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IIXINOIc? STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



43 



never succeeded in keeping any alfalfa 

 till the next spring. And I think it is 

 a good season in this locality for it and 

 clover, too. The soil is rich but loose. 



Mr. Stone: Is your soil loose? 



Mr. Holekamp: Yes, sir. 



Mr. Poindexter: Did you ever see 

 bees working on alfalfa? 



Mr. Stone: Yes, sir. But only two 

 or three. But some insects do work 

 on it so it produces seed. 



Mr. Kildow: I want to disagree a 

 little with Dr. Miller. In my experience 

 the clover doesn't come up and propa- 

 gate like a strawberry plant, but it 

 will root and keep going. But late in 

 the fall you can take that same seed 

 plant and pull it all out; strawberry 

 plants you can't do it. But this white 

 clover in our neighborhood it will 

 come up and draw out, it has blos- 

 soms, but when the season is over you 

 can pull it out. 



You have to have this spring's clover 

 to make next year's honey. It is so 

 dry I am afraid all our clover is gone. 

 "We have a little place but it will hard- 

 ly give the bees a taste. 



Mr.. Becker: In 1883 I was living in 

 Christian County. There was an old 

 man, and me and him worked together 

 with the bees. "We had a very large 

 crop of honey that year from white 

 clover. I said, "Uncle, I don't think 

 there will be any trouble, but we will 

 have white clover all along." He said, 

 "Billy, I have lived longer than j^ou, 

 we will not have any white clover at 

 all." It comes and disappears and 

 about the only thing that kills it is a 

 dry fall, and then it freezes up; you 

 won't see any next spring. That is 

 my experience with the white clover 

 in my locality. I have a lot in the 

 hog pasture the hogs run in. It was 

 solidly covered- with clover this spring, 

 three head of hogs in there, and if we 

 get a rain now before it freezes up 

 it will be all right, but if it closes up 

 without any rain we won't see any 

 white clover. 



Mr. Spracklen: In regard to the two 

 different kinds of white clover, if any 

 of the brothers will call I will show 

 them in my apiary two kinds of white 

 clover. One kind runs along and comes 

 up, which is our real white clover. 

 Then I have another kind in my apiary. 

 It is about that high (indicating the 

 height), and spreads out. 



Mr. Stone: You take the white 



clover and it has a little white streak, 

 heart-shaped, on the leaf, and the 

 Alsike leaf is plain green. 



The white clover has a single stem 

 from the ground for each blossom, 

 while the Alsike branches out like 

 red clover, and has a purplish white 

 blossom, similar to white clover. I 

 think these are your two kinds of 

 white clover. 



Mr. Moore: I have had them grow 

 in my strawberry patch and in culti- 

 vated soil where it had every oppor- 

 tunity. This one variety has a creeping 

 habit. The leaves and blossoms are 

 small, and not far from it is the other 

 variety. It had plenty of room. That 

 would grow up and stand up a foot 

 high. 



Mr. Stone: Single stem? 



Mr. Moore: Yes, sir. It would come 

 up and would have big roots and a 

 big bunch of" leaves a foot across. This 

 other variety wouldn't stand up but 

 two or three inches. This is the reg- 

 ular field white clover. "Where it is 

 crowded in a blue grass stand it 

 wouldn't grow so. 



Mr. Stone: I suggest that we go 

 back to the programme and have Dr. 

 C. C. Miller give us a little talk. 



Dr. C. C. Miller: I don't know that 

 I want to make a speech, but if I did 

 I would say a few words about the 

 space in raising bees and see whether 

 we are not making a mistake. 



"We know there are some advantages 

 of having considerable space during 

 the swarming season. If we can have 

 good ventilation below we can keep 

 down the swarming, if there is a good 

 amount of space below where they are. 

 But in the cellar for the winter it is 

 easier to keep the interiors clean, and 

 if they are out doors the dead bees 

 accumulate there and we have trouble. 

 If we go to having too much space 

 under the bottom bars, then we meet 

 with the trouble that they will build 

 down comb. The question is to get 

 all the advantages and keep clear of 

 the disadvantages. I think it is an en- 

 tire mistake to suppose that bees will 

 build down in a -space that is only a 

 little larger than % of an inch. 



Lately I read an article in the Irish 

 Bee Journal where the space under- 

 neath was three inches. For three 

 years he had that bed and there never 

 has been any comb bed bars. 



So to begin with, we begin in the 



