1898. 



THE AMEKICAN BEE JOURNAL 



151 



way commissioners entered upon certain land and destroyed 

 sweet clover; and the gentleman whose clover was destroyed 

 turns around and sues those gentlemen for trespass. Such 

 being the case, the question arises : Is sweet clover a nox- 

 ious weed ? And if so, has the State a right to pass such a 

 law as that ? If it has, then there Is no trespass. If it has 

 not, then the trespass will stand. 



Mr. Baldridge — I notice that Mr. Baxter is misinformed. 

 That is where the gist of the matter comes in. The law was 

 repealed before the sweet clover was toucht. 



Mr. Whitcomb — It seems to me that our Savior settled 

 that question when he said, " Help ye one another." I under- 

 stand that the United States Bee-Keepers' Union Is not pros- 

 ecuting this case, but that individual bee-keepers are giving 

 their testimony in this case at the suggestion of Dr. Basse, 

 and it has been rather more a pleasure to me than a duty, to 

 help him out with what I have known about sweet clover, and 

 about its not being a noxious weed or anything of the kind. 

 We find farmers all over the country, not bee-keepers, who 

 assert that this is a noxious weed ; and I have for four or five 

 years made in my State a public offer of a hundred dollars to 

 any man that would furnish authentic evidence that sweet 

 clover has ever encroacht on well-cultivated land anywhere. 

 If any of you Illinois people want that .$100, furnish evi- 

 dence and you can have it. It is simply an impossibility. 

 The nature of sweet clover is foreign to its encroaching on 

 cultivated land. It simply cannot stand it. If you can run a 

 mower over your sweet clover plants you will kill it all. It 

 cannot stand pulling up. It does not grow like other weeds. 

 It is not a weed. It is a grass, and belongs to the alfalfa 

 family. You will find It valuable as a honey-producer, as a 

 forage-plant, relisht by hogs, cattle and horses, and by every- 

 thing. It is true that in the spring of the year stock not ac- 

 customed to It do not take to it readily. I would like to help 

 Dr. Besse in this matter. I think he has been wronged, and 

 ought to have justice, and If I could do anything personally to 

 help him or any one else in that position I would like to do It. 

 It is a pleasure and not a duty, and it has been my nature ail 

 along through life to have a little sympathy for the under dog 

 in the fight ; I can't help it, and I think it will always be so. 



Mr. Stone — I believe the time will come, and It has In 

 every neighborhood where sweet clover is an old plant and 

 understood, when we will be entirely let alone. The trouble 

 with sweet clover is, it springs up so suddenly that the farm- 

 ers are all alarmed. In my neighborhood I have had almost 

 every farmer that I know ask me what that awful weed was, 

 and when I tell them it is a species of clover, it seems to satisfy 

 them a little while ; and one man that askt me about it said 

 to me, " Why, that is an awful weed, and I am told it will go 

 20 feet into the ground." That is not so at all. But still I let 

 him believe It was, and I said, "I don't care if it goes clear 

 down to China ; it will bring fertility from the other side of 

 the world ; it dies in a year, and then I will have a hole clear 

 through to the other side of the earth " — and we laught it off. 

 The next spring I saw him digging up plants along the roads 

 to take home and set out. We have only got to stand it for 

 two or three years, and the sweet clover will be in, and they 

 will forget what a thing it is. If It were an awful thing they 

 will forget what it is, but when they find it is beneficial they 

 will want it. I don't look for any trouble at all. 

 (Continued next week.) 



Lots of Brood-Chamber Kooxn. — The editor of Gleanings 

 says he will again, this year, as he did last, use two-story, 

 eight-frame hives in his out-apiary, even for comb honey. 



Kind of Bees. — Have your queens mate with drones as 

 distantly related as possible ; use queens closely related to im- 

 ported Italian stock for extracted honey, and Uolden Italians 

 for white cappings, is the advice of G. M. Doolittle, in 

 Gleanings. 



Is a Colony an Organism? — Editor Lehzen, of Central- 

 blatt, considers the controversy that has been going on with 

 some heat In Germany as to whether a colony of bees is an 

 organism or not, as useless. He seems to think time and ink 

 can be better spent in matters of practical importance. 



Who Shall Keep Bees P— This question Is discust by Dr. 

 Miller in Canadian Bee Journal, and he seems to have diffi- 

 culty in coming to a conclusion. A publisher of a bee-.journal 

 will want bee-keeping in the hands of those who keep enough, 

 say 20 colonies, so they will want a journal specially devoted 

 to bee-keeping. The bee-keeper with a hundred colonies 

 thinks it a bad thing to have half a dozen colonies scattered 

 here and there — knocks the bottom out of the market with 

 poor honey and low prices. But considering the farmers whose 

 flowers are to be fertilized, and general public whose tables are 

 to be supplied. In the final analysis the question comes, "What 

 is the best way to get bees evenly distributed all over the land, 

 and to have an abundant supply of honey at so low a price 

 that it may he an article of dally consumption on the tables of 

 the great middle class, and that It may even be many times 

 enjoyed by the poor ?" Prof. Cook, a fair man and a friend 

 to farmers, advises a return to the old plan of having a few 

 bees on every farm. But how can that be done ? What stopt 

 the farmers ? And If there were no large apiaries now, would 

 any more farmers keep bees? If they will not, then It maybe 

 a good thing to encourage some one person in every few miles 

 to keep a number, and leave the matter largely In the hands 

 of the specialist. A still better way may be to instruct the 

 coming farmers so that they may desire to make bees a part of 

 their farm stock. 



Puts Bees Out Early.— N. D. West, a New York man 

 who owns 500 colonies, cellars his bees. They had a flight 

 Nov. 18, he relates In Gleanings, and he got them in as soon 

 as possible after that. He will put them out the last of March 

 or by April 1. He doesn't wait for a warm day, but has some 

 anxiety about the weather the day of their first flight. If a 

 soft snow should be on the ground many will be lost. After 

 the first flight the queen will supply all the eggs the bees can 

 care for, and there will be young bees on hand before time for 

 much pollen-gathering. When taken out on a fine day he finds 

 many bees will get into the wrong hives, filling some to over- 

 flowing and depleting others. Some successful bee-keepers, 

 however, leave their bees in till fairly warm weather comes In 

 April. 



Disturbing Bees in Winter is vigorously objected to by 

 C. P. Dadant, in Busy Bee. Bees leave the cluster to learn 

 the danger and are chilled. The trouble Is worse in the cellar, 

 bees being more alert in temperate atmosphere, hundreds 

 roaming about and leaving the hive, the least ray of light 

 attracting them. But there's a time for all things, so bethinks 

 there's a time for disturbing bees. It's when a warm day 

 comes, and the bees haven't found it out because in a shady 

 place, in a hive with thick walls, or for some other reason. At 

 snch times they must be waked up to get the benefit of a flight. 

 His bees In chaff hives remain quiet till he wakes them up, 

 when other bees are having a good flight. 



Moisture of the Atmosphere in its effect upon hives 

 should be considered In weighing, if false conclusions are to be 

 avoided. An empty hive that had stood out with other hives 

 till Got. 15 was then put Into the cellar, and In 5}-^ months it 

 gained In weight 2H pounds. Set in the open air, it lost more 

 than a pound in two days. There Is possibility of deception In 

 another way, when weighing colonies in hives. A hive is 

 weighed on a certain date, then a long cold-spell comes, at the 

 close of which there Is found no falling off in weight. Yet 

 there has been a heavy consumption of stores, the loss of 

 weight In honey being now partly shown by the matter loaded 

 In the intestines of the bees. 



Getting Bees Out of Box-Hives. — The opinion seems to 

 be gaining ground that it is not best to transfer before swarm- 

 ing-time. The British Bee Journal has strongly advocated the 

 idea, and the Busy Bee seems of the same mind. It advises : 

 " Wait till boi-hive colonies swarm ; put the swarm on the old 

 stand, set the old hive 10 feet back with entrance reverst, 

 next evening set old hive close to swarm, facing same way, 

 and a week later set in new place. Let the old hive alone till 

 another swarm comes out, and then treat It in the same way 

 again." But please, B.' B., in how many cases would that old 

 colony swarm again ? 



Winter Loss of Bees. — M. Devauchelle says: " I often 

 smile when I hear bee-keepers say that, on a visit to their bees 

 in March, they found only a small loss in bees — those on the 

 bottom-board. They take no account of the bees that have 

 been carried out dead each fine day, nor of the many bees lost 

 In their flights. A colony will do well. If In March it has lost 

 only a fifth, a fourth, or even a third of the bees it had at the 

 beginning of winter." — L'Apiculteur. 



