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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



Country Oentleman, Albany, N. Y. The dis- 

 cussion chiefly relates to red clover; but what 

 is said will apply to most of the others as 

 well. It is pointed out that, to get good 

 crops of clover, the land must be rich nat- 

 urally, and occasionally well manured to get 

 satisfactory results. As long ago as 1758, 

 Hale, an English writer, pointed out this 

 fact, yet there are many who believe that we 

 have only to sow clover on poor soil and it 

 will soon get rich. 



As a matter of fact, the only clover which 

 grows and flourishes on poor soil is sweet 

 clover, of the various varieties — white, yel- 

 low, and sour. Sour clover {Melilotus In- 

 dica) is highly recommended by the Arizona 

 station as a soil-improver. Prof. McClatchie, 

 of that station, says of it: "The so-called sour 

 clover, Melilotus Indica, makes a vigorous 

 growth between early fall and late spring. 

 On account of this vigorous growth during a 

 time of the year when irrigating water is 

 most plentiful, it is the legume best adapted 

 to the region for green manuring. It makes 

 the best growth if sown during Ot'tober." 

 This, coming from such a soui'ce, is good tes- 

 timony. Boiled down to its last analysis, 

 the statement that sweet clover is the best of 

 all clovers for improving poor soils is un- 

 doubtedly true. We should be glad to ob- 

 tain further particulars of sour clover from 

 our readers. w. k. m. 



THE HONEY-yiELD IN MANATEE CO., FLA.; 



THE CAUCASIANS RATHER BEHIND THE 



ITALIANS THE PAST SEASON. 



This week I have been requeening a few of my poor- 

 est colonies in the out-yard, and about four out of five 

 of the poor ones had a dash of Caucasian — probably 

 % of the bees were Caucasian, the rest Italian. One 

 hive that had not made a pound of surplus this sum- 

 mer I found had a fine large Caucasian queen, and 

 about half or more of her bees were well marked. 

 Some of my best Italians made over 100 lbs. I got 

 2800 lbs. from 42 colonies. 



I thought I would requeen all my out bees, but some 

 of them have done so well this poor year I have con- 

 cluded to cull out the poorest. I. T. Shumard. 



Osprey, Fla., Sept. 20. 



It will be remembered that, with the strain 

 of Caucasians I had on the island a year ago 

 last winter, they seemed equal if not superior 

 to the Italians as honey-gatherers; and that 

 was our impression during the summer of 

 1906; but during the past season, 1907, the 

 above letter seems to indicate that the Ital- 

 ians were ahead. My old imported queen, 

 however, died, and we were compelled to use 

 another Caucasian for breeder. She may 

 not have been equal to the original imported 

 queen. During ..he past summer I found a 

 colony out in our apiary at work before any 

 of the rest, out of the three or four hundred. 

 This colony was also out a little later in the 

 evening. When I called the manager's at- 

 tention to the colony I said, "This unusual 

 activity is owing either to the Caucasian 

 strain of blood or else it is because they have 

 a young queen that has recently commenced 

 laying. ' 



He referred to his slate and told me I was 

 right in both respects. The Caucasian queen, 

 however, that was the mother of these active 



bees, had been sold, and we had no means 

 of knowing who got her. It is now pretty 

 well demonstrated that the progeny of cer- 

 tain queens excel others as honey-gatherers; 

 and this may be true of Caucasians or any 

 other race. It begins to look as if the orig- 

 inal imported Caucasian queen that I carried 

 to the island in December, 1905, was a queen 

 of more than ordinary value. With the in- 

 formation we now have in regard to the mat- 

 ter, my impression is that the Caucasians are 

 not, as a rule, superior to the Italians as hon- 

 ey-gatherers; but where one makes a busi- 

 ness of queen-rearing they are far ahead for 

 getting large numbers of strong healthy 

 queen-cells. No queen-breeder can aff(jrd to 

 work without the help of a strain of Cauca- 

 sian blood to aid him in gralting, getting 

 queen-cells, etc. a. i. r. 



WHY COLONIES OFTEN DIE THROUGH THE 



WINTER WITH PLENTY OF STORES 



IN THE HIVES. 



Every spring there are hundreds of bee- 

 keepei"s that find many of their colonies dead 

 without any apparent reason. There is plen- 

 ty of honey in the combs, and every thing is 

 in good shape — but the bees are dead. Other 

 colonies come through so weak that it is al- 

 most impossible to build them up for the 

 honey-flow. 



There are many possible causes; and, while 

 we could not name them all, we wish to em- 

 phasize one or two. 



For instance, the colony might not have 

 been strong enough in the fall to keep up 

 the necessary degree of animal heat, so that 

 the individual bees were unable to leave the 

 cluster long enough to reach the stores in 

 another part of the hive. This would ac- 

 count for a good deal of the loss. Weak col- 

 onies should be united, for it does not often 

 pay to winter a mere nucleus. 



But there is another cause that many have 

 overlooked. Some bees must die on account 

 of old age. If the majority of the bees that 

 make up the cluster in the fall are already 

 old, then "it is evident that a large percentage 

 of the bees in that colony will die a natural 

 death during the winter. Furthermore, old 

 bees have not enough vitality, and they will 

 die under conditions that would not prove 

 dangerous for the younger bees. 



The remedy is to see that brood-rearing is 

 kept up long enough to give a strong force 

 of young vigorous bees to go into winter 

 quarters. Stimulative fertiing should be re- 

 sorted to if necessary. 



Editor Hutchinson, in the September issue 

 of The Bee-keepers^ Review, comments upon 

 the importance of ^oung bees in the fall; and 

 since his advice is particularly timely, we 

 give it herewith in his own words. 



If the bees have not gathered any stores since early 

 in the season, there ought to be some stimulative 

 feeding to encourage breeding, and thus have some 

 young bees for winter. I had a letter to-day from a 

 man in Canada, saying that his bees had gathered no 

 stores since fruit bloom, and the bees had run down 

 in numbers until he was fearful he could not winter 

 them. Last year, here at Flint, my bees gathered no 

 honey after the close of the white-clover honey bar- 



