1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



205 



bulletin I have taken the liberty to reproduce the following 

 closing paragraphs for the Bee Journal readers : 



Melilotus is also a 

 first - class honey- 

 plant. The honey 

 therefrom is of light 

 color, and of yery fine 

 quality. The plant is 

 a profuse bloomer, 

 and it remains in blos- 

 som several weeks at 

 a time. The blossoms 

 are so minute and 

 numerous that the 

 bees are able to secure 

 therefrom a large 

 amount of honey, 

 which, to the bee- 

 keeper who grows 

 melilotus, is an addi- 

 tional profit. Even if 

 melilotus had no other 

 value it would be 

 profitable for bee- 

 keepers to grow it for 

 honey alone. I have 

 been practically ac- 

 quainted with melilo- 

 tus for about 35 

 years. My first ac- 

 quaintance with this 

 plant began in western 

 New York in 1858. 

 In 1861 I came to 

 northern Illinois, and 

 since that year I have 

 had an extensive year- 

 ly acquaintance with 

 the plant, as it grows 

 here luxuriantly, and 

 in great abundance. 

 On the richest land 

 here the plant, when 

 permitted to attain its 

 full growth the second 

 year, often reaches 

 the height of 6 to 8 

 feet. The seed matures here in August and September, but 

 in the South it ripens in July and August. 



WHEN TO sow THE SEED. 



The seed of melilotus may be sown at any time of the 

 year in the North ; but, in the South, the best time, so I am 

 reliably advised, is early in the fall or spring, or late in the 

 winter ; in short, the very best time being from February to 

 to April, either alone or with grain. The better way is to 

 prepare the ground by plowing and harrowing, as for grain, 

 and then harrow the seed in. This plan insures a good 

 "catch." In Kansas, where melilotus is grown successfully, 

 and extensively as pasturage for hogs, the practice is to cover 

 the seed, if possible, from one to two inches deep, or even 

 deeper. This may be done by means of the drill. The seed 

 should not be sown mixed with grain, but separately, and at 

 the rate of from five to ten pounds per acre ; but some prefer 

 a thicker seeding of from 15 to 20 pounds per acre. For 

 honey alone, five pounds of seed per acre is ample, as the 

 plants stool better, and will remain in bloom longer; but, of 

 course, is not so desirable for hay, or pasture, as the plants 

 are not so fine and numerous as with the thicker seeding. 



HOW TO SECURE THE SEED. 



1 have this year (1894) taken pains to secure a large 

 supply of the seed, and, from what I know, is the genuine 

 melilotus alba. Now, to any who may desire to seed down a 

 small plat of ground to melilotus, and as an experiment, it 

 will give me pleasure to mail a package of the seed on request, 

 but on condition that they will, at the proper time, report to 

 me their success, and also that they will send me enough pos- 

 tage to cover the expense of mailing the seed. 



St. Charles, III. M. M. Baldbidge. 



The engraving of sweet clover shown above is considered 

 by Mr. Baldridge as being the best he has ever seen. I repro- 

 duced it last year for^these columns from a picture in an old 

 Government Report. 



^n)or)^ i)r)c Bee-Papers 



Conducted by '• ai^EA.NER.' 



GIVEN FOUNDATION MADE ON BOLLS. 



Gleanings says they have been experimenting, and are 

 now working on a set of rolls on which they expect to make 

 an exact duplicate of foundation made on the Given press, in 

 which shall be all the good qualities of both the rolled and the 

 Given foundation. A consummation greatly to be desired. 

 But we'll wait and see. 



QUEENS TO FOEEIGN COUNTRIES. 



Doolittle, in Gleanings, says he concluded from experi- 

 ments made by confining queens at home, that 26 days' con- 

 finement was the limit. He afterwards found that a queen he 

 sent to Australia by express, being accidentally delayed at 

 San Francisco, was actually 65 days on the way ! The queen 

 was all right. Besides the "Good" candy, he puts into the 

 cage a piece of comb with a few cells of unsealed honey and 

 the rest empty cells, so that the bees can store the candy in 

 the cells if it gets too soft. 



SWEET CLOVER IN DALLAS COUNTY, TEXAS. 



Cows prefer sweet clover. I have two acres of this 

 adjoining the alfalfa. The gate opens just on the line be- 

 tween the two. I soon noticed the cows turning to the sweet 

 clover. I then noticed very closely ; and since that time, 

 without a single exception, the cows would first turn to the 

 sweet clover. This satisfies me that cows prefer it; but, like 

 alfalfa, it produces the very best of milk and butter. 1 have 

 tried all the different varieties of clover here. Alfalfa and 

 sweet clover are the only two that will make a success in this 

 part of the country.— J. D. Givens, in Gleanings. 



IN-BREEDING OF BEES. 



At the big German convention Herr W. Vogel related that 

 he had visited a bee-keeper in 1857 whose father and grand- 

 father had kept bees, the grandfather by the hundreds of 

 colonies. Herr Vogel found the number reduced to two col- 

 onies, the bees being small, with little energy. Inquiring, he 

 found the nearest bees were miles away, and he advised the 

 purchase of two or three colonies from a distance, to infuse 

 fresh blood. The advice was followed, and five years later 

 the man wrote, "My apiary is flourishing." 



SOME LOCKED-UP HINTS, 



On page 168, Mr. M'Neal objects to Mr. Chapman's giving 

 a hint and then putting the key in his pocket, and before he 

 gets through Mr. M'Neal does the very same thing himself. 



He says, " Clipping the queen's wings down to mere stubs 



is not entirely without merit"— but doesn't give the slightest 

 hint wherein the plan has any merit over the usual way of 

 clipping. 



Putting in foundation with glass and hot water may suit 

 him very well if he has tried nothing better, but has he ever 

 tried one of the best foundation fasteners ? 



His idea as to the cause of swarming is original, and is 

 worth thinking about. 



COMB AND EXTRACTED HONEY FROM THE SAME APIARY. 



In an article in Progressive, G. M. Doolittle winds up 

 thus : "I conclude that it is the most profitable for the apia- 

 rist to work for both comb and extracted honey in the same 

 apiary, rather than to have two separate apiaries, one to be 

 devoted to the production of either kind exclusively." 



ABUSE OF THE SMOKER. 



It seems to me no humane person should want to use a 

 particle of smoke more than necessary, for surely it isn't 

 pleasant for the bees ; but, really, is it as bad as one would be 

 led to think from reading page 174 ? The injudicious use of 

 the smoker is there charged with an indefinite amount of 

 mortality among the bees. Whilst granting the unpleasant- 

 ness to the bees and the cruelty on the part of the operator, X 

 am somewhat skeptical as to the "mortality " part. I once 

 wanted to get some bees out of some combs that I could not 

 brush, and smoked them very heavily without success. I then 

 concluded I would kill them, and gave them a pretty heavy 

 dose of brimstone. Those bees dropped, but after getting the 

 air became lively as— bees. Try it sometime, and see if you 

 can make wood-smoke dense enough to actually kill a bee. 



