386 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Excessive Swarming. 



It has been out of the question to 

 keep bees from swarming. The 

 weatlier has been too wet and cold, 

 all through the white clover season ; 

 with only enough of sunshine to give 

 the bees a chance to swarm ; swarm 

 they would, and swarm they did. 

 Pasturage has been good all the 

 spring and summer, so far, but the 

 weather has been so bad that they 

 could not gather the crop, wliicli has 

 been most abundant, if it could have 

 been saved. Basswood opened the 

 15th, and would have given us a 

 large surplus, had the weather been 

 favorable ; bees are very strong, and 

 would do well if they could. 



A. \V. OSBURN. 



Water Valley, N. Y., July 23, 1883. 



Sweet Clover, etc. 



I enclose samples of honey plants. 

 Please give me the name of plant No. 

 1, and also state whether it is honey- 

 producing. My bees have not found 

 it yet, as it grows by the kitchen door, 

 and they never come about the house. 

 Is No. 2 the famous MoUie O'Large's 

 honey plant, that we read so much 

 about y Is smartweed and heart's- 

 ease the same plant V Please answer 

 lu the Bee Journal. 



Mus. J. N. Heater. 



Columbus, Neb., July 2, 1888. 



[Number 1 is sweet clover (Mdilotus 

 officinalis], a well-known honey plant, 

 and for its large and long continued 

 nectar-product, very justly esteemed 

 by apiarists. Another species much 

 like the present one, has white 

 flowers, while these are yellow. Both 

 are natives of Europe, but are now 

 widely disseminated throughout our 

 country, and spontaneously (as would 

 appear) spring up about the yards, 

 roadsides and waste places anywhere. 

 They are biennial plants, flowering 

 or not the first year, according to the 

 earliness, vigor, etc., of the seedling, 

 and the length of the season, but 

 springing up from the root the second 

 year, and making rapid and large 

 growth with an abundance of flowers, 

 each of which is richly filled with 

 honey of excellent quality. The 

 plants are very hardy, and in most 

 places propagate themselves sufti- 

 ciently to keep up the supply. The 

 first part of the generic name, 3Iel, 

 means honey ; so conspicuous, this 

 substance seemed to be to Tournefort, 

 the French botanist, as he examined 

 and named the plant. 



Now comes another side to the 

 story. Only last week an appeal came 

 from Livinston County, 111., for in- 

 formation as to how to exterminate 

 this sweet clover from the roadsides, 

 the officer in charge finding it a verit- 

 able nuisance as a weed. Neither 

 is this the first request of the kind 



that has come to your correspond- 

 ent from the region of country 

 southwest from Chicago, within a 

 radius of a hundred miles. Cattle do 

 not commonly eat the plant, and no 

 enemies among the insect tribe appear 

 to follow it. The long, hard stems, 

 with open foliage, make a poor sub- 

 stitute for many better plants which 

 are crowded out in the special locali- 

 ties where this clover iirominently 

 thrives. This again opens up a very 

 interesting, and in many ways, im- 

 portant question, much too intricate 

 and involved, however, to be entered 

 upon here, except as a simple state- 

 ment — the question of the peculiar 

 grovvth of certain plants in certain 

 regions. 



We used to have an idea that plants 

 succeeded best in their native coun- 

 try, or at any rate in places most 

 nearly resembling in soil, climate, etc., 

 the original home of the species, but 

 this is by no means the fact. Our 

 worst weeds are such from their 

 vigor and abundant reproductive 

 powers, but nearly aft these worst 

 ones are importations from abroad, 

 largely from across the ocean. On the 

 other hand, some American plants, 

 not specially obnoxious at home, are 

 the pests of the fields, gardens, etc., 

 of pther countries. Our evening 

 primrose is well-nigh an occupant of 

 the whole land area of the temperate 

 zones, sometimes scattered and 

 scarcely noticeable, sometimes pesti- 

 ferous as a weed. The same fact may 

 be noted in regard to the plant growth 

 in different parts of our country. In 

 central Illinois Canada thistles do not 

 thrive, no seed at all is produced. 

 Those pests of the eastern pastures 

 and meadows, " hard-hack " and 

 " white weed," are rarely seen in the 

 West, and if introduced, more rarely 

 maintain their unenviable reputation. 

 Any one may multiply these exam- 

 ples, but it is not so easy to answer 

 why such peculiarities exist. With- 

 out attempting it here in any way, 

 attention is called to the importance 

 of proper knowledge in this respect, 

 when introducing or harboring plants 

 strange to the vicinity. A pest may 

 be kept out or readily exterminated 

 perhaps at first, which, after a time, 

 becomes a continual nuisance in spite 

 of efforts at eradication. The bee 

 men are blamed in the locality re- 

 ferred to for the existence there of 

 sweet clover, whether justly or not is 

 another matter. 



Number 2 belongs to the mustard 

 family, and seems to be a Dentaria. 



The specimen is not sufficiently de- 

 veloped to permit accurate determi- 

 nation. 



The plants usually called smart- 

 weed and heart's-ease are not the 

 same species, though similar in ap- 

 pearance, and belong to the same 

 botanical genus (Polygonum,). The 

 former — there are several of them — 

 have a sharp or peppery taste, the 

 latter is quite free from this property, 

 and contains a gland mucilage not 

 found in the other. When, however, 

 beekeepers speak of the product 

 from " smartweed " the non-acrid 

 species of Pohjfjonum are meant, for 

 these are by far the best honey 

 plants.— T. J. BuRRiLL, Champaign, 

 111. 



Width of Sections. 



In reply to G. II. Denman {see page 



363), I w'ould say that my sections 



were a sixteenth less than two inches 



wide, and in racks holding 21 sections. 



L. C. Whiting. 



East Saginaw, Mich., July 20, 1883. 



Gibson Co., (Tenn.) Association. 



Too much rain this season for a 

 good flow of honey. The crop is al- 

 most a failure, in this section. I will 

 get some more yet, but in all that I 

 get from the spring harvest will be 

 about 1,500 p<Mnids of comb honey. 

 My bees are bringing in pollen rap- 

 idly now, and rearing bees for the 

 fall crop, and with favorable weather 

 we may expect a good fall crop of 

 honey. Bee-keepers are getting 

 somewhat more interested in bees, in 

 this countjy, than before ; and have 

 organized the "Gibson County Bee- 

 Keepers' Association,'' a report of 

 which you will get next week. The 

 Bee Journal comes regularly, and 

 is a welcome visitor to Honey Hill 

 apiary. J. W. Howell. 



Kenton, Tenn., July 17, 1883. 



Poor Honey Prospect in New York. 



We had a hard fight to get our bees 

 through the cold spring, and many 

 colonies fell by the way. Since then 

 an almost continual rain blighted our 

 good prospects for a large yield of 

 honey. We had a good show of white 

 clover, but heavy rains prevented the 

 bees from gathering mucli honey from 

 it. Basswood h:.is helped bees to fill 

 the brood-chambers some, but gave 

 only a little surplus honey. The re- 

 sult is. there is but very little surplus 

 honey in this section, up to this date. 

 We may get some fall honey. 



R. Bacon. 



Verona, N. Y., July 24, 1883. 



Basswood Come and (Jone. 



Basswood began to bloom 10 days 

 ago, and it is now gone. Sumac is m 

 its prime, and will last for 3 weeks 

 yet. I have had about 50 pounds of 

 surplus so far, on an average, per 

 colon>, and more is nearly ready to 

 take away. H. L. Jeffrey. 



Washington Depot,Ct., July 23,1883. 



