838 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



above, on the legs of the bees, snugly packed 

 away in the corbicula. 



POLLINATIOX. 



We should not fail to call the attention of 

 our people to the great work of bees as pol- 

 linators of our fruit and vegetable bloom. 

 If we have cold foggy weather all through 

 the period of bloom of cherries or plums or 

 pears, we shall have a very meager crop. 

 Of course, it very seldom happens that we 

 have no warm sunny days, but it does often 

 happen that the days are so generally unfa- 

 vorable that the crop is much reduced. It is 

 gratifying to find that our fruit-men are com- 

 ing quite generally to recognize this fact. I 

 believe that the good work and exceeding 

 importance of bees in this role of pollinatoi's 

 can not be too much emphasized or overesti- 

 mated. I find that our cherry-growers are 

 very anxious at the time of cherry-bloom, 

 and are very happy if warm sunshine covers 

 the entire period of bloom. The cherry crop 

 is a very profitable one, and the loss of it is 

 often very serious. 



SAGE BLOOM. 



Although we have no honey to date, yet 

 we do not mourn as those without hope. 

 The white and black (or bail) sage is.coming 

 on well; and if we have warm weather we 

 may yet hope for a big crop. We must see 

 to it that we have strong colonies to reap the 

 benefit of later bloom and nectar. 



First swarm April 24. A number of colo- 

 nies have swarmed or prepared to swarm be- 

 tween that time and May 10, although the 

 weather has been unfavorable a large part of 

 the time, cool and cloudy. I do not know 

 that I ever saw my bees in more uniformly 

 strong condition at this season. As there 

 was scarcely any loss of bees during the win- 

 ter, it is likely that this season will see a re- 

 turn to something like the old number of 

 bees in this valley. 



A great many hold the theory that in a 

 very open winter the bees fiy so much and 

 are so much more active generally that they 

 consume more honey than they would in a 

 winter somewhat colder. The past winter 

 was very warm and open, scarcely any cold 

 weather here, and most of the tim'e the bees 

 were fiying every three or four days. Yet 

 the lightest of my colonies had plenty of 

 stoi'es, and I have been obliged to take away 

 solid combs of sealed honey from a number 



of my colonies this spx'ing to make room for 

 the queen to lay. 



SWEET-CLOVER BLOSSOMS 285 DAYS FROM 

 SEED. 



I told you before something of the sweet- 

 clover seed I planted last July. Three lots 

 of seed were planted. Some of the ordinary 

 white variety, some old seed of the yellow 

 variety, and some seed of the yellow that was 

 gathered July 18, all the planting being done 

 some time between the 20th and 25th of July. 

 The seed of the white was hulled, while the 

 yellow was in its natural condition. The 

 white clover came up very promptly, with a 

 good thick stand, while the yellow did not 

 germinate so well, having only a scattering 

 stand. But this spring the seed that did not 

 germinate last summer is growing finely and 

 the old plants of both varieties are doing 

 well, the ground planted to the white clover 

 being covered with a heavy growth. The 

 yellow seed had probably been covered a lit- 

 tle deeper than the white. Whether the dif- 

 ference in germinating was due to this or to 

 the fact that one was hulled and the other 

 not, or a natural difference in the varieties, 

 I do not know. I wish I did. 



All this planting was done in an orchard 

 where the ground has always been kept in a 

 state of perfect cultivation, which shows that 

 in Colorado at least there is no difficulty in 

 getting sweet clover to grow in cultivated 

 land. 



The first blossoms of the yellow clover 

 were seen May 5th, which would be 285 days 

 or less from the time the seed was sown. Al- 

 though a biennial plant, this particular lot 

 of clover will have completed its life-history 

 inside of a calendar year, using parts of two 

 seasons. This shows the possibility of get 

 ting a full crop of blossoms on the same land 

 eac!h year. Ordinarily when sweet clover oc- 

 cupies the whole of the land there are not 

 many blossoms except on alternate years, as 

 the second-year plants cover and shade the 

 ground so completely that no young plants 

 are started that season. 



It was my intention to plow under the 

 white clover as soon as it was about a foot 

 high, my main object in planting it being to 

 furnish an object-lesson to the orchardists, 

 many of whom are beginning to appreciate 

 the value of green manuring and cover crops, • 

 but who can not yet be brought to look up- 

 on sweet clover a^ any thing but a nuisance. 

 Alfalfa has been recommended for this pur- 

 pose by our experiment- station men, but I 

 believe sweet clover is in several respects far 

 superior. 



On account of a pressure of other work I 

 did not get at the work until it was too high 

 to plow under, so I will cut a crop of hay 

 from it and then plow it under as soon as it 

 has grown up again. The ground will then 

 be cultivated until July, when I expect co 

 plant another crop of sweet clover. If fur- 

 ther experiments succeed as well as this I 

 shall have shown the practicability of plow- 

 ing under a heavy crop of clover on the same 

 land every year. Any one familiar with the 



