486 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1 



He says, "I deny that this style of laying is 

 maintained throughout the season." That is 

 true, and the reason of it is that the bees put 

 honey or pollen here and there, and destroy 

 the harmony of the brood-laying. But if Mr. 

 C. will examine as I have done, he will find 

 that at no time is there so large an amount 

 of brood as when the regularity of laying is 

 kept up. This is not ditHcult to understand 

 by any one who has watched the queen in an 

 observation hive, and has noti(^ed the deliber- 

 ation and slowness of her actions. Time is 

 lost, much time is lost, when she does not 

 follow a regular course in her laying. 



And, please, do not tell me that you can 

 rear stronger colonies than I do by our meth- 

 ods. Mr. J. M. Shuck, of Des Moines, who 

 was an advocate of reversing hives, sent us 

 his foreman once to win us over to his meth- 

 ods because, as they said, they could rear 

 more brood by inverting than by any other 

 method. The foreman came, stayed two 

 days, and went away, won over to the Da- 

 dant methods. 



Mr. Bondonneau, the editor of the French 

 Gleanings, '' U Apiculture nouvelle,'" when 

 he made a trip to the United States, some 

 three or four years ago, showed great aston- 

 ishment at the strength of our bees, and said 

 to me that he had not anywhere seen such 

 strong colonies as he saw in our apiary. 



In summing up, allow me to thank those 

 friends who do not agree with me for the 

 courtesy of their criticisms. If we can't 

 agree as to size of hives we can at least agree 

 to be pleasant, for it is worse than useless to 

 discuss by abusing one another, as I have 

 seen it done in some other places. 



Later. — I am in receipt of the Feb. 15th 

 number of the Review. In this paper Mr. 

 Hutchinson, who has at one time been in fa- 

 vor of the horizontal Heddon hive, and who 

 also argued in favor of manipulating hives 

 instead of frames, shows a decided prefei'- 

 ence for the deeper frame, and I desire to 

 quote his last words, with which i concur 

 completely: "My plea is for simplicity in 

 hive-construction — for plain simple frames, 

 without projections or staples, without any 

 excrescences whatever. Then I would hang 

 them in a hive that is equally simple. I be- 

 lieve — yes, I know — that all these 'fixings' 

 that are put upon frames and hives are a 

 needless expense and bring no recompense." 



Hamilton, 111. 



[We wish to indorse particularly the sen- 

 timent "If we can not agree as to the size of 

 hives, we can at least agree to be pleasant, 

 for it is worse than useless to discuss by abus- 

 ing one another." That sentiment we hope 

 all our correspondents will carefully keep in 

 tnind. We will not allow, if we khow it, any 

 thing but courteous and friendly criticism in 

 these columns, and we believe that our pages 

 in the past bear pretty fair evidence of this. 

 Some correspondents, when they get involved 

 in a controversy, feel inclined to ridicule and 

 abuse an opponent. Ridicule is never argu- 

 ment, and abuse is out of place in modern 

 journalism. Let us disagree; let us argue, if 



need be; but let it be courteous, with a dis- 

 position at all times to recognize and acknowl- 

 edge the good points made by our opponent. 

 Good discussion with an honest square differ- 

 ence of opinion should and does bring out a 

 lot of truth, and for that reason our columns 

 are open to all such — Ed.] 



HOAV TO GET MORE HONEY FROM 

 THE CLOVERS. 



How to Destroy the Clover Midge; Fur- 

 nishing Seed to Neighboring Farmers. 



BY WM. m'EVOY. 



This is the all-important line to put the 

 work on, and yet it is the most neglected of 

 any. The basswoods are fast disappearing, 

 and less alsike clover is being grown; and, 

 this being so, every bee-keeper should help 

 to improve his own locality by getting a cer- 

 tain amount of alsike-clover seed sown every 

 year, as by so doing he will get larger yields 

 of this choice honey, which sells for the high- 

 est price in all markets. 



The nearer the fields of clover are to the 

 bees, the larger the yields of honey will be. 

 Mr. Arthur Quantz, of Langstaff, York Co., 

 had fields of alsike clover only a few rods from 

 his bees, and he took over 260 lbs. of ex- 

 tracted, clover honey from several of his col- 

 onies, and this in 1906, an off year when the 

 crop from clover was almost a complete fail- 

 ure in many parts of Ontario. Mr. Alexan- 

 der Donaldson, of Binbrook, Wentworth 

 County, had fields of alsike clover only a 

 few feet from his apiary, and secured by far 

 the largest crop of section honey from clover 

 of any man in our province in 1906. 



I mention these cases to show that it is not 

 how far bees will go for honey, but how 

 close we can have them to the fields of clo- 

 ver, that counts every time. 



Feeding off red clover up to the 20th of 

 June, or mowing at that time, destroys the 

 whole of the first brood of the clover midge; 

 and when the second crops heads out there 

 will be little or no midge to injure the heads, 

 and then nearly every head of clover will 

 come into full bloom; and if the weather 

 conditions are right then, Italian bees will 

 gather a good deal of honey from the second 

 crops of red clover. 



In September, 1905, I extracted over 3000 

 lbs. of pure red-clover honey after giving the 

 bees plenty to winter on. This honey was a 

 light amber in color, and good in flavor, and 

 sold for the same price as the honey gather- 

 ed from white clover. My bees being Ital- 

 ians, they worked well on the second crop 

 of red clover, which was not injured by the 

 mid^e in my locality in 1905 on account of 

 the first crop being cut early. 



In 1906 red clover was not cut soon enough 

 in my section to destroy the first brood of 

 clover midge; and when the second crop was 

 ready the midge started in with full force, 

 and practically ruined it for both seed and 

 honey. The controlling of the red-clover 



