298 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



cai t, and do not draw on the bank till 

 line or two years' interest has accrued, 

 and do not let tlie cattle in during 

 spring and fall. Perhaps some may 

 wish to try buckwheat in order to get 

 immediate returns for their outlay, 

 and because they can sow it later in 

 the season than clover. There is no 

 objection to this, if they plow it under 

 after the bees have worked it, or let 

 lay on the gromid aud decay. But 

 the latter plan is liable to the danger 

 of the ripened grain re-seeding the 

 ground ;ind coming up next year and 

 clioking the clover out. This will not 

 pay. If turned under, the ground 

 must be smoothed off and well seeded 

 with the clover, and will need a little 

 fiue dressing, ashes, plaster or phos- 

 pliate as a starter. 



But some will say : " This is alto- 

 gether too expensive ; no man can 

 afford to go over his pastures in tliis 

 way; it would cost a fortune." I 

 think no man can afford to let his 

 pastures go on as they have for the 

 last oO or 100 years. As the man said 

 in the storm at sea, " something has 

 got to be done." One great disadvan- 

 tage of the pre.sent condition of pas- 

 tures is this : There is no fence be- 

 tween forests and cleared land, or 

 what is usually denominated cleared 

 land, and the stock drop most of their 

 mainu-e in these woods or along the 

 little streams in out of the way places, 

 and it is lost for fertilizing purposes. 

 If these fences were put up, they 

 would be kept in the best grazing, and 

 leave the dressing where it would do 

 the most good. The growing forest 

 would not be fed down, and the 

 suioother places would be enriched, 

 and, perhaps, by a little attention in 

 keeping down shrubs and weeds, the 

 forage would be sweet and tender. 



But there is a cheaper method, 

 though it is not so thorough, and I 

 (hiubt whether it would be much 

 cheaper in the end. That is, to go 

 over tlie pasture by odd jobs, and with 

 a heavy, rough harrow, tear up the 

 knolls or shave tliem off with a plow, 

 throwing the turf bottom up over 

 some rocky hollow, tear up any roots, 

 St umps or spots of moss ; rake up the 

 leaves, cut stunted trees close to the 

 around, scatter the seed and fertilizer, 

 aud as you go on so. it will be done as 

 far as you go. This will give you a 

 chance, durius the year, to do a great 

 deal, but the cattle will injure it if it 

 is in the open pasture, and they are 

 let in there. Still another method is 

 to fence off half, or a part of the field, 

 and let the cattle have that and fence 

 in a corresponding breadth of some 

 pasture most convenient and appro- 

 Ijriate. and work it for crops, allowing 

 a liberal supply of manure. If not too 

 far from the house, build cheap hog 

 pens, and put half a dozen shoats in a 

 small yard connected with it— plant 

 beets, sow peas, turnips and some 

 fodder corn, and feed tliem in the yard 

 supplying them plentifully with leaves 

 tor a nest, and muck if it can be got. 

 This will give you more dressing riglit 

 'Ml the ground, and save hauling so 

 sii far. Or a flock of sheep can take 

 the place of hogs if thought best, 

 but whatever stock is put there it 

 must be fed extra besides what is 



grown upon the land. Many advise 

 putting sheep into a run-down pas- 

 ture to fetch it up, there is surely 

 some conceivable argument in favor 

 of this, that is the supposition they 

 will forage on the woods and leave 

 their droppings on the cleared parts, 

 which is contrary to the facts. 1 

 think they will be more likely to re- 

 verse thething— feed down what little 

 grass they can find in the green places 

 and clefts of the rocks early in the 

 morning, and return to the woods to 

 digest and discharge it. Any man 

 who puts a flock of sheep into such a 

 pasture, will be convinced in a few 

 years of the truth of the adage from 

 nothing, nothing comes, and find him- 

 self in position of the boy who went 

 whaling. At the end of three years 

 the captain settled thus with him : 

 " O's an 0, and 2's a 2 ; not a cent com- 

 ing to you. 



I will ask you to closely observe 

 through the season, in regard to the 

 various plants and trees named to 

 you, as to their time of flowering, the 

 preference of the bees for them, the 

 amount of honey and its quality, so far 

 as you can, from the different species, 

 and carefully note all down that you 

 may correct any misstatements I have 

 made, and have a more accurate 

 knowledge in the future. This plan 

 will tend to make us all more observ- 

 ing and more successful in our fasci- 

 nating employment. Above all let 

 us keep one fixed rule constantly in 

 mind, never to be so selfish as to hide 

 any light we may have. Let us con- 

 sta'ntly seek more light and knowl- 

 edge, and be as ready to impart it to 

 our bee-keeping brothers, as we are to 

 ask it of them. The most humble 

 member of our fraternity may, by 

 honest endeavor, become the most 

 useful or us all, a bright and shining 

 light in the firmament of the apiarists. 

 That we all strive earnestly, honestly, 

 and unselfishly in this cause is my 

 earnest wish. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Frost Bitten Bees. 



W. H. SHIRLEY. 



A queer heading for an article on 

 bees I hear some one saying. Wait ! 

 let me explain a little. Stimulative 

 feeding in the spring to induce rapid 

 breeding, is, I believe, advocated in 

 all bee books and by many writers. 

 That idea cost me quite a little item, 

 in the way of dead brood, 5 years ago. 

 The same thing occuring again this 

 morning (on a smaller scale— one hive 

 only), put me in mind of old times. 



I always winter the bees out of 

 doors, with chaff protection ; I have 

 found it the best, so far. I unpack 

 them generally from April 20 to May 

 10. I have unpacked only 14 this year. 

 At the time of this writing, 4 years 

 ago, we unpacked them earlv. Bees 

 were in good condition, except that 

 quite a number lacked stores. Here 

 was a chance to try stimulative feed- 

 ng. As the w'eather was warm 

 .about 50- most of the time), things 

 moved oil nicely ; and brood-rearing 

 increased rapidly. We were having I 



visions of early swarms, and liad al- 

 ready divided 5 colonies (dividing for 

 increase, and I have quarreled since 

 that time too). But, alas! the mer- 

 cury dropped down to freezing; and 

 2 or ,S frosts followed. The bees had 

 to contract their cluster in order to 

 keep warm. All around them were 

 patches of dead brood ; enough to 

 double their numbers. 



Stimulative feeding, and I had a 

 quarrel then and there, and never 

 made up, until this spring. Our new 

 way of wintering gives a chance to 

 examine the bees often, with little 

 trouble. We could fe»d them when 

 the mercury was down to freezing, 

 with ease, and thought we would try 

 stimulative feeding again. Success 

 crowned our second trial, except the 

 one colony spoken of above. On the 

 ISth, we commenced to unpack, as the 

 weather was promising ; on the 21st 

 the mercury went down to tlie freez- 

 ing point again, and the old story of 

 dead brood in one hive, prompted us 

 to write our little experience in stim- 

 ulative spring feeding. 



The bees in the one colony becom- 

 ing discouraged, killed their queen, 

 thinking, perhaps, that a young queen 

 would bring warm weather and a 

 " honej; shower." 



I am in favor of stimulative feeding 

 now, but I want protection from sud- 

 den changes in the weather. 



Glenwood, Mich., May 22, 1883. 



Mahoning Valley, 0., Convention. 



The quarterly meeting of the Ma- 

 honing Valley Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion was held at Berlin, May 28. 



The attendance was good, the dis- 

 play of apiarian appliances first-class, 

 and the basket picnic dinner was en- 

 joyed by all. 



The forenoon session was called to 

 order by the president, Mr. Laundus 

 Carson. The minutes of last meet- 

 ing were approved. The chair ap- 

 pointed the following committee on 

 apiarian fixtures on exhibition : Mr. 

 Page, Mr. Hall and Mr. H. A. Simons. 



One of the most interesting features 

 was the question box. 



" Is it possible for an Italian queen 

 to fertilize by a black drone? Mr. 

 Carson said, " I believe that all the 

 different breeds of bees will mix more 

 or less." 



" What is the cause of my queens 

 getting balled at the entrance of the 

 hive y I lost several this spring ; I 

 found them dead on the floor of the 

 hive." Mr. Simons thonghtit a weak 

 colony, virtually starved out. Mr. 

 Carson said, " I got some queens of 

 Mr. -Heddon. and lost some of them 

 by getting balled. By a close" exami- 

 nation I found them with insufticient 

 food." Mr. Hall said, " It only hap- 

 pens in weak colonies where they 

 have more brood then they can sup- 

 port." 



" What is the cause of spring dwind- 

 ling y" Mr. Carson said, " the Italian 

 bees are more venturesome in cold 

 weather, and perish by cold." Mr. 

 Simon said. '• the black bees, with me, 

 are more venturesome than the Ital- 

 ians." 



