THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



579 



^^MEMIO^j^^^^ 



BuJteBiu 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Vol, nil, SeDt,15,188e. No,37. 



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TVIiat the Bees Sing.— In that excellent 

 monthly, Viek's niustrated Magazine, M. E. 

 Whittemore gives the following- as a reply 

 to the question : 



The bees are ever busy. 

 They work the whole day long. 

 Humming often to themselves 

 This sott, low, happy song- : 



" We gather from the flowers 

 Sweet honej' as we fly, 

 And store away this treasure 

 For winter by and bye. 



" We work for one another, 

 Nor leave our task undone. 

 But toil from early morning 

 Until the evening sun." 



Let us then learn the lesson, 

 Fill each hour of the day 

 With kindly words and actions, 

 While passing on our way. 



Bees are at Work now on the bloom 



which has resulted from the late rains. 



Sireet Clover — Concerning this excel- 

 lent honey-plant, Prof. Cook, in the Prairie 

 Farmer, remarks as follows : 



Having grown sweet clover for several 

 years I know that it is beautiful, both in 

 foliafre 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 white and Alsike 

 clover, or tobasswoodin 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 extirpate it if it is desired to do so. As is 

 well known, sweet clover is a biennial, and 

 so must come from the seed once every two 

 years. The plants growtrom 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 i)i 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 seed will grow if planted at any sea- 

 son of the year, but if sown early in the fall, 

 it will come up this year, and bloom next 

 year. Or It can be sown later, even on the 

 snow in winter, and will thrive and do well. 



Tlie llliuoiK St;ite Fair Is over. It was 

 a flne show of almost everything except 

 bees and honey. Of bees there were none 

 on exhibition ; a fine opportunity was lost 

 to bring honey prominently before the many 

 thousands of visitors to the Fair. 



Of honey there were only four entries. 

 Mr. J. V. Caldwell, of Cambridge, Ills., had 

 10 crates of 1-pound sections of nice comb 

 honey, which took the first prize, S8. Mr. 

 H. S. Hackman, of Peru, Ills., had .5 crates 

 of 1-pound sections (two tiers in a orate), and 

 4 crates of 2-pound sections of honey ; this 

 took the second prize. Mr. Hackman also 

 exhibited 18 glass jars of honey ; this took 

 the first prize on extracted honey. This was 

 all the exhibits except a box, 1 loot square, 

 containing 5 frames, with combs built in 

 every direction— a disgrace to the intelli- 

 gence of the mth century, and an insult to 

 the Illinois State Fair. 



When prizes are offered, space provided, 

 and an invitation given to bee-keepers to 

 make an exhibit of bees and honey, and still 

 no more than the above named are entered 

 for exhibition, what premiums can we ex- 

 pect in the future ? There should have 

 been ten thousand pounds of honey on 

 exhibition, at least ; and a good bee-show 

 besides. The publishers of the Bee Jour- 

 nal, made no display on account of the 

 editor having been appointed a judge, and 

 to encourage producers of honey to make a 

 good exhibit ; but we think it will be differ- 

 ent another year. 



Bees an Ifllsnioiiarlew.— One of our ex- 

 changes makes these very sensible remarks 

 concerning the " mission of bees" in nature, 

 and the value of bees to the various 

 branches of horticulture: 



The bee is almnst as much a part of choice 

 fruit and beautiful flowers as the branches 

 upon which they grow. The flower with its 

 honey and the bee are factors in one of 

 nature's most beautiful and interesting 

 problems, and through the intricate work- 

 ings of this problem are born the brightest 

 colors, finest perfumes and richest flavors 

 Countless flowers are fertilized by the bee. 

 which would otherwise perish from the 

 earth ; but it does more than this, it carries 

 pollen of self-fertilizing plants from flower 

 to Hower, thus preventing constantin-breed- 

 ing and consequent deterioration. In fact 

 the bee is nature's protest against incest: 

 and by resultant products of superior beauty 

 and flavor, when the protest is heeded, 

 teaches a powerful lesson on the great sub- 

 ject of the proper and healthful propagation 

 of species. Where bees are not. fruit and 

 flower show the effect of a violation of a law 

 of nature by slowly butsurelv degenerating. 

 The bee is as necessary to the flower as the 

 flower to the bee : inconjiinction a harmonj- 

 is produced which results in more brilliant 

 colors, in sweeter flavors and richer per 

 fumes to regale the senses of man. 



Teasel. — Many inquiries are made re- 

 garding this plant, and in order to answer 

 them all at once we will state some facts 

 concerning it. The fuller's teasel (DipsacKS 

 fullerorlum) is used in fulling cloth, and the 

 heads may be seen in woolen mills arranged 

 on the surface of large cylinders, over 

 which the cloth passes. Wild teasel (Dipsa- 

 CHS sylvestris) is a troublesome weed in some 

 localities, and tnay be recognized by the 

 following characteristics : 



It is a biennial herb, stout and coarse, 

 growing from the seed the first year without 

 flowers, the root living over winter, produc- 

 ing flowers and seeds the second year, after 

 which the plant dies. It is prickly through- 

 out on stems and leaves. Few of our her- 

 baceous plants have prickly stems. The 

 leaves are oblong, lance-shaped, much 

 longer than broad, tapering but slightly 

 upward, attached directly to a stem without 

 leaf-stalks. They are opposite, in pairs, on 

 the stem, and their bases often are united 

 around it. The flowers are small, pale pur- 

 ple, many collected together in a dense egg- 

 shaped cluster or head, similar in structure 

 to the heads in the composite family, to 

 which the teasel family is related. Within 

 the cluster, by the side of each small flower, 

 is a sBale which tapers to a slender point, 

 projecting beyond the flower, so that the 

 head is bristly all over. At the base of the 

 head, outside, is a cirel? of stiff leaves form- 

 ing an involucre, projecting and curved 

 upward. They are of unequal length, and 

 prickly like the stem. 



It Pays — The Fremont, Mich., Indicator 

 of Sept. 2, makes the following remark con- 

 cerning one of the citizens of that town, 

 who is well-known to our readers : 



George Hilton contemplates adding con- 

 siderably to his apiarian facilities. His 

 " plant" has become one of the important 

 industries of our town. 



Sweet Clover for Honey.— Mr. G. W. 



Demaree, of Christiansburg, Ky., In an 

 article on the " Bee-Forage of Kentucky," 

 published in the Bee-Keepers' Magazine, re- 

 marks as follows : 



For cultivation as a honey-plant, under 

 proper management, sweet clover is the 

 promising plant. In this locality it will not 

 succeed in waste places. The plant is too 

 feeble when it first appears above the 

 ground to hold its place among the weeds 

 indigenous to the soil, but when the plants 

 once get of some size thev will crowd their 

 way and grow rapidly. In favorable places 

 I have seen the plants grow 10 feet high, 

 throwing out numerous branches, all thickly 

 set with spikes crowded with delicate little 

 white flowers. My " patch " of sweet clover 

 this season was a perfect wonder of swarm- 

 ing bees, crowding each other like robber 

 bees contending for illegitimate gain. I 

 have had best success with it when sowed 

 in the early spring with oats. It will bloom 

 the following year just as does red and 

 Alsike clover, and if left to itself it will 

 bloom at the same time that white clover 

 does, and it will he of little advantage to the 

 bees, as they have all that thev can do to 

 gather the white clover harvest. To retard 

 its growth and make it succeed the white 

 clover bloom, the sweet clover should be 

 grazed lightly by sheepor youngcattle when 

 it is about 12 inches high. This will cause 

 the plants to throw new shoots that will 

 bloom later in the season than they other- 

 wise would. I now have some plants in full 

 bloom that have been browsed and nipped 

 by some Jersey cows all spring and summer. 

 Alsike clover yields nectar profusely, but 

 its bloom is short-lived, and 1 have failed to 

 so manage it as to have it bloom at any 

 other time than when white clover was at its 

 best. 



Honey from the fall bloom is reported to 

 be coming in quite freely in some localities. 



Round Xrip Tickets to tlie Conven- 

 tion.— As Manager of the National Bee- 

 Keepers' Union, we have mad(*arrange- 

 ments with thelndianapolis linesof railroad 

 (or round trip tickets from Chicago to 

 Indianapolis and return to Chicago, good 

 from Monday to Saturday, Oct. 11 to Ki, 

 1886, for $7.:J0. The fare one way is $.5.50, 

 and this is one tare and one-third. To obtain 

 these tickets, it will be necessary to get a 

 certificate signed by Thomas G. Newman, 

 stating that the bearer is entitled to the 

 reduced fare. Now, do not wait until you 

 come to Chicago to get this eertiflcate, for 

 we may have gone before you come. Send 

 for the certificate at once; and it will be 

 sent by return mail. 



