1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAl-. 



167 



othy. If you run your moiver right down to the ground the 

 chances are you will kill it entirely. 



Mr. Lyman — I would ask if any one knows In regard to 

 the present law in this State, in regard to commisssioners cut- 

 ting the weeds along the roads '? 



Pres. Miller — I think the law is that they may cut the 

 weeds on the road. 



Mr. Lyman — Doesn't it give farmers until Aug. 20 to cut 

 those weeds ? I think it does. 



Pres. Miller — Perhaps that is true. 



Mr. Schrler — They have time till the last of September. 



Pres. Miller — Do I understand this, that if you say to the 

 commissioners on your land. Don't touch this until a certain 

 date, that they must concede that? 



Mr. Lyman — The farmer, as I understand it, has until 

 Aug. 20, or about that time, to cut the weeds along the road- 

 side, and if he does that he is allowed .$1.25 a day, which is 

 applied on his taxes. If the commissioners cut the weeds after 

 that, the cost of the cutting is charged to him. 



Mr. Kaldridge — I have heard of such a law before, and a 

 great many farmers where I live availed themselves of its 

 provisions. They would be allowed so much on their taxes 

 the coming year. But I understand that the law did not pa.*s 

 the legislature. It was an act before the legislature, but 

 never became a law. A great many will find that out when 

 they come to pay their taxes — they won't be allowed anything. 



Mr. Stone — I don't think there is anything of that kind in 

 the law. 



Mr. Green — I think Mr. Baldridge is correct in regard to 

 that law. I remember seeing it in the newspapers a report 

 that such a law had been past, and farmers were notified and 

 advised that they could obtain a rebate on their taxes in that 

 way, but a week or two after that the papers informed that 

 the law had not been past. 



Pres. Miller — I think it will be well for us to have a little 

 rest, allowing a chance for those not yet members to become 

 so, and I believe Mr. Cooley has brought a sample section of 

 honey built on the drawn foundation. 



Mr. Stone — I would like to say that I have samples of the 

 heads of two kinds of clover that I would like to have the 

 members see. They were sent to me by a gentleman in Aus- 

 tralia. 



Pres. Miller — What kind of clover ? 



Mr. Stone — One of them is strawberry clover, and one he 

 called creeping clover. The creeping clover has a seed that is 

 a perfect rosette, and looks as if it were made out of brown 

 paper. 



Pres. Miller — It looks almost exactly like the alfalfa seed, 

 only on a larger scale. 



Mr. Stone — In those pods there are about five seeds, and 

 for fear I would run out of the seed I planted three seeds out 

 of the five. They are three or four times as large as a red 

 clover seed. They grow very rapidly. Out of the three seeds 

 three plants came, and something killed one, and I got a large 

 teacup of these little pods from the two plants. The straw- 

 berry clover has a head just like a strawberry. They have 

 little spots of fuzz on them that look like a strawberry. 

 (Continued next week.) 



Bucket Honey was slow sale at 8 cents per pound this 

 season, while that put up in pint Mason jars brought almost 

 twice as much. Compliments on the good sense of the con- 

 sumer are in order. — Somnambulist, in Progressive Bee-Keeper. 



Bees Adapted to the Climate. — The best bee for any 

 place must be one that comes from somewhere in nearly the 

 same latitude, according to J. O. Grimsley, in Busy Bee. Car- 

 niolans coming from latitude 46-' are all right for the North, 

 but breed too much in the mild winters of the South. Italians 

 come from latitude 44-, Cyprians from 35^, and Holy-Lands 

 from 31 , so he would choose accordingly. 



Bring up the Grade of Extracted Honey, is what Dan 

 White makes a strong plea for, in Gleanings. He says: "Every 

 fellow has been extracting and grading to his own notion, with- 

 out saying a word to the other fellows. I believe we have just 



as good a right to agitate the grading of our product as have 

 the comb-honey producers. While they are polishing and sand- 

 papering their sections, say we put such a finish on our ex- 

 tracted honey that we cau draw a little attention. You see 

 they are trying to attract the eye, and we will try to attract 

 the palate." 



Prevention of After-Swarms. — Put a cone escape at the 

 entrance of the old hive, having previously set the swarm in 

 place of the old hive, putting the old hive close beside it. No 

 bees entering the old hive, only one queen will be left, and 

 when that is ready for fertilization, remove the old hive to a 

 new stand, or dispose of as seems best. F. A. Gemmill says, 

 in Review, he has practiced this for five or six years, and J. B. 

 Hall longer. 



Bees Select Best dueen-Cells.— M. Jukos says in Mehes- 

 zeti Kozlony, that, after careful observation, he finds that bees 

 destroy purposely such larvae in queen-cells as will not mature 

 good queens, reserving only the best. Acting on this hint, in- 

 stead of taking cells from a colony immediately after the issu- 

 ing of a first swarm, he waits until four or five days later, and 

 finds he has not only more beautiful queens, but decidedly 

 better ones. 



Don't Heat Wax too Much. — L. A. Aspinwall, in Review, 

 thinks there is danger of getting too great a heat in melting 

 wax, even in a sun-extractor. Over 212-" the tendency to 

 soften propolis so it mixes with wax is much increast. For 

 this reason he paints his extractor white, outside and in. This 

 is better for the wood, too, tnan black. A. C. Miller says many 

 a lot of fine wax has been spoiled, or very much darkened, by 

 allowing the water in which it is melted to boll together with 

 the wax. 



Telescoping Hive-Caps over sections are valued by Doo- 

 little. "On cool mornings where there is only the one thick- 

 ness of lumber between the outside air and the sections, we 

 will find that the bees have stopt work in the sections and very 

 largely gone below, while with the telescoping cap, the bees 

 are enabled to keep up sufficient heat so that comb-building is 

 going on the same as it was the evening before." And nearly 

 the same thing on extremely hot afternoons. — Progressive 

 Bee-Keeper. 



Wintering Nuclei. — In reply to a call from G. M. Doo- 

 littie for some plan by which queens may be carried over 

 winter, Dr. Miller tells, in Gleanings, how he has wintered in 

 the same hive two colonies or nuclei. A bee-tight division- 

 board separates the two parts, and the two nuclei clustered up 

 against the division-board, forming a single cluster with the 

 division-board in the middle. Editor Root says that before 

 they sold off queens in the fall, they wintered nuclei in this 

 way successfully. 



Untimely Brood-Rearing in early spring or late winter, 

 its causes and consequences, are dwelt upon in Sweizerische 

 Bztg., also in Preussiche Bztg. The brood-nest is unduly ex- 

 tended, bees fly much and are lost in the chill season, and too 

 often a cold spell comes on, obliging the bees to shrink to a 

 small cluster, leaving a large amount of brood to perish. Some 

 strains are specially given to this fault, and breeding from 

 these should be avoided. Winter warmly, but not too warmly; 

 avoid too much bright sunshine on the hives; be sure to have 

 abundant stores in the hive in the fall, so there will be no need 

 to excite the bees by too early feeding; allow plenty of venti- 

 lation and avoid all disturbance; these are the means advised 

 to avoid the evil results of this unseasonable and exaggerated 

 brood-rearing. 



Shipping Bees in Cars. — Frank McNay prefers a stock- 

 car as being cooler in warm weather than a box-car. He says 

 in Gleanings: "My plan was to load the hives firmly, yet 

 apart, so as to secure a circulation of air around each hive. 

 This was done by placing a row of hives across the end of the 

 car, a few inches apart, then securing them in place by laying 

 two rows of lath crosswise on top of the hives, letting the ends 

 of the lath press firmly against the sides of the car, and nail- 

 ing lath to each hive with 1-inch wire-nails. Then we placed 

 another row over the other, resting on the lath, with space be- 

 tween the hives over the center of the hives in the lower row, 

 then we nailed on two rows of lath, the same as before. This 

 plan workt nicely, as there' was not a hive moved from its 

 position en route, and as they had to be loaded two tiers deep, 

 this break-joint plan not only served to facilitate ventilation, 

 but also afforded an excellent opportunity to sprinkle water 

 in the top of the lower as well as upper tier of hives, which 

 was done several times, as they were three or four days on 

 the road." 



