904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, 



July 1 



FIG. 1. — APIARY OF M. Jb. IKiiJliLE, MAiWllALL, .MO., SHOW liSG HOW OKASS AND WEEDS WEKE 

 KEPT DOWN BY FOUR SHEEP; HIVES ARE INCLOSED IN TAR-PAPER WINTER CASES. 



ver honey in New England, or at least this 

 portion of it, as we seldom get a yield of 

 any importance from this source, even though 

 the hives "boil over" with bees of the best 

 kind. 



To digress a little from bee-keeping to 

 farming I will give about what is known in 

 P^nglaud as the "four-course shift" in agri- 

 culture, which is considered one of the most 

 approved methods of maintaining the fertil- 

 ity of a moderate to heavy loam ( such as we 

 frequently meet in this pai't of New England). 



1. White-straw crop — wheat, oats, or bar- 

 ley, seeded in fall with clover. 



2. Crop of clover hay; soil to yield two crops 

 in fall or spring. 



3. Crop of roots — mangolds, turnips, or 

 kohlrabis. The turnips may be fed off with 

 sheep in fall, optional with tenant. 



4. Fallow (or idleness), to allow land to 

 recuperate. 



If I remember rightly, the old Mosaic law 

 provided that land should remain idle one 

 year in seven. This applies to leased or 

 hired land. Where the occupant is also the 

 owner he may farm to suit his own fancy, 

 just as freely as in the United States; but as 

 so much of the English land is tenanted with 

 leases of 7, 14, or 21 years, or perhaps long- 

 er, a method suitable to the locality or estate 

 is usually laid down and lived up to. Be- 



sides this, all hay, straw, and fodder must 

 be consumed on the farms, witli all that 

 means, river valleys and other favored loca- 

 tions excepted. 



Investigation would suggest that land that 

 is short of lime in some form or other does 

 not favor the secretion of nectar. Even 

 some of our buckwheat-growers complain of 

 certain land not secreting honey. The rem- 

 edy appears to be to apply lime in some 

 form, and a cheap one is sometimes found in 

 gas lime, or the lime that has been used at 

 the gasworks, when obtainable. The fall 

 would seem to be the time for its application, 

 and that it would be necessary to apply but 

 once in a term of years, determinable upon 

 cropping and results obtained. 



Melrose, Mass. 



SHEEP IN THE APIARY. 



Valuable for Keeping Grass and Weeds 

 Down: Some Views from Missouri. 



BY M. E. TRIBBLE. 



Fig. 1 is a picture of my apiary about 

 ready for winter. Four sheep kept it clean 

 of weeds without help. The hives are 

 wrapped in tarred paper, with chaff cush- 

 ions in upper story, and the entrance con- 



