THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



599 



extractor, 1st premium ; thin founda- 

 tion, 1st; sliippinsj-crate, 1st. Ctias. 

 Melane, of New London, best 12 sec- 

 tions, 1st premium ; crate of comb 

 hone}', 1st. Aaron Benedict, Bening- 

 ton, nucleus of Italian bees, 1st pre- 

 mium ; display of queen bees, 2nd. 

 C. E. .Jones, of Delaware, heavy comb 

 foundation. 1st premium ; shipping- 

 case, 1st. J. W. Newlove, of Colum- 

 bus, queen-bees, 1st premium ; nu- 

 cleus of bees, 2nd ; wooden feeder, 1st; 

 extractor, 2nd. Elias Cole, of Ashley, 

 Bingham bee-smoker, 1st premium ; 

 uncapping-knife, 1st ; bee-veil, 1st ; 

 ■bee-hive, 1st. 

 Columbus,© Ohio. 



Gleanings. 



Sweet CloYer for Honey, 



.T. A. GREEN. 



There is a great deal of sweet clover 

 in this locality, growing along the 

 river banks and other waste places, 

 as well as along the roads, which in 

 some places are lined with it for 

 miles. I iind that most persons are 

 apt to regard it as a nuisance along 

 the roadside, and many land-owners 

 wage war on it with more or less per- 

 sistency and success. Some of the 

 objections which they make to it are 

 well founded, while others are un- 

 founded or unimportant. 



The principal reason why it is ob- 

 jected to, I think, is the fear that it 

 may prove a noxious weed. It is a 

 strong, rapid grower, readily becom- 

 ing established, usually holding its 

 own tenaciously when once it gets a 

 start, killing out other plants, and 

 spreading from year to year. These 

 are the recognized qualities of the 

 ■worst weeds; and the farmer who 

 sees it march along the highway and 

 settle down in front of his place, as 

 though it had come to stay, is apt to 

 be alarmed at the thought that some 

 day it may perhaps take a notion to 

 invade his fields in just that way. 

 His fears are groundless, though. Its 

 seed win not start in a close sod ; 

 cultivation readily kills it ; and even 

 after it has taken complete possession 

 of the soil, close mowing, so as to 

 prevent any seed from maturing for 

 two successive seasons, will eradicate 

 it completely. 



I have ridden for miles along a road 

 where all the space between the 

 fences, except a narrow wagon-track, 

 was thickly covered with sweet clover, 

 yet not a single plant was to be seen 

 Inside the fields. I have occasionally 

 seen sweet clover growing inside the 

 fence along the roadside ; but it is a 

 suggestive fact that it is almost 

 always the old tumble-down fence 

 that lets the sweet clover through, 

 while a good fence keeps it from the 

 ■well-tilled fields beyond, as com- 

 pletely as it repels stray stock. There 

 is a moral here, if you go deep 

 enough. 



Now, what can we say in favor of 

 sweet clover, to the mail who cares 

 nothing about its value to the bee- 

 keeper as a honey-producing plant V I 

 can only say that it often takes the 



place of less desirable plants, and that 

 its modest blossoms with their grate- 

 ful perfume combine to render the 

 highway beautiful and fragrant. Can 

 we say anything more practical ? 



Many who object to the rapid 

 spread of melilot on the highway, 

 accuse the bee-keeper of planting it, 

 when they themselves not only culti- 

 vate the ground, but sow its seed. 

 Sweet clover, luiaided, can do little 

 to extend itself. Its seed is too heavy 

 to be carried far by the wind, and it 

 is not provided with any means of 

 attaching itself to passing objects. 

 The most efficient agent in distribut- 

 ing its seed is the man who leaves 

 the ordinary track for the roadside 

 when the roads are muddy in the 

 spring. In this way the surface of 

 the ground is broken up and prepared 

 for seed, while the wheels of his 

 wagon ."^nd the feet of his horses, 

 sinking into the ground where seed 

 fell the autumn before, pick up por- 

 tions of the soil filled with the seed 

 and carry it along for rods, and some- 

 times for miles, and there drop them 

 to form a new nucleus of growth. 

 Sweet clover is apt to spring up 

 wherever any grading of roads is 

 done ; and the man who plows the 

 roadside for the purpose of scouring 

 his plows, though an enemy to 

 humanity in general, is a friend to 

 the bee-keeper in a sweet clover 

 district. 



While under favorable circum- 

 stances the seed will grow and do 

 well if sown at any time of the year, 

 it will be much more apt to grow on 

 uncultivated ground if sown in the 

 fall, so the snows and rains of winter 

 and spring may beat it into the 

 ground. 



The sweet clover honey gathered 

 here is nearly if not quite as light 

 colored as that from white clover, 

 while the flavor is, in my opinion, 

 superior. When the honey is un- 

 mixed it requires no expert to tell 

 that It was gathered from sweet 

 clover, especially if freshly gathered. 

 In extracting newly gathered sweet 

 clover honey, the current of air com- 

 ing up out of the extractor is laden 

 with a perfume as distinct and un- 

 mistakable as that experienced by 

 holding a bunch of the blossoms to 

 the nose. 



Dayton, 5 Ills. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Sugar for Winter Stores, etc. 



J. H. ANDRE. 



For several months past this sub- 

 ject has been quite thoroughly dis- 

 cussed in the Bee Journal. A great 

 <leal of it has been interesting, while 

 some has been amusing. Some claim 

 that it puts the price of honey down, 

 and builds up the sugar business. 



Suppose one does not use an ex- 

 tractor at all, but works his bees for 

 comb honey ; he has no honey to feed 

 without either purchasing or using 

 surplus. If he uses tiie latter, at say 

 a cost of 12 cents per pound, and can 

 get granulated sugar for 7 cents per 



pound, which will make syrup of the 

 same consistency for less than half 

 the cost per poimd, does he make or 

 lose V If he has extracted honey to 

 feed it is a little better, but now sup- 

 pose he takes it and trades pound for 

 pound of sugar and uses it instead of 

 honey (I prefer a pound of sugar to a 

 pound of honey for feeding purposes); 

 he disposes of his honey and gets 

 sugar which answers his purpose 

 better, certainly in quantity, and, so 

 far as I can see, in quality also, for 

 according to popular opinion it is no 

 use to feed in the fall (see page -516), 

 and not in the spring until pollen 

 begins to come in ; and at any time it 

 does not make that daubing work 

 that honey is apt to, unless care is 

 used, and as it has but little odor it is 

 not apt to call robber bees. 



The usual price for extracted honey 

 will purchase about one and one- 

 fourth pounds of sugar for one-pound 

 of honey, and if it will answer just as 

 well, is it not like using a rake all day 

 with half of the teeth out for the sake 

 of saving one standing handy by in 

 perfect order, to use honey instead of 

 sugar y I fail to see how anything 

 can be lost in disposing of an article 

 and purchasing another that will an- 

 swer the same purpose at less cost. 



If my memory is right, sugar be- 

 comes cheaper each year, and if feed- 

 ing it to bees helps the trade it must 

 do it by an increase in the amount 

 sold, instead of increase in the price. 

 I have used sugar in the spring for 

 the purpose of hurrying up breeding, 

 and also to help fill up the brood- 

 chamber, for I do not think one will 

 get much surplus with a large empty 

 brood-chamber, and I think for each 

 pound of syrup fed, costin'g'less than 

 5 cents per pound. I have received 3 

 pounds of comb honey. In regard to 

 getting a name for selling sugar- 

 honey, I am not at all afraid of it; 

 each section is labeled " warranted 

 pure," meaning that it was gathered 

 from the flowers, and it is a pretty 

 dear job to accuse of adulteration 

 without proof. I make no secret 

 whatever of telling wherever I sell 

 my honey that I feed sugar in the 

 spring. 



Buckwheat furnished an unusual 

 quantity of honey this season. For 

 several days bees came in heavily 

 laden late in the evening, and during 

 a bad drouth too. They hardly ever 

 work upon it here in the afternoon. 

 But as I predicted some time ago. it 

 all went into the brood-chamber, with 

 the exception of a few strong colonies. 

 Some stored 20 pounds of surplus 

 from it. I shall be thankful if they 

 have secured enough for winter 

 stores. It is quite likely it will be 

 mostly used in brood-rearing, and 

 leave many colonies light in stores, 

 but otherwise in a prime condition 

 for winter. 



One of my colonies gave me over 

 100 pounds of surplus ; another 85 

 pounds. The average will be about 

 50 pounds per colony, spring count. 



There was some frost here on the 

 morning of Sept. 1, but so far as I 

 have heard, it did no harm. AVe also 

 had frost in July and August. 



