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35tli Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., MARCH 28, 1895. 



No. 13. 



Corjtributed /Vrticles^ 



On Jmportajit Apiarian Sut>Jeots> 



Importance of Sowing for Honey. 



BY W. J. CULLINAN. 



The time has come when people who pay no attention to 

 bee-pasturage, can no longer expect to reap a rich harvest 

 from their bees. Land is now so valuable in this section that 

 every available acre is put under cultivation, except ocoasion- 



Alslke Clover. 



^VhUe Clover. 



ally a small plat that has been reserved for pasture, with here 

 and there a few acres of meadow. But the pastures are 

 grazed so closely as to afford even the persistent and low- 

 growing white clover but little chance to bloom ; while the 

 meadows abound in tame grasses — mostly timothy — and none 

 of which are of much use to the bees. 



I have seen the time when white clover abounded on every 

 hand, growing thickly along the roadsides and covering almost 

 every foot of waste land ; and I secured from that source 

 alone, in 1889, about 3,800 pounds of choice honey from 100 

 colonies of bees, spring count. But several dry seasons in 

 succession have almost exterminated it, so that now we find 

 only diminutive patches here and there. As a consequence, 

 our honey-crops have been very "diminutive" for several 

 years. Well, the remedy for this — and the only remedy — is to 

 sow seed. 



If you have only 50 colonies of bees, and you have the 

 money, it will pay you to buy white clover seed and sow it 

 along every roadside, on every common, and in every pasture 

 where the owner will give you permission to sow it, within 

 two miles of your apiary. And around gullies, on gravelly 



banks and in fence corners and on low bottom lands not cul- 

 tivated, sow sweet clover, which is one of the best honey- 

 plants grown in this country. 



If you own land, sow a portion of it in Alsike clover, and 

 if you can get your neighboring land-owners to sow some also, 

 do so, by all means. Furnish them the seed at half price, if 

 necessary; and it might pay to give away a limited amount in 

 order to increase the acreage in your immediate locality. 



I prefer the month of March for sowing clover seed of 

 any kind, but the forepart of April will do; and by the way, 

 the best stand of red clover 1 ever obtained in my life was 

 sown about the first week in April on wheat land. Some 

 advise sowing it with rye, but I never could see much differ- 

 ence, only in the aliove exceptional case, which was in favor of 

 the wheat. 



But I would advise all bee-keepers to sow Alsike instead 

 of red clover; it is equal to or better for pasture, makes finer 

 and better hay; and if you allow it to mature seed, it will no 

 doubt yield a better return, while if atmospheric conditions 

 are at all favorable it will also afford a rich harvest of excel- 

 lent honey. Don't fail to sow a patch this spring, as an exper- 

 ment, if you have never tried it. Quincy, 111. 



Bee-Management in East Tennessee. 



BY ADRIAN GETAZ. 



In a preceding article, I stated that I would give an out- 

 line of my management of bees. 



Concerning wintering, we have some serious difficulties to 



Branch and Blossoins of the Sourwood of tl\c South. 



