy, my home was at Westminster, 

 Vt.,'by the banks of the Connecticut 

 river. I remember that the farmers 

 in that vicinity used to raise a kind 

 of red clover known as the "Darby 

 clover," sometimes called " early clo- 

 ver." They liked it, they said, for 

 these reasons : 



1. The straw being finer than the 

 old or large clover, made better hay 

 for stock. 



2. It was ready to cut two weeks 

 earlier. 



3. By giving it a sprinkle of plaster 

 of Paris, they got a good second crop. 



I remember, too, that it was said to 

 have been obtained by a man by the 

 name of Darby, by selecting the earli- 

 est, smallest heads, and then from clo- 

 ver grown from the seed of these, se- 

 lecting the earliest and smallestagain, 

 and continuing to do so several times. 

 I remember that they got heavy crops 

 of this kind. 



Now if such a clover can be very 

 generally raised, with equal or greater 

 profit to the farmers than the coarser 

 kind, and have it bloom two weeks 

 earlier than the white, and then get a 

 second bloom after the white has 

 passed, and have the bees breed up, 

 and the clover down until they match, 

 it would be a nice arrangement. 



I have little, or no doubt it may be 

 accomplished. It is probable then, 

 that the clover, if put on rich soils, 

 may tend to a reversion towards its 

 former large size ; but an occasional 

 selection of the smallest may be made 

 so as to keep it down, and so of the 

 bees to keep them up in size and 

 length of tongues. Let it be tried. 



Lake City Minn., Sept. 3, 1881. 



