THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



533 



^oxxtsi^fontltncz. 



This mark © indicates that tlie apiarist Is 

 located near tne center ol tbe state named ; 

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

 *0 west; and thls(< northeast: "O northwest: 

 Ov southeast; and 9 southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



For tlie American Beo Journal. 



Reply to Jealous Canadians. 



WM. F. CLARKE. 



A correspondent at Ridge way, Ont., 

 writes me as follows : 



Undoubtedly you have read the editorial 

 on pag-e 483 of the American Bee Journal, 

 about D. A. Jones, Canada, etc. It certainly 

 calls for a reply from some Canadian, and 

 DO one could do it nicer or better than your- 

 self. I wish you would reply to it. About 

 four years ago I took a trip through the 

 Western States, and was astonished to leara 

 of the positive ignorance of the Western 

 people in regard to Canada. Just wake 

 them up to the fact that the Dominion of 

 Canada, instead of being a small part of the 

 Continent, is larger than the whole of the 

 United States, with Alaska thrown in. 



Many controversies and misunder- 

 standings originate in want of pre- 

 cision as to the meaning of terms. 

 This, along with a little national 

 " touchiness," is what ails my corres- 

 pondent. The American Bee Jour- 

 nal was refeiTing to " the whole 

 continent of America." When I went 

 to school we were taught that there 

 were/OMr continents, Europe, Asia, 

 Africa, and America. The conti- 

 nent of America includes both North 

 and South America, and of it, the 

 United States as well as Canada is 

 only, comparatively speaking, " a 

 small portion." 



It is quite true that Canada is 

 larger than the United States with 

 Alaska thrown in, a fact of which I 

 dare say, many of our American 

 cousins are not aware. It is as well 

 they should know it, for a variety of 

 reasons. Instead of giving the figures 

 that prove this, I will simply quote 

 from Hon. Ben. Butterworth's recent 

 letter to his fellow-representatives in 

 Congress, concerning commercial 

 union with this country, who says : 

 " Canada has territory larger in extent 

 than the United States " — the italics are 

 his. I go warmly with the Honorable 

 gentleman for the measure he is so 

 ' earnestly advocating at the present 

 time, and hope that the American 

 Bee Journal and all bee-keepers 

 throughout " the whole continent " 

 will do the same. It is monstrous 

 that there should be the existing trade 

 restrictions between two peoples 

 whose interests are so essentially one, 

 and that we cannot have a free inter- 

 change of commodities. I cannot 

 send for any little apiarian fixture 

 from the United States without its 

 cost being doubled by duty and cus- 

 toms fees. 



But let us have done with all petty 

 inter-national jealousies. " Before all 

 nations is humanity." The broad- 

 minded man is cosmopolitan in 



thought and feeling, regarding him- 

 self as a citizen of the world. I do 

 not suppose that Mr. Ivar S. Young 

 meant any Invidious exclusion of 

 Canada when he spoke of " the Amer- 

 icans " as " the first and greatest bee- 

 keepers in the world." Europeans 

 are accustomed to apply the term 

 •' America " to Canada as well as the 

 United States. When I was in Eng- 

 land, many of my fellow-countrymen 

 said to me. "You are from America," 

 or asked, '' When are you going back 

 to America ?" 



The ignorance of Western people 

 about Canada is overmatched by that 

 of English people. When I told them 

 that we had single lakes in Canada 

 big enough to submerge England, 

 they received the statement with 

 mingled incredulity and disdain. 

 They have no idea of the vastness of 

 this continent. On the vessel in which 

 I returned, there was a Captain CoUi- 

 son who had military business at 

 Quebec, Montreal, and Toronto. He 

 told me that a friend of his handed 

 him a letter on the eve of his depart- 

 ure, asking him t6 drop it in Tennes- 

 see as he went along. Great was his 

 surprise to be told that the Captain 

 wasn't going within 1,000 miles of 

 Tennessee. Why, even the London 

 Times the other day— the leading 

 journal of Europe — committed a 

 couple of palpable blunders. It spoke 

 of the scene of the recent railway 

 catastrophe as being St. Thomas, 

 Manitoba; and the Hamilton (Ont.), 

 Times received a pamphlet from its 

 London namesake, addressed " Editor 

 Hamilton Times, Hamilton, Ont., 

 New York, U. S. A." 



Guelph, Ont. 



[The fact that Mr. Ivar S. Young 

 wrote the same words to the bee- 

 papers of Canada as he did to those of 

 the United States, shows that he in- 

 tentionally addressed the bee-keepers 

 of both " Canada " and the " United 

 States," as " the Americans,"— and 

 correctly so, too. 



Mr. Wm. F. Clarke's correspondent 

 evidently thinks that the great conti- 

 nents of the world are Europe, Asia, 

 Africa, Australia, America, and 

 Canada 1 Mr. Clarke's reply to this 

 idea, as a Canadian, is just, manly, 

 and broad, and we congratulate Cana- 

 dians upon having at least one who 

 takes a cosmopolitan view of matters 

 and things. As before stated, we 

 have no desire to restrict the language 

 of Mr. Ivar S. Young— it belongs alike 

 to the bee-keepers of Canada as well 

 as to the rest of America. 



We also fully concur in the remarks 

 of Mr. Clarke about a " commercial 

 union" between the "two peoples, 

 whose interests are so essentially 

 one," and hope to see the day when 

 there will be " a free interchange of 

 commodities " between Canada and 

 the United States. The fact is, we 



should like to have the whole of 

 North America happily united as one 

 Nation, and under one government ! 

 and we cherish the thought that we 

 may yet live to see it accomplished.— 

 Ed.1 



For tne Amertcan Bee JoumaL 



Sowing Sweet Clover for Honey. 



C. H. DIBBERN. 



As suggested by Dr. Miller on page 

 501, 1 will " arise and explain " how [ 

 sow sweet clover. Some five years 

 ago I was so impressed with the value 

 of this plant for bee-forage, that I 

 determined to put in a patch of about 

 \% acres. I then drilled it, with a 

 garden drill, in rows about 4 feet 

 apart, and one inch in the row. I 

 secured a good stand, and the next 

 year it was immense, some of the 

 plants measuring 14 feet high, and of 

 course covered the ground completely. 



I found it considerable work, how- 

 ever, to keep the weeds down the first 

 year, and wishing to sow about an 

 acre more the following year, I sowed 

 it with oats, broad-cast ; but I got the 

 oats too thick, and after it was cut, I 

 found that I had but a few scattered 

 plants of the melilot surviving. The 

 next year it was pretty thin, but since 

 then it has been good, and has taken 

 entire possession of the land. 



Last spring, wishing to put in three 

 acres more, I decided to sow with 

 oats, and sow the oats quite thin, and 

 the sweet clover thick, as early as 

 possible. I succeeded nicely, and in 

 June I cut four tons of oats hay, cut- 

 ting it rather high, so as not to dam- 

 age the sweet clover. This has paid 

 me well for work and use of land. I 

 now have a splendid stand of melilot. 

 Although the ground is hard, and as 

 dry as a bone, the clover has made a 

 nice growth since cutting the oats, 

 and I have no fears of its withstand- 

 ing the drouth. The only trouble I 

 have had is to secure a good stand the 

 season succeeding the first bloom. In 

 the case of my first patch, I sowed 

 both fall and the next spring after 

 sowing, and yet the second season 

 was almost a failure. 



As to the value of this plant, the 

 experience of the present t(h)orrid 

 summer, makes me think better of it 

 than ever. During the early part of 

 .July, as about everything else had 

 dried up and disappeared, the sweet 

 clover was in full glory. It was won- 

 derful to see the bees on it— some- 

 times two and three on a single clus- 

 ter. The severely dry weather did 

 not seem to affect it in the least, and 

 it has produced an abundance of seed. 



Of course in a season like this it 

 could not be expected that two or 

 three hundred colonies would store 

 any surplus honey from 2^^ acres, but 

 I am convinced that it has been a 

 great help to keep them from starv- 

 ing. Next year I hope to be able to 

 report tangible results as to increase 

 of surplus honey from sweet clover. 



Milan, >o Ills. 



