i'HE AMERICAJST BEE JOURNAL. 



501 



cumstances, when I adjust a section- 

 case on the hive, the bees will take 

 possession of it, and have their heads 

 stickinR up through the openings at 

 the top of the case before I can put on 

 the quilt and hive-cover. Get your 

 brood-chambers "chock full" of 

 workers of the right age to gather 

 honey, and have the brood-nest full of 

 unhatched and hatching brood, put 

 on your section-cases at the right 

 time, and if your bees do not store 

 honey promptly and rapidly, you just 

 set it down that there is no honey in 

 the fields. I do not want any brood 

 close to my nice honey in the sections. 

 — G.W. Demakee. 



This plan would undoubtedly start 

 the bees to work in the sections, but 

 it is too much "machinery," and 

 they will start soon enough if the 

 sections have drawn comb, if there 

 is any honey being gathered in excess 

 of what is being used. How much 

 honey did Mr. John W. get from 8 

 colonies worked upon some other plan? 

 How about pollen and brood in the 

 sections V— W. Z. Hutchinson. 



I do not think this plan will "pan 

 out" well at all. The brood-chamber 

 is the proper place in which to rear 

 brood, and all attempts that I have 

 heard of in the direction of this query, 

 have proved failures. Many plans 

 seem very fine in theory to the novice, 

 that in practice prove worse than 

 valueless, and in my opinion the re- 

 sult that will follow working on the 

 above theory, will give brood when 

 and where it is not wanted, and no 

 extra honey as a recompense.— J. E. 

 Pond. 



This is a successful method of 

 working for comb honey. A bee- 

 keeper in Pennsylvania took 100 

 pounds of comb honey in sections 

 from a colony of Syrio- Albino bees 

 worked on this plan the present poor 

 season, and increased to 6 colonies. 

 It is easy to get the bees started in 

 the sections. If the frames of sec- 

 tions, just before being sealed, are 

 lifted to an upper case, the honey will 

 be very nice. This method is usually 

 practiced without separators.— G. L. 

 Tinker, 



While it may get the bees to start 

 early, the plan is too objectionable to 

 be recommended.- The Editor. 



Convention Notices. 



1^^ The next meeting of the Northwestern Illi- 

 nois and Southwestern Wisconsin Bee-Keepers' 

 Association will be held at ". J. CumminEs, in 

 Ouilford, 4 miles northeastof Rockford. Ilia., on 

 Thursday, Aug. 18. 1887. D. A. FULLER. Sec. 



^F" The redar Valley Bee-Keepers' Association 

 win be held at Waterloo. Iowa, on Sept. fi and 7, 

 1887. The Cedar Valley Bee-Keepers' Produce and 

 Supply Union will meet with the above Associa- 

 tion. This meeting will be made both pleasant 

 and profitable to bee-beepers. All interested in 

 apiculture are cordially Invited to attend. Do not 

 be discouraged with this year's crop, but come and 

 have a good time. H. B. Hubbard, See. 



ITnton Contention at ClUcago.— The 



North American Bee-Keepers' Society and 

 the Northwestern Bee-Keepers* Society will 

 meet In Joint convention in Chicago, Ills., on 

 Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Novem- 

 ber 16, 17 and 18, 1887. This date will 

 occur during the second week of the Fat 

 Stock Show, when excursion rates will be 

 very low. 



Or0rrespr0ttdjeucje. 



This mark O Indicates that the apiarist Is 

 located near the center ot the state named ; 

 6 north of the center; 9 south; O east; 

 •O west; and this (^ northeast: ^ northwest: 

 o> southeast; and P southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



ror the American Bee JoumaL 



Effects of Drontli-Sweet Clover. 



DR. C. C. MILLER. 



On page 467, Prof. Cook is quoted 

 assaying: "The season has proven 

 that drouth alone does not surely pre- 

 vent the secretion of nectar by the 

 flowers." I venture to make the 

 assertion that the season has proven 

 that drouth alone does surely prevent 

 the secretion of nectar by the flowers. 

 I have no doubt Prof. Cook is right 

 as to the amount of drouth in his 

 locality this year, and it is undoubt- 

 edly true, I think, that a moderate 

 drouth is favorable rather than other- 

 wise for securing a Crop of honey. Mr. 

 Quiiiby, if I remember correctly, 

 claimed that the best time for storing 

 honey rapidly was when it was so dry 

 that farmers were just beginning to 

 complain of the drouth. I suppose 

 the reason is that at such times the 

 nectar is partially evaporated when 

 gathered by the bees, and of course 

 the less water the bees are obliged to 

 carry into the hives in the nectar, the 

 more honey they will store in a given 

 length of time. But let the drouth 

 continue long enough, and become 

 severe enough, and the case is quite 

 different. 



It is a little risky to make almost 

 any positive statement about bees, 

 there are so many chances of being 

 mistaken, but I can at least say that 

 I believe that drouth alone is respon- 

 sible for the fact that most of my col- 

 onies this first day of August have 

 less honey than when taken out of the 

 cellar. To be sure, it is no ordinary 

 drouth— no such drouth has ever 

 been known here. Along the road- 

 sides I have seen clover that looked 

 as if a fire had passed over it, and I 

 have no doubt the roots were utterly 

 dead. In other places the clover is 

 not killed, and even at this date many 

 blossoms are seen, but the bees seem 

 to get little or nothing from it. Of 

 course it may be said that some other 

 influence prevents the secretion of 

 nectar, but the clover killed outright 

 by the drouth is, at least, strong pre- 

 sumptive evidence that drouth pre- 

 vents nectar-making. 



s'weet clover. 



It is no little to the credit of sweet 

 clover that during this terrible 

 drouth, when the ground in many 

 places is dry as an ash-heap, and when 

 the pastures in .June and July have 

 looked like October, and acres upon 

 acres of oats have been cut down as 

 hay — it is no little to the credit of 

 sweet clover, that through all it has 

 looked fresh and smiling, and has 



been crowded with bees. Like every 

 thing else, it blossomed unusually 

 early, so that some was entirely out 

 of bloom by .July 22, and looks now as 

 if it would throw out no later bloom. 



Our good editor intimates that 

 those are short-sighted who have 

 failed to provide honey-plants to meet 

 a dearth. Now, friend Newman, do 

 you know any one who has as much 

 as a single acre of melilot all in one 

 piece ? If you do, please get him to 

 rise and explain how it was done. If 

 sown on the roadside almost any time 

 of year, I think it will grow, but I do 

 not know how to get a field of it, and 

 I have sown more than 20 acres with 

 a result of not more than about an 

 acre in all growing. I should like to 

 know how to go to work to sow a field 

 of it so as to be reasonably certain of 

 getting a fair stand. 



Marengo, 5 Ills. 



[Mr. C.H.Dibbern, Milan, Ills., (see 

 page 458), has sown three acres of it 

 more than he had before, and will, no 

 doubt, inform our readers " how to do 

 it," as requested by Dr. Miller. 



John Nebel & Son, High Hill, Mo., 

 say on page .502, that they have an 

 acre of it, and that the bees worked 

 on it from morning till night. " They 

 add thai it is the only flower that has 

 secreted nectar in any quantity this 

 season." 



Prof. C. E. Thorne, of the Ohio 

 State University, says : " It will grow 

 quite luxuriantly in hard, poor clay, 

 where even white clover will scarcely 

 live at all, and grows much more 

 rapidly than red clover in any soil, 

 while in the soils that are, as is said, 

 ' clover-sick,' it thrives as well as any- 

 where. It is a good forage plant for 

 bees and for cattle, and is well adapt- 

 ed for soiling, as it makes a growth of 

 4 to 6 feet during the season, and is 

 said to bear two or three cuttings. A 

 German analysis gives its hay a feed- 

 ing value of $15 per ton as against 

 $16 28 for very good red clover hay. 

 While red clover, upon which our 

 farming in many sections, and es- 

 pecially in clay lands, depends so 

 essentially for crops of grain, is be- 

 coming more and more uncertain, it 

 would seem to be worth while to try 

 this ' fast weed ' as a resource for re- 

 cuperative green manuring, in heavy 

 soils especially." 



But its greatest recommendation 

 for the general bee-keeper is the fact 

 that it requires no especial cultiva- 

 tion, thus making it particularly de- 

 sirable for roadsides and commons. 

 Being a biennial, the seeds possess 

 great vitality, and may be kept over 

 for a long time, and scattered a hand- 

 ful at a time, as opportunity offers, 

 or a bare place develops itself. Where 



