276 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



f?ood, and not only biouorht him humbly at 

 the feet of Jesus, clothed and in liis right 

 mind, but with floods of penitent tears, at 

 tlie feet of the true and faithful wife that 

 (xod }ia(l given him, while he confessed and 

 asked i)ardon for the years of suffering lie 

 Irad caused. A new love and courtship 

 aime into that family, and as her loving 

 smile of years ago came back, as he wel- 

 comed her morning, noon, and night, with 

 his old boyish devotion, can you not imagine 

 that the angels looked down from heaven 

 and smiled, too. over that happy household? 

 This is what is in store for those wdio choose 

 to follow Christ; and oh, my friends, can 

 you not see, on the other hand, the cloven 

 hoof that soon betrays itself, where one fol- 

 lows almost any other path. 



The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 



He maketh me to He down in green pastures; he 

 leadeth mo beside the still waters. 



He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths 

 of righteousnes-* for his name's sake. 



Ycix, though I walk through the valley of the 

 shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou ait 

 with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.— 

 Psalms, 33; 1-5. 



"botany OF HONEY^PLANTST^ 



MOTHERWORT, AND RABIT FOOT, OR STONE CLOVER. 



f' AM now at a place where the bees are very ac- 

 tive and have plenty of honey. They seem to 

 — ) be abundant on the enclosed piint. Please let 

 me hear what it is ; also the price of the seed and its 

 reputation as a honey producing plant. 



W. F. Bason. 

 Haw River. N. C, June 20th, 1S78. 

 P. S. I add what we call wild clover. Let me hear 

 if it is a good honey yielder. W. F. B. 



The plant first mentioned is motherwort 

 OT Leonurus cardidca. It is a relative of cat- 

 nip, and both belong to the mint family. It 

 is valuable as a honey plant, since it blooms 

 in June and remains in bloom through Jidy 

 and Aug., and furnishes nice, white honey. 

 It has been spoken of several limes in back 

 Xos. of Gleanings. The seed is advertised 

 in our price list. 



Of the second plant, whicli you call wild 

 clover, Prof. Beal says, "It is TrifoUum 

 (orense, rabit foot, or stone clover, an insig- 

 nificant annual, which will not likely be of 

 much value, if we judge from the way it 

 grows in the north." 



T will send you a few buds of one of our best hon- 

 ey plants. It will be in bloom in a few davs, and 

 lasts several days: it generally blossoms from the 

 41 h to the 10th of July, and is covered with bees from 

 morning until nig-ht. It grows from one to two feet 

 high, on our flat, timbered land mostlv. Please give 

 the name In Gleanings. AVm. Foster. 



Latona, 111., June 26, 1878. 



The name of the above mentioned plant is Piininn- 

 thenuim Linifoluim. It is a sort of wild basil, of 

 which we have a dozen or more. They belong to 

 the mint family. W. J. Beal. 



Lansing, Michigan. 



BUFFALO CLOVER. 



Please find enclosed a specimen of clover, which I 

 plucked from a small psjtch found in one of my 

 neijrhbor's fields. It is a new varietv to me, and the 

 bees are working on it freely. It }>:rows about 1.5 in. 

 high (What I saw of it), has a .straighter stalk than 

 the red clover, and has a vorv nice white bloom. A 

 German told me that it is called "turky clover." I 

 would like to know what varietv it is: also of what 

 value it is for bee pasturage, where the seed can be 

 had, the time to sow it, and how to prepare the 

 ground. Kufus Robinson. 



La Clede, Fayette Co., 111., June 3d, 1878. 



This is a specimen of TrifoUum stolonifcrum , or 

 running buffalo clover. I receive either this or the 

 other species of buffalo clover, once or twice a year 

 from 111. W. J. Beal, Lansing, Michigan. 



We have no acquaintance with this clover, 

 and have no means of answering the (jues- 

 tions concerning its honey value, &c. Can 

 not some of our readers answer? 



Enclosed, I send you the bloom and leaf of a plant 

 growing in great abundance in our orchard. In the 

 early part of the day, it is j\ist humming with bees, 

 which seem to gather pollen. Do you know the 

 plant ? If so, what is it ? The two little blue petals 

 fold up in the afternoon when the sun shines. It-al- 

 ways has a fluid at the base of the flower, but it does 

 not seem to be sweet. Do you suppose they gather 

 honey from it, or only pollen? A Subscriber. 



Farmington, Texas, June 11th, 1878. 



The above named plant is the Commclijna Viroin- 

 iana, a sort of spiderwort, of which there are seve- 

 ral varieties. W. J. Beal. Lansing, Mich. 



The bees probably gather honey from it. 



GKAFTING QUEEN CELLS. 



D.WIS TRANSPOSITION PROCESS. 



SHAVE just been experimenting' on an idea ta- 

 ken from former .iournals, about grafting lar- 

 vae into queen cells. 



The process of grafting is very simple. Wait ini- 

 til the cell is nearly ready to be sealed, then with a 

 broad tooth pick, remove the black larva, and from 

 a frame of larvae just hatched from the egg, care- 

 fully remove one, and insert it into the royal jell.v 

 at the bottom of the cell. 



The advantages of this method are several : 1st, 

 you insure to the queen larva an abundance of 

 food even in a nucleus ; for, the coll being nearly 

 cnmpleted, is, consequently, well stored with food, 

 and the larva, being just liatched, will continue to 

 be fed luitil old enough to be sealed. The cells arc 

 usually built out large and full: 2nd, any coll in the 

 apiary can thus, with a few moment's work, be made 

 to produce a flue Italian queen: 3d, there is a con- 

 siderable saving of time when a black colony is left 

 queenless. and you wish it to raise ,a queen for itself; 

 instead of having to wait until all the black larvae 

 is too old, then destroying the queen cells and giv- 

 ing Italian brood or eggs, we have only to wait un- 

 til the colls are formed, then supercede the black 

 larva with one from a choice stock, and "pre^to- 

 cbange!" we have a fine Italian queen: 4th, it obvi- 

 ates the necessity of weakening choice stocks by the 

 constant removal of frames of brood for queen rear- 

 ing, as an inch square will furnish larvae for 40 or.W 

 cells. This larvae is to be taken as young as possi- 

 ble— JKSf hatched. Then I don't think any one can 

 object, as they ai-e fed for the first three days on the 

 same substance as the q\ieen, only not so abundant- 

 ly. Tlie ((ueens I have raised thus are very fine, 

 large, and active. John W. Slack. 



Plaqueiiiine, La., June 7th, '78. 



I quite agree with you, my friend ; we 

 have used the ])lan almost every season, and 

 invari:il)ly get nice queens, even from cells 

 raised from the most vicious hybrids. When 

 you get a colony that will not accept any 

 qtieen, and will tear dovn\ all the (lueen cells 

 you can furnish them, there is a rare satis- 

 facti(m in cheating them in this way, and 

 making them rear a clioice queen, while 

 they fondly think they are having tlieir own 

 way. There is some danger, and that is that 

 careless people might skip a cell, and thus 

 liatcli out a hybrid, or some inferior queen, 

 and unwittingly sell lier for a clioice one. 

 If you wait until the larvae are all too old to 

 rear queens, then mark every cell after it 

 has been grafted, on tlie top bar of the 

 frame, right over it (I often lay a small ])eb- 

 ble right over a choice cell, to distinguisli it 

 from others that may be in the hive) you 

 cannot very well make a mistake in your 

 queens. 



