146 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



and most of them came to life. That 

 shows me they do not die with old age. 

 One spring, when I put my bees out, 

 I found one colony of Italians that 

 had no brood ; the combs were dry and 

 the bees healthy, and I never saw a 

 colony do better, through the sum- 

 njer. 



The best cover to put over bees in 

 the cellar, is half-inch basswood, just 

 large enough to cover the hive ; it 

 will warp just enough to give good 

 ventilation, and it will take up the 

 dampness. A new cellar is a poor 

 place to winter bees in, unless it has 

 a large ventilator running to the roof. 

 The Syrian bees suit me best for ex- 

 tracted honey, the blacks for comb 

 honey, and the Italians for business. 

 I had one cohmy of Italians that put 

 all of their honey in the upper story, 

 60 I had to feed them in the fall. 

 Honey sells at from 1.5 to 2-') cents per 

 pound here. 



Cokato, Minn. 



For tile American Bee JournaL 



My Experience With Sweet Clover. 



JOHN H. MARTIN. 



Several weeks ago. Dr. Miller re- 

 quested me (by postal card) to give my 

 ■experience in ttie sowing of sweet 

 clover, referring to my article upon 

 bee farming, on page 308, Bee Jour- 

 nal for 18S1. It is very easy for us 

 to give our plans and directions for 

 sowing or planting our crops, but the 

 result, at the close of the season, is 

 sometimes a heart-sick task. 



My experience, then, with sweet 

 clover, is this : About 5 miles from 

 my apiary the roadside is full of sweet 

 clover. In the fall of 1880 I gathered 

 enough seed to sow an acre. It was 

 sown upon gravelly loam. As the 

 books all say sweet clover will grow 

 anywhere, even upon a rock, I did not 

 spend much time in preparing the 

 land by manuring, but gave it a thor- 

 ough harrowing. At tlie proper time 

 for plants to be coming forth, you 

 would have frequently seen a bee- 

 keeper about my size prospecting tnat 

 acre of ground for sweet clover. I 

 prospected, from time to time, during 

 the whole season, and at harvest time 

 I could have easily carried the crop, 

 honey, blossoms, fodder and roots, all 

 in one hand ; it was a complete fail- 

 ure. A portion of the land was quite 

 rich and moist; upon this a few 

 diminutive straggling plants put in 

 an appearance. 



I have the same experience in sow- 

 ing upon the roadside. It will not 

 catch.*permanently. If, now and then, 

 a plant does mature and casts its 

 seeds, you will lind none there the next 

 season. The species of clover I have 

 experimented with is an annual. It 

 seems to thrive best upon clav soil. I 

 hope to give it another trial up"on a Held 

 of clay with plenty of manure, another 

 season. The idea that, because it 

 grows upon the roadside, it is growing 

 upon poor land is a mistaken one. 

 Our highways, and especially all of 

 the land between the fences here in 

 the Eastern States, is the richest land 

 we have. The scrapings in the hol- 



lows and ditches is nearly equal to 

 barnyard manure. There is evidently 

 great value in sweet clover blossoms, 

 for during the past season, when our 

 apiary was yielding no honey, those 

 having bees within reach of sweet 

 clover received much benefit from 

 that source. The question with me is, 

 how to sow it, so as to have a good 

 reliable growth. I have thus far fol- 

 lowed nature's plan, have sown in the 

 fall, perhaps I should sow in the 

 spring. 



I lind the Simpson honey plant, or 

 figwort also, hard to start from the 

 seed, but this objection can be over- 

 come, by starting plants in a hot bed, 

 and transplanting them. By this 

 method, arapidand successful growth 

 is secured, and although I have had 

 but a few plants in my yard, I think 

 it the best plant, exclusively for 

 honey, I have yet seen. It comes to 

 maturity the second year, and our 

 plants were fully 10 -feet in height, 

 and had half a dozen or more stalks, 

 all full of blossoms ; and the beauty 

 of this plant is the seemingly unceas- 

 ing flow of honey. The bees were at 

 work upon it in myriads, from early 

 morn until dewy evening, in rainy 

 weather or in time of drouth. It was 

 the " old faithful," among our honey 

 plants. I hope to set an acre of this 

 plant this spring. I also consider 

 alsike clover a bonanza for the bee- 

 keeper, even if he owns not an acre of 

 land, his farming neighbors can be 

 induced to sow it for their stock. 



Hartford, N. Y. 



[This is about the only failure in 

 propagating sweet clover, we remem- 

 ber of seeing recorded, and we fully 

 believe that there is some mistake 

 about it— either the seed was poor, 

 the land too rich, or some climatic 

 difficulty prevented its development. 

 It is best adapted for poor clay, but 

 will certainly grow and thrive in some 

 good land, as we have proved, year 

 after year. Probably the key to this 

 failure is found in the </ii>d paragraph, 

 where Mr. Martin says : " The species 

 of clover I have experimented with is 

 an a7imial." Melilotus alba (sweet 

 clover) is a biennial, and not an an- 

 nual, and hence it must have been 

 another plant entirely. — Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Are Sections Under 1 lb. Profitable ? 



F. I. SAGE. 



I notice by the Bee Journal that 

 the impression seems to be gaining 

 ground among bee-keepers that it is 

 more desirable and profitable to have 

 i comb honey put in half-pound pack- 

 ages. Having bought of the pro- 

 ducers, during the jsast season, up- 

 wards of 50 tons of comb honey, 

 perhaps they may think my views on 

 the subject worthy of notice. Permit 

 me to say (and most emphatically) that 

 I am not in favor of using the half- 

 pound sections, and never advocated 



the using of them so small as one- 

 pound. Certainly, we want nothing 

 smaller than the pounds. It may be 

 said that I am selfish in this matter, 

 and I admit I am to this extent, viz.: 

 That I believe I can sell more pounds 

 or tons of honey by handling nothing 

 smaller than IJ^ or 2-pound sections, 

 than I can if handling 1 or J^ pounds. 



What is for my interest, I think is 

 also for for the interest of the pro- 

 ducer, and the merchants with whom 

 Ideal. To illustrate : A buys 5 cases 

 of honey, in 2 pound sections ; to sell 

 this, he makes 60 sales ; B buys 5 

 cases, containing 24 one-pound sec- 

 tions ; he must make 120 sales ; C buys 

 .5 cases, containing 240 half-pounds, 

 and, of course, must make 240 sales. 

 Which one, do you think, will first 

 sell his stock of honey V Having 

 tested the matter thoroughly, I know 

 the 60 two-pound sections will be sold 

 long before the 240 half-pounds. I 

 know it is said the pounds and half- 

 pounds will be sold to many who 

 would not buy the larger size, but you 

 must remember that there are many 

 who would buy the pounds who would 

 iust as soon take the two-pounds, if 

 nothing smaller was at hand. I deal 

 with many who will not buy so small 

 as the one-pound package of honey, 

 and would laugh at the half-pounds, 

 considering them only as novelties. 

 They would say, at once, when the 

 honey trade comes to this, we want 

 no more of it. Suppose I handle 50 

 tons yearly of two-pound packages ; 

 40 tons of one-pounds, or 30 tons of 

 half-pounds would supply this same 

 trade. This, I firmly believe. It is 

 said Boston pays 5 cents per pound 

 more for half-pound sections. For 

 the sake of the argument, we will 

 admit she has, for a very limited 

 quantity, but why did she do itV 

 Simply because it was a novelty ! I 

 happen to know that Boston has been 

 offered half-pound sections for much 

 less than quotations, but she would 

 not buy them for cash, at such prices. 



If it is for the interest of the mer- 

 chants, and for mine, to handle noth- 

 ing smaller than IJ^ or 2-pound sec- 

 tions, is it not also for the interest of 

 the bee-keeper to use sections of that 

 size, and not strive to cut his own 

 throat by coming down to the " penny- 

 packager"' Of course, if he under- 

 stands his business, he knows he can- 

 not produce a given weight of honey 

 in penny packages for the same price, 

 per pound, that he can in IJ2 or 2- 

 pound sections. If he feels as though 

 he was getting rich too fast, and his 

 conscience troubles him much, let him 

 sell his large packages for the same 

 amount of money that his honey crop 

 would have brought him, had it been 

 in half-pound sections. Let me illus- 

 trate how this penny package business 

 works : I have a trade that has never, 

 until recently, used anything smaller 

 than two-pound sections ; along comes 

 a man who has one-pound sections ; 

 they look nice, are a novelty, and a 

 little persuasion on the part of the 

 seller, induces the merchant to try a 

 case, wliich takes the place of 2 cases 

 of two-pound sections. Next season 

 along comes tlie half-pound sections, 

 and he again buys, which again re- 



