ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



67 



Pres. Dadant — Now, we will come to 

 the question of fermenting and the 

 bursting of the caps. I have seen that 

 quite often, which usually occurs with 

 unripe honey; that is, honey that is not 

 matured when capped, and it will fer- 

 ment and burst the cappings; this is 

 the case with basswood honey, but with 

 no other kind. 



, Will Atchley — I have had some ex- 

 perience with the honey, and it' has 

 mostly been horsemint. I tried some 

 experiments with it and was successful. 

 Before it was sealed up, I carried it 

 almost to a boiling point. The comb 

 honey, I simply stacked it on. You 

 take thin honey that is fermenting and 

 it will improve from heating. 



W. H. Laws — The case with this 

 horsemint honey, if left with weak 

 colonies, in my case, when it was placed 

 over weak colonies for sealing and cur- 

 ing them, it failed to do it. I have 

 seen this honey almost boiling out of 

 the cells. 



J. A. Stone — I have had honey that 

 was fermented until it was not eatable, 

 not marketable at all, and by heating it 

 I could cure it entirely, and I do not 

 heat it to the point of boiling. 



Mr. Teel — I have had a good deal 

 of experience where it was newly 

 sealed, but I believe that it was caused 

 from combs that had got a little mois- 

 ture in them, a little wetting in the fall 

 before, and the sour, vinegar-like sub- 

 stance would settle in the spring, which 

 caused the fermentation. The best 

 thing, is to do away with the combs 

 when they get in that shape. 



Mr. Jones — I have had some trouble 

 along that line. Maybe it would be in 

 a low place and a wet season, so I at- 

 tribute it to the moisture that rose 

 from the ground; that the combs ab- 

 sorbed this, and caused them to break. 

 I have seen it in one-story hives often, 

 and where the ground was damp all the 

 caps, would swell ; but I have never 

 noticed it where I had bottom-boards. 



SWEET CLOVER SEED. 



"Where can I get sweet clover seed 

 that will grow?" 



Mr. Stone — I think Mr. Holekamp 

 can tell us. 



A Member — I just want to say that 

 I bought some sweet clover seed from 

 an Ohio firm, I think about three years 

 ago, and tried it for two years and 

 never got it up at all. The last year 



I soaked the seed 24 hours, and planted 

 it and it is up, and the clover is grow- 

 ing nicely now. 



Mr. Holekamp — Two years ago I 

 bought 100 pounds of sweet clover seed, 

 I do not know who sowed it, but I 

 understand that wherever these men 

 "have taken their Sunday afternoon 

 walks that the clover grew all around 

 there, and it must grow there else they 

 would not say that. I don't say that 

 they scattered it! 



Mr. Kimmey— ^It is impossible for me 

 to understand sweet clover not growing. 

 I can not conceive how anybody can not 

 make it grgw, except people who don't 

 want it; it grows like a weed. It has 

 just occurred to me that sweet clover 

 ought to be sowed in the fall. 



Dr. Bohrer — The question with us is 

 how to keep it from growing. I came 

 very near taking up 100 plants and giv- 

 ing to the bee-keepers ; it will grow, and 

 can be transplanted the same as cab- 

 bage plants; then take the plants up, 

 set them out where you want them to 

 grow and you will never have any 

 trouble. If you allow the seed to get 

 musty then it won't grow; and I want 

 to say that if any bee-keeper will send 

 me one cent a plant, I will put up a 

 plant and send to him this fall or next 

 spring. 



Mr. Stone — In Illinois, one of the 

 professors at the University has dis- 

 covered that there is a bacterium that 

 is always on the root of the sweet 

 clover. If they can get these bacteria, 

 they say it will grow anywhere. They 

 are advised by the professor to scrape 

 up the dirt where sweet clover has 

 grown, and sow it with the seed. 



Dr. Treon — Most of these gentlemen 

 who have been talking about sweet 

 clover happen to live some place where 

 it is raised. We people in this country 

 have such long drouths that it has been 

 impossible to plant it without irrigation, 

 and even the alfalfa does not grow 

 where it is irrigated. It may be due to 

 the lack of bacteria. Now, I have what 

 looks just like a tobacco leaf, and we 

 are calling it clover. That is the only 

 form of clover in this country, and it 

 grows wild. I have seen sweet, red and 

 white clover, but I n-ever saw anything 

 like that, and the bees gather lots of 

 honey from it. There is very little of 

 it in this country. If we can make sweet 

 clover grow here, this will be an ideal 

 bee country. 



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