THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



409 



Read iit the Rhode Iflund t'onvenlion. 



Alsike ClOYer, Honey Ripening, etc, 



SAJIUEL CUSHMAN. 



All writers for agricultural and bee 

 papers asree as to the superior quali- 

 ties of Alsike over other clovers for 

 pasturage or honey, having tine stalks 

 and little woody libre it is eaten clean 

 by all stock and yields heavily, often 

 producing three tons of good hay per 

 acre. It is said as a fertilizer for 

 land it has no superior if an equal. 

 While it pays well as a farm crop, it 

 is also our best crop for honey, and 

 all bee-keepers recommend it in the 

 highest terms, as will be seen by read- 

 ing the reports of all the bee-keepers' 

 conventions held last winter. It is 

 claimed that as great yields may be 

 obtained from it as from basswood, 

 and the quality of honey much 

 superior. 



J. M. Hicks, of Battle Ground, Ind., 

 says in a late article in the Canadian 

 Bee Journal: " We have no hesitancy 

 in saying that Alsike clover will pro- 

 duce 500 pounds of the richest and 

 best honey per acre in a good season." 

 As a seed crop it pays well, the seed 

 bringing from $0 toSV per bushel, and 

 an acre frequently yields 4 bushels of 

 seed. Mr. C. ^l. Goodspeed, of Thorn 

 Hill, N. Y.. gives the net profit on 

 his crop as 560 per acre, and speaks 

 of the hay as the best he ever fed. 



If the bee-keepers of Rhode Island 

 are to supply the State they will have 

 to offer something better than dark 

 honey, and if each one will distribute 

 among his neighbors every spring a 

 bushel or two of this clover, I believe 

 we would soon be able to compete 

 with any honey in the country, and 

 to keep 100 colonies with profit in the 

 same area that now supports but ten. 

 Vermont produced IfciO tons, and 

 Maine 192 tons of honey the past sea- 

 son, and much of it was from clover. 



Alsike clover does best on clay or 

 wet land, and is sometimes unsatis- 

 factory on dry or light soil. It is said 

 to be hardy, and does not easily win- 

 ter-kill. From I to 6 pounds are sown 

 per acre. Part of the piece can be 

 mowed before it blossoms, and fed to 

 stock. It will then blossom late after 

 the usual bloom is over. From this 

 it would be seen that by a compara- 

 tively small outlay we will get it back 

 a hundred fold, besides benefitting 

 the parties who raise the crop. 



The poison of the bee is found to be 

 mostly formic acid, which we are 

 told is a great preservative, and that 

 the raw nectar of flowers, mostly nat- 

 ural sugar and water by evaporation, 

 and the addition of this acid by the 

 bees is changed to the smooth, mellow 

 sweet known as honey. A plentiful 

 supply of this acid is necessary or the 

 change will be slow and imperfect 

 It is also said that bees are able to 

 cure foul brood and similar diseases 

 by its use. 



Now it is not proven that a gentle 

 bee has a deficient secretion of formic 

 acid, or that bees that sting readily 

 have any more; but until we know 

 more about it, I shall favor this view, 

 and shall not object to stinging bees 



as long as I am able to protect myself 

 from their venom when they are dis- 

 turbed. 



Much honey is capped that is not 

 ripe, and is sold in that shape ; but it 

 is much oftener the case with ex- 

 tracted honey. Evaporation may 

 thicken, but I cannot believe it will 

 ripen it. When working for comb 

 honey I shall depend upon hybrids, 

 but if working for extracted honey or 

 keeping bees for pleasure, I should 

 keep pure Italians. 



Pawtucket,5 K- 1- 



For tne American B,;e Jonrnau 



Inyentions— "Axesto(jM"etc. 



JA3IES HEDDON. 



Number 25 has just been laid upon 

 my desk. Seeing the name of 0. W. 

 Dayton (who wrote an article in last 

 Gleanings relative to the rights of 

 bee-keepers, which I should like to 

 see copied into the Ajieuican Bee 

 Jouknal), I at once read the article 

 which relates to my favorite branch 

 of apiculture, — hive-construction. 

 While from my stand-point I do not 

 conceive that the arrangement he 

 describes is at all practical, that it 

 will ever meet the wants of producers 

 of honey, yet I am conscious that I 

 may be in error, and I am glad to 

 learn that Mr. D. recognizes his right 

 to the results of his labors, prove 

 they more or less. 



But I wish to take issue with him 

 in regard to the " ax to grind " state- 

 ment, found near the close of his 

 article. I do not see why he should 

 acknowledge any such motive. If he 

 wrote for the purpose of extolling the 

 merits of the manufacture described, 

 with a pecuniary end in view, I 

 should call that " an ax to grind," but 

 simply because he is the inventor and 

 patentee of what he believes to be an 

 improvement in one art, does that 

 rightfully exclude him from giving 

 his best thoughts to us V We want 

 the best he knows. We acknowledge 

 his right to the patent, and we ex- 

 pect nothing else than that he would 

 patent the result of his best thoughts. 



One editor complained that my 

 book was too much like an advertise- 

 ment ; that it described and extolled 

 one hive, and that was the one I used; 

 one I had invented and patented. 

 Well, is that strange V I know that 

 some other books illustrate and de- 

 scribe numerous hives, and rather 

 leave the reader to " choose ye" — 

 partly in the dark, not only as to 

 which might be the best hive, but 

 even which the writer thinks is best. 

 As I stated in the introduction to my 

 book, I wrote it from my own stand- 

 point of 18 years' experience as a 

 specialist ; not to take the place of 

 any other work, but merely to supple- 

 ment the several good books already 

 out. 



Should I write a book and omit the 

 most important branch of the indus- 

 try ; the one which I had made a 

 special study — the hive V Surely not. 

 Well, as I desired to make the work as 

 short concise and cheap as possible, 



should I have described a lot of hives 

 I considered inferior V If so, should 

 I have stated that I so considered 

 them y What would the gentleman 

 have said then V Have I not the same 

 right and duty before me to state my 

 choice in hives as well as queen-cages 

 or methods of preventing after- 

 swarms V 



If I do place before the reader what 

 I claim to be the best hive, should not 

 that claim accord with my honest 

 belief V Would 1 patent a hive which 

 I thought inferior, and thus inien- 

 tionally throw away my time jurl 

 money ? If I sell a hive should I not 

 sell the one I thought valuable enough 

 to patent and use ? Should I pat- 

 ent and use one and sell another y I 

 thought, and still more firmly believe 

 that niv new hive is the best bee-hive 

 ever used. If I had not, I should 

 never have patented it. 



Will some one please tell me what 

 I should have done about the hive- 

 matter when writing a book, the in- 

 spiring motive of which undertaking 

 was to describe implements and 

 methods that would prove a help to 

 the reader, more and more practical 

 as time rolled along, and do honor to 

 the writer V 



I wrote this argument in reply to 

 the unjust editorial, but it was re- 

 fused a place where the readers of the 

 former could see it. I hope that some 

 who read that will also read this arti- 

 cle. The charge was utterly ill- 

 founded, and very easily proven so, 

 but I could not be heard. 



I desire to say that the AMEiacAN 

 Bee Journal is the only paper in 

 which I have always been allowed the 

 rights that I thought belonged to me 

 — the only place where I could hold a 

 successful controversy with the editor 

 when I had the right on my side, and 

 the ability to prove it. I am by no 

 means the only complainant. It is 

 but just to add that in late years 

 Gleanings h-As done me justice. Let 

 us be honest, fair and just. Let us 

 be friendly, and be very careful of 

 how we allow jealorsy to warp our 

 judgment. We can be plain, bold 

 and vigorous in our discussions of 

 important principles, and yet not be 

 false to ourselves or others. To claim 

 as our own that which we know be- 

 longs to another, to impute false 

 motives to another, are all soul-stains 

 that are not good to sleep with. 



Dowagiac, P Mich. 



For ttie American Bee Joumai. 



SeasonaWe SiMestions, 



II. o. keuschke. 



We have bee-associations without 

 number, and although it is a good 

 thing to commune with the fraternity, 

 I would like something more practi- 

 cal ; something that will yield dollars 

 and cents. Let us make up and offer 

 large prizes for information that will 

 create a greater demand for honey ; 

 apply it to various uses for which it is 

 not. now employed. Would it not be 

 good if a drink was made that would 

 be as freely drank as lemonade V It 



