1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



389 



only 10 cents per pound, that would pay the rent at $5 per 

 acre; then the hay will produce almost as much as red clover, 

 and of a much better quality, and the seed (which Is in the 

 first crop) produces more than red clover, and also brings a 

 higher price. And as a forage-plant we know of no plant 

 that will attract any kind of stock away from it." 



While in charge of the Illinois honey exhibit at the 

 World's Fair, I was one day conversing with a man who 

 proved to be a dairyman at Elgin. He said his cows on Alsike 

 clover pasture gave more milk, and of a better quality, than 

 did the cows of his neighbors which were on other pastures. 

 Being suspicious that he was a bee-keeper, or that he had 

 other interests, I began to quiz him thus : 



" Perhaps you have a better strain of milkers than they ?" 

 He answered, "They are the same cows I had previously 

 on other pasture, and they did not produce then as now." 

 Then I askt, " Are you a bee-keeper ?" 

 " No ; but my neighbor's bees fairly swarm on my pas- 

 ture." 



That satisfied me, for altho I had raised it, I wanted to 

 hear what others thought of it. 



It has no superior as a honey-plant, unless it be sweet 

 clover, and its quality (of honey) is as good as white clover. 

 Its growth is like red clover, tho it has not as coarse a stem, 

 and for that reason is a better plant to mix with timothy, as it 

 cures as quickly as timothy. It has blossoms resembling 

 white clover, except they have a purple tinge. Its leaf is solid 

 green, while those of red and white clover are sprinkled with 

 white. 



In speaking of sweet clover I desire to say a word in its 

 defense, taking the risk of incurring the ill-will of the com- 

 missioners of highways throughout the State. It has not got- 

 ten into our part of the State very extensively as yet — only 

 here and there a patch on the highways — and everybody on 

 first observing it, and hearing what the other fellow has to 

 say of it, seems half frightened out of their senses. Imagining 

 they are going to be crowded out of existence by it because of 

 its early and rapid growth. 



One of our neighbors, who was thus affected, after he had 

 been told that it was a biennial, and was very tender the first 

 year, and did not bear seed till the second year, and then died 

 root and branch, was seen the next spring digging up plants 

 to take home and set in his yard. 



During the World's Pair I received a very fine sample of 

 sweet clover honey from Mr. Miller, of Lee county, 85 miles 

 west of Chicago. I went out to buy it to add to our exhibit, 

 and found that he had 2,300 pounds of comb, and two barrels 

 of extracted honey from 35 colonies of bees ; and all the pas- 

 ture they had was the sweet clover in the adjacent highways, 

 and 7 acres he had sown on his farm, on land that was too 

 poor for corn ; and he said thai following sweet clover he had 

 raised on this kind of land better corn than on his best land. 



Why not such a plant as this be allowed to grow on the 

 roadside instead of noxious weeds? Sweet clover is fast com- 

 ing into favor as a forage plant, as it is being found out that 

 all kinds of stock learn to like it. 



At the meeting of the Northwestern Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion in Chicago, some of the bee-keepers reported that stock 

 in the highways where they lived, kept it eaten close to the 

 ground. Yet there are some people still living who are like 

 the old deacon, who would not support a candidate for an 

 office because he said he believed that the earth was round, 

 and you couldn't make him believe such stuff, and he wouldn't 

 vote for any man who did believe it ! 



I would not advise every farmer to be a bee-keeper, nor 

 do I advise the planting of crops especially for honey. But 

 as to the latter, you can draw your own conclusions from 

 what 1 have said. 



As to every farmer being a bee-keeper, it is not practical, 

 for the reason that it would be in most cases on so small a scale 

 that it would not pay him to spend much of his time with the 

 bees, and to be successful they must have the proper care at 

 the right time. 



It is a fact that when there is no honey for the bees to 

 gather, they do not need so much time applied to them, but 

 the colonies will run down and be lost by becoming queenless, 

 and from other causes that need a watchful eye occasionally, 

 and an attentive ear to the sound of robbers, even if there is 

 no honey being stored. 



No one who is largely engaged in horticulture can afford 

 to be very far removed from bees without more or less 

 loss in his fruits — some seasons when bees are the only ferti- 

 lizing agent to be had. The writer one year had a large crop 

 of cherries, and got a good price for them because there were 

 so few in the market ; and I could see no reason for it unless 

 It was the bees. 



The President of the Missouri State Horticultural Society, 



In relating the experience with the large sweet cherry growers 

 along the Pacific Coast, said they were growing these cherries 

 in California, and from there they were taken north along the 

 coast, but the trees which were thrifty and healthy would not 

 bear any fruit in the northern locality. On investigation they 

 discovered that the cause was a lack of fertilization. Bees 

 were introduced into those localities, and they had no more 

 trouble — the trees produced fine fruit in abundance. 



By the mode of procedure I have partially outlined, a 

 good apiary of 75 or 80 colonies could be had to each 3 miles 

 square, or 9 square miles, in the State, which would in the 

 56,000 square miles of Illinois, give us over 6,000 apiaries 

 of 75 colonies each — 450,000 colonies, with, in ordinary 

 years, 50 pounds of honey per colony, or 22,500,000 pounds 

 of honey— the purest sweet that the Lord has given to man. 

 We do not want to discourage the sugar-beet industry, but how 

 do these figures strike you, gentlemen ? While these figures 

 may be possible, yet the highest we have ever known — re- 

 ported by the assessors of the State — was In 1889, when 

 2,128,060 pounds were reported, at 14 cents per pound, or 

 about $298,000. It Is certainly possible to improve largely 

 on these last figures. 



Dr. C. C. Miller, of McHenry county, then President of 

 our State association, last year received from three apiaries of 

 80 colonies each, over 17,000 pounds of honey ; and C. P. 

 Dadant, of Hancock county, from one of his apiaries in Brown 

 county, of 75 colonies, obtained 8,000 pounds. 



The beginner in bee-keeping must not think he can 

 start in the business on the old plan any more than he would 

 think of beginning to farm this spring, by going into the field 

 with a hoe to cut corn stalks, or in the harvest time with a 

 cradle or reap-hook to cut wheat, and his other work on the 

 same plan, because his forefathers succeeded, and did that 

 way. Neither must he listen to the advice of the old-timer, 

 who will say : 



"Talk about bee-keeping — why, bless your life, I have 

 kept bees for 50 years, and I never seen a king-bee in my life. 

 You needn't tell me that bees don't gather wax, for I have 

 seen it on their legs. And I don't want you to talk to me 

 about bees only living six weeks, for I have a stand of bees 

 that my father gave me 30 years ago. And you had just as 

 well talk to me about this earth agoin' round the sun once in 

 a year, as to make me believe that you can cause your bees to 

 take one of the eggs that it would take 20 days to hatch into 

 a worker-bee, and change it, as you say, so that in 16 days it 

 will hatch into a queen. Nonsense I" 



But what a beginner in bee-keeping should do, is to get 

 some good book on bee-keeping and take a good bee-paper. 

 Then with a small number of colonies of Italian bees, in a few 

 years you will have all the bees you desire, and the knowledge 

 needed to care for them. In fact, you will have so many that 

 you will be ready to fall into line with bee-keepers to get a 

 race of bees having a non-swarming disposition. 



We can claim for the industry of bee-keeping what can 

 be said of no other, viz.: It does not take from any other 

 thing that which would make it more valuable in retaining 

 the same, but on the contrary adds to the value of that 

 thing. 



For example, when bees go into an orchard in full bloom, 

 to gather what nature has placed there to attract them, or 

 some other fertilizing agent to the blossoms, they carry the 

 fertilizing dust from blossom to blossom, causing fruit to grow 

 where there would be none without some agent to carry the 

 pollen (as nature seems to abhor self-fertilization), and all 

 that the busy little bee carries off as a reward for her valua- 

 ble services is not needed, and is of no use in the growth of 

 either fruit or tree, as it was placed there by the God of na- 

 ture/or them, to carry away. 



The same may be said of all the other fruit or seed-bear- 

 ing plants. Red clover was without seed in countries where 

 the bumble-bee did not exist until it was introduced into those 

 countries, for the reason that other insects could not reach the 

 sweets secreted in the cups of the blossoms, and therefore did 

 not visit them to carry the fertilizing dust. 



It has always been said that red clover did not produce 

 seed in the first crop, but I have observed since I have had 

 the Italian bees that In seasons that are dry, and the blooms 

 of red clover not so large, the Italian bees work on them suffi- 

 ciently to cause a quantity of seed. 



Alsike clover, as I have already said, produces seed in 

 great abundance in the first crop, because bees work so well 

 upon it. Can this be said of any other industry, that by tak- 

 ing a part from these things we have named, the remainder is 

 made greater ? And yet it is so in all cases where our bees 

 visit our own or our neighbors' blooming orchards or fields — 

 they give back a double value for all they take away. 



A bee-keeper friend living in the northern part of our 



