THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



313 



Sweet Clover. 



I enclose a part of a plant ; will you 

 give the name, and also please Ift me 

 know if it is a honey plant y Bees 

 seem to like it very well. It comes 

 early in the spring, and grows about 

 3% or 4 feet high, when the bloom 

 comes. A great many limbs or 

 sprouts come from the same root. It 

 blooms the second year from seed. 

 L. R. Williams. 



Paris, Texas, May 28, 1883. 



[It is riielilotus alba, or sweet clover, 

 and is an excellent houey plant. — Ed.] 



Bees ill Louisiana. 



Bees, in this locality, are doing 

 poorly, owing to the late spring and 

 cold rains. Most of us have finished 

 dividing, and are now waiting for a 

 little sunshine, so that we may com- 

 mence extracting. In this parish are 

 about 2,500 colonies of bees, wliich 

 are contained in about 15 different 

 "apiaries ; all of whicii are run exclu- 

 sively for extracted honey. Of course, 

 scattered all through the country, are 

 a few hives of bees, kept by the farm- 

 ers' wives for their own use ; tliese I 

 did not count. I should like to know 

 whether it is infringing on a patent to 

 repair a patented article when it is 

 broken '? Please tell us something 

 about Florida, Colorado and New 

 Mexico through the columns of your 

 valuable paper, for we Louisianians 

 are tired of being flooded every spring, 

 and are thinking seriously of emi- 

 grating en masse. T. M. Hines. 



Point Coupee, La., June 4, 1884. 



[Of course you can repair, or do any- 

 thing you like with a patented arti- 

 cle, after you have purchased it, ex- 

 cept to make others like it. Our cor- 

 respondent will find considerable in 

 the Bee Jouknal about the locali- 

 ties named, especially in relation to 

 their adaptability for progressive bee- 

 keeping.— Ed.]' 



Magniflceiit Flow of Honey. 



My bees have gone crazy on the 

 honey question. I never saw such a 

 flow of honey before. 



Joseph E. Shavek. 



North River, Va., June 8, 1883. 



Basswood Promises Well. 



Please find enclosed a leaf that I 

 would like to know the name of, and 

 its importance as a honey producer. 

 I only know of a little of it along the 

 roadside, and it is alive with bees 

 from morning till night ; blooming at 

 the time it does, between fruit tree 

 bloom and basswood, it might be val- 

 uable for bees if it has no objection- 

 able qualities to over-balance the good. 

 My bees are strong ; have been start- 

 ing queen-cells, but a scarcity of 

 honey and unfavorable weather caused 

 them to destroy tlie cells. There is 

 very little white clover here, and I 

 expect I will have to feed some be- 

 tween now and basswood bloom, 

 which promises to be good. Almost 

 every one seems to be giving their 

 preferences in regard to a standard 



frame, and all seem perfectly willing 

 to adopt a standard, provided they 

 adopt their preference. I think a 

 compromise between a deep and shal- 

 low frame would be the best to unite 

 on. I tliink it would be easier to 

 unite, if the advocates of both deep 

 and shaUow frames would give a 

 little, and 1 would endorse the frame 

 recommended by Mr. P. P. N. E. 

 Pellissier, on page 240, 10 inches deep 

 by 15 inches long, inside measure. I 

 am not using that size, but would be 

 willing to adopt it. L. G. Purvis. 

 Oregon, Mo., May 28, 1883. 



[The leaf is not recognized. It is 

 hard to determine plants from the leaf 

 alone. Send part of the stem and es- 

 pecially tlie flower.— Ed.] 



Excellent Prospects for Honey. 



I put into winter quarters 46 colo- 

 nies, and 43 came out in fair condi- 

 tion ; but I have lost, up to date, 5 

 more, leaving 38 now, all but 5 are 

 ready to go into sections. I had hard 

 work to keep them up, but I am sat- 

 isfied to have them in this condition, 

 after such a severe spring. 1 expect; 

 a good honey yield ; white clover has 

 commenced to yield honey, and there 

 is as good a stand of it as I have ever 

 seen. Our bees did not get enough, 

 up to date, to keep breeding;! had 

 to feed them largely, but hope now it 

 is all right. I will report my experi- 

 ments on wintering before fail. 



A. WiCHERTS. 



Mattison. 111.. June 8, 1883. 



Mountain Maple for Houey. 



Will yon please name, in the Bee 

 Journal, the enclosed plant. It 

 grows on a tree something like the 

 maple, and the roaring of the bees 

 upon it to-day, attracted my atten- 

 tion. Fruit bloom is just done, and 

 and if this is a good honey plant, as 

 the working of the bees seems to in- 

 dicate, it may be made to fill an im- 

 portant gap ii\ the honey flow. I 

 could not find another tree like the 

 one from which I picked these leaves 

 and flower. James MgNeill. 



Hudson, N. Y., May 29, 1883. 



[This is the mountain maple (Acer 

 spicatum), a small native tree, widely 

 dispersed through the heavily- wooded 

 portions of the United States and 

 Canada.— T. J. Burrill.] 



Backwardness of the Season. 



The cold and backward spring has 

 been ])retty hard on the weak colo- 

 nies of bees in this section, but strong 

 colonies are booming. Geo. C. Green, 

 of Factoryville, 1% miles from here, 

 had a large swarm about two weeks 

 ago. He winters his bees in chaff 

 hives; has some 30 colonies, and lost 

 none. I have 8 colonies in plain Sim- 

 plicity hives ; 6 of them I packed with 

 chaff cushions, and the other 2 I left 

 to tliemselves, as they were weak 

 ones, and 1 thought it was not worth 

 while to bother with them. Did they 

 live through the long cold winter V 

 Yes sir ; and came out just as well as 

 the rest, having quite as large a pro- 



portion of their number ready for 

 business as the others had. Why 

 "this was thus," I cannot say unless, 

 as the old gentleman remarked at the 

 convention the other day, " It was 

 just their contrary way." I wish you, 

 Mr. Editor, would stir up those who 

 advertise queens to sell, etc., to be a 

 little more prompt in filling orders, or 

 say plainly that they cannot imme- 

 diately do as they advertise. Some- 

 times those who call themselves 

 '■ square men," get a bad reputation 

 by not being prompt. I ordered some 

 queens some two weeks ago from a 

 breeder who wrote me that he could 

 send them on five days notice, but not 

 a queen is here yet, although a letter 

 w'ill reach liim in less than two days. 

 I ordered more, from another breeder 

 in the South, who claims, in his cir- 

 cular, to be able to fill orders in April, 

 but not a queen do I get. In his ac- 

 knowledgement of my order, he said 

 it was cold there, and he was afraid 

 they would die in the mails. That 

 was three weeks ago. The mercury 

 now stands at 8.5^ to 88° in the shade, 

 and he is only two days and half away. 

 Are they all alike V I think not ; but, 

 from the little dealings I have had 

 with some of them, I fear a majority 

 belong to the three-handed army; that 

 is, they have a right hand, a left 

 hand, and a little behind-hand. 



" Connoisseur." 

 La Plume, Pa., June 5, 1883. 



[The weather, this spring, has been 

 such, not only in the North, but also 

 in the South, that queens could not 

 be reared and fertilized, much less 

 shipped to fill orders. Our corres- 

 pondent should remember that the 

 circulars were gotten out in Uie win- 

 ter, and no one could then foresee the 

 terribly backwardness of the spring. 

 Beeders calculated on the usual 

 weather, but have been treated to 

 some very unusual, this spring. All 

 must exercise patience, eat a little 

 more honey, and keep sweet-tem- 

 pered.— Ed.] 



Toads — A Dangerous Bee Trap. 



A few evenings since I went out to 

 my apiary, and in front of the en- 

 trance to one hive I discovered a large 

 toad. I watched him a few moments, 

 and saw him catch bees as they ven- 

 tured out on the alighting board. The 

 toad would twist bis month and turn 

 from one side to another after swal- 

 lowing a bee. I caught the toad and 

 made an investigation. First cutting 

 off his head, I examined the inside of 

 the mouth, w^here was found several 

 stingers in the jaw and roots of the 

 tongue, where the bees had stung 

 him when lie closed his mouth upon 

 them. I then opened the body and 

 pressed upon the stomach, when nine 

 nice Italian bees came out, lifeless. 

 Others remained in the stomach, 

 enough, I think, to have made the 

 number 18 or 20. In answer to the 

 question, " Will toads catch bees ?" 

 I can certainly answer, they will. 



W. A. Shewman. 



Randolph, N. Y., June 9, 1883. 



