554 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



end) are first-class honey locations. 

 The " new counties" are further north . 

 and many of them are good fruit loca- 

 tions, and also good for honey-pro- 

 ducing. Go to what localities you 

 may, you will find it possessing some 

 advantages and disadvantages. I have 

 no choice in counties, to offer. 



Honey-Plant for Hedges. 



I want to plant a nice, thick hedge 

 around my garden next to the fence, 

 of some pretty flowering shrub wliich 

 is also a good" honey-bearer and which 

 will keep in bloom most if not all of 

 the season. The query is. Can such 

 a plant be obtained 'i I have two 

 large bushes of the shrub called snow- 

 ball or snowdrop which fills the bill, 

 if it is a honey-bearer. It begins to 

 bloom early in the season and remains 

 in bloom until the frost comes, and 

 seems to be never free from bees and 

 yellow-jackets that work it most 

 industriously from early morning till 

 after dark. I have frequently seen 

 the bees working it when it was get- 

 ting dark. Will you kindly reply to 

 the above through the medium of the 

 Bee Journal V SuBscRiBEn. 



Torkville. Ont. 



AxswEU. — This is a question which 

 I feel incompetent to answer. Of all 

 the branches of apiculture. I am least 

 posted in regard to its honey-flora, I 

 will remind you that many flowers 

 which yield honey well in one climate, 

 will scarcely yield at all in another, 

 where they will grow and seed suc- 

 cessfully. I advise you to use your 

 own judgment. If you like the snow- 

 ball as a hedge-plant, and the bees 

 like it as a honey-plant (as yours 

 seem to), I would advise its adoption 

 for your purposes. 



Ked-Colored Honey. 



1. Will Mr. Heddon kindly inform 

 me. through " What and How," from 

 what source some of ray bees have 

 stored red honey of a bitter taste, but 

 otherwise of good flavor. The trouble 

 seems to be confined entirely to 2 col- 

 onies. Would such honey be safe to 

 feed even for winter stores ? 



2. Are juices gathered from bruised 

 apples and pears suitable for winter 

 stores, if but little pollen is gathered 

 at the same time V W. 3. R.\siN. 



Jenkintowni, Pa., Aug. 12, 1S84. 



Answers. — 1, This question I can- 

 not answer, having no practical 

 knowledge of your flora ; but from 

 my experience here, I should not be 

 afraid of the bitter honey for winter 

 stores for the bees. 



2. I should not consider such juices 

 fit for winter stores, though I do not 

 know that they will even tend to 

 promote diarrhoea, but I prefer more 

 concentrated and more highly oxy- 

 genized food during the cold winter.' 



A Good Fall Honey-Crop Expected. 



From 20 colonies, spring count, I 

 have taken 2,300 pounds of extracted 

 honey, and 300 pounds of comb honey, 

 making an average of 100 pounds per 

 colony. I have increased them to 4.5 

 colonies, and should the weather 

 prove favorable. I expect a good fall 

 crop of honey, as the bees have been 

 doing well for a few days past, 



H. ll. Warren. 



Myi-a, Wis., Aug. IS, 1884, 



1^ The Union Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation of Western Iowa will meet 

 in Dexter, Iowa, on the second Satur- 

 day in September, at !i:30 a. m. This 

 Association is doing a good work, and 

 bee-men in Western and Central Iowa 

 would do well to avail themselves of its 

 benefits. M. E, Darhy, Sec. 



Botanical. 



Will you please give the names of 

 the two enclosed specimens of plants V 

 also their value as honey-producers V 

 No, 1 is a garden plant, and the bees 

 gather pollen from it. No. 2 grows in 

 low places, and blooms in the fall. 

 Both grow 3 or 4 feet high. 



Bloomington, 111. H. W. Funk. 



[No. 1 is Thalictrum (inemonoides. 

 It is a common wild plant. I have 

 often seen bees on it. but do not think 

 that it is very valuable, only as very 

 early plants are always desirable in 

 stimulating the bees. No. 2 is an 

 aster. All of the asters are valuable. 



—A. J. COOK.l 



The "Pollen Theory." 



Thank you, Dr, Tinker ! It seems 

 that you read closely. The glory of 

 first public mention of the "pollen 

 theory " is enough to set one wild; 

 but the idea of me, a patent-hive man, 

 thinking of something first I I am 

 afraid, if this is so and becomes known, 

 that not only will pollen make bees 

 sick in winter, but that they cannot 

 be cured, and that " pollen theoiy '" 

 will be a term of reproach and I will 

 be held accountable for it. Let us 

 blame Bingham. I believe it v;a^ 

 Bingham any way ; at least he is used 

 to smoke and can stand it. In the 

 mean time, let us search for '"a balm 

 in Gilead " to heal the bruises which 

 Mr, Heddon has received in trying to 

 prove this theory. He is always try- 

 ing to prove something. His mental 

 economy is likened unto a great press 

 which is specially designed for the 

 discovery of . leaks, and the conse- 

 quence is that he knows of very few 

 vessels that will "hold water,"" We 

 will glorify Bingham, mollify Iled- 

 don's wounds wliich were received in 

 honorable battle, and be happy. 



.1. M. Shuck. 



Des Moines, Iowa, Aug. 19, 1884. 



west of the Missouri, where the fanner 

 has displaced the herdsman. This, 

 for the preceding reason, is a manifest 

 sign of^ progress. Here, the season 

 for honey has been good so far ; and 

 there is every indication of a large 

 gathering. AVhen the season of Net), 

 is named, it really means from the 

 first of July to the coming of the first 

 frost, which may be towards the end 

 of September, or late in (Jctober; and 

 during this time, richest honey-flowers 

 are in bloom on the prairies. Besides 

 the Italian, there are now in the State 

 the Cyprian and Palestine bees. The 

 latter are not regarded as profitable 

 as the Italians. Recently I called at 

 the large apiary of Mr, (i, W. Hawley. 

 near Lincoln, and found him busy. 

 Mr, Hawley called special attention 

 to two honey-flowers which he finds 

 useful. He was enthusiastic about 

 the Bokhara clover, which affords 

 honey-pasturage during the best part 

 of the season. A patch, cultivated in 

 the nursery, grew 8 feet high, and on 

 one stem there were over 20 branches ; 

 the plant covering a space of six feet, 

 and having not less than a thousand 

 flower-heads on it. on w-hich the bees 

 were working all the time. The well- 

 known matrimony-vine (Lycium bar- 

 barum), with its millions of inconspic- 

 uous flowers was also covered with 

 busy bees; but. notwithstanding its 

 usefulness, the sprawling growth of 

 the plant prevents Mr, Hawley from 

 recommending it for bee-pasturage. 



O. A. MULLON. 



Lincoln, Nebr,, Aug, 11, 1884. 



Honey Season almost a Failure. 



So far, this season is almost a fail- 

 ure. The bee-keepers here were 

 jubilant over the prospects at the be- 

 ginning of white clover bloom, but 

 we had an everlastingly heavy rain 

 which cast gloom and sorrow over 

 the high spirits of the bee-keepers. 

 For the past week or more the bees 

 have worked hard in the mornings 

 and gathered considerable honey from 

 the oak, buck-bush and other plants. 

 I think we will yet have a full crop of 

 honey. Spanish-needle and other fall 

 honey-plants are yet to bloom, and 

 they generally produce honey if the 

 season is favorable, 



C. II. MlFaddin. 



Clarksburg, Mo., Aug. 15, 18.84. 



Bees on the Nebraska Prairies. 



I have just completed a series of 

 journeys north and south of the Platte 

 river in Nebraska, and have observed 

 carefully the bee-doings of the State. 

 The bee-belt now extends beyond the 

 100th meridian, into the "northern 

 counties bevond the Platte river, far 



Experience with Sweet Clover. 



In the fall of l,sS2. 1 bought one 

 peck of sweet-clover seed, and sowed 

 ^3 of it on about 2 acres of oat stub- 

 ble, simply sowing it broadcast. The 

 other 1^ I sowed during the following 

 spring upon the same ground, and on 

 ,?4 of an acre of the same stubble 

 field that was sown to timothy in the 

 fall. Of the fall sowing I never 

 saw a plant ; the reason being that 

 the fall wa.? so dry as to scarcely start 

 timothy; and the clover being a 

 larger and light seed, it was not cov- 

 ered, but it must have sprouted or it 

 would have come up in the spring. 

 The spring sowing came up all right, 

 but when I cut the timothy, all the 

 clover sown with it died on account 

 of the dry weather. About July 20, 

 I this vear. the clover that lived began 



