THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



101 



the brood, and have less bees the first 

 of June than the}' did the first of May. 

 We want bloom to fill in this space, so 

 as to have the bees in prime condition 

 to store surplus when alfalfa comes in 

 bloom. 



The yellow sweet clover comes two 

 weeks earlier than alfalfa; it grows in 

 all kinds of soil; is a good forage for 

 stock. If the seed was scattered 

 throughout the country, we would soon 

 have it in abundance — a blessing to the 

 farmer and to the bee-keeper. The al- 

 sike clover blooms at about the same 

 time; is a wonderful honey plant and 

 a great hay plant. When in Michigan 

 a few years ago, I secured twenty-five 

 pounds of the alsike seed. I found a 

 farmer out near Lakewood who was go- 

 ing to seed two pounds of alsike to the 

 acre. Last season it bloomed. At first 

 it looked as though nearly all alsike, 

 but later on the alfalfa filled in and 

 made a beautiful hay crop. The farmer 

 told me he was offered $12.00 per ton 

 for the hay, when he was getting but 

 $8 for the straight alfalfa. It has been 

 a poor season to make experiments, as 

 we had a blighting freeze the 20th day 

 of May, but it has gone far enough to 

 prove to me there is much value in it, 

 to the farmer as well as to the bee- 

 keeper. 



In driving from Denver to Boulder, 

 a few miles south of Louisville, I dis- 

 covered, growing on the plains, an acre 

 or more of horehound. This is a great 

 honey plant. A few seeds got there by 

 chance, and have increased, until now 

 the horehound covers several acres of 

 dry clay and gravel soil. There are 

 hundreds of thousands of acres like this 

 soil which might be in horehound in- 

 stead of cactus and other worthless 

 plants. When living near Rocky Moun- 

 tain Lake, I saved a quantity of cleome 

 seed. In the spring I drilled it in the 

 ground. It came up beautifully and 

 made a wonderful growth. There are 

 thousands of acres where cleome would 

 grow, where the ground is growing 

 nothing. The seeds could be buried or 

 drilled in in early spring. 



Let every bee-keeper study his lo- 

 cality, and let him see to it that there 

 is a continuous bloom from spring to 

 fall. I remember, when I first moved 

 to Denver, I noticed, when driving back 

 and forth to my bees, ten miles north- 

 west of Denver, down by the foot of 

 a small lake, a bunch of sweet clover 

 growing. I would stop my team, get 



down from my wagon, and observe the 

 bees gathering honey. That was the 

 only sweet clover in that part of the 

 country. Today it is very common, yet 

 there is not as much as there might be. 

 Cannot we all aid the honey-growing 

 plants to get a foothold? It is better 

 to see yellow and white sweet clover 

 growing than Russian thistle and horse- 

 weed. By sowing the clovers, we make 

 feed for the cattle and honey for the 

 bees, and thus we aid to bring the time 

 when the land will flow with milk and 

 honev. 



THE LATE F. B. CAVANAGH 



Former Director of the National Bee-Keepers" 

 Association. 



The members were shocked while at 

 the National Convention at St. Louis 

 to receive word that Director Cavanagh 

 had died. He was to have been the 

 delegate from the Chicago-Northwest- 

 ern Association. Instead, the news of 

 his death. We are informed that Mrs. 

 Cavanagh will not continue the busi- 

 ness, and asked that some one who is 

 interested in the purchase of a large 

 bee business, write her at Hebron. Ind. 



