AGRICULTURAL MISCELLANY. 55 



Bokhara clover, mignonette, black mnstard, Chinese mustard, borage, com- 

 mon and silver-leaf buckwheat, common and Chinese sunflower, and Eocky 

 Mountain bee-plant. 



The colonies were not permitted to swarm, but artificial swarming or 

 dividing was practiced. Three colonies left without leave-taking, which 

 loss might have been prevented by '-'previously cropping the queen's 

 wings." The professor says he has proved, what reason and a knowledge 

 of the natui-al history of the honey-bee would discover, that natural swarm- 

 ing is always suffered at a great sacrifice. Tliis insures a queenless colony 

 for nearly or generally quite two weeks, which is equivalent to the loss of a 

 fair colony of bees, as a good fertile young queen will start a fair colony in 

 this time, especially as this is generally at the time of the best honey sea- 

 son of all the year. The great value of the extractor was again demon- 

 strated during the unusual honey yield of August and September. Although 

 the bees had plenty of' room in the supers — both boxes and frames — still 

 they would fill up the brood space as fast as the bees came forth, so as ut- 

 terly to preclude breeding. By extracting, the bi'ood-chamber was kept 

 replete with brood, while by omitting the same, breeding stopped entire;}-. 

 It was found, too, that this sent the queen into the supers, where she would 

 lay if there was a possible chance ; whereas she remained below entirely 

 when room was given her in the brood-chamber. 



The fact that there was no brood reared in colonies destitute of pollen 

 till the bees had gathered and stored some seems to demonstrate that pollen 

 is an essential element of the feed of the larvfe, though it is not required by 

 the mature bees. The rapid increase of brood in the spring would also in- 

 dicate that, it is as well, if not best, that the bees have no pollen till they 

 can fly out in the spring. The observations of the past spring, sustained 

 also by those of 1874, show that bees are pretty apt to be able to gather pol- 

 len as soon as it is best for them to fly in spring — by the middle of April — 

 and that feeding meal is unnecessary. Evergreens for shading the colonies, 

 especially Norway spruce, not only serve an excellent purpose, but can be 

 trimmed so as to make the apiary grounds very attractive from their beauty, 

 and are to be strongly recommended. Sawdust about the hives, underlaid 

 with brick, by keeping the grass down, serves an excellent purpose, as it 

 enables one to see at once any bees that fall upon it, and thus insures against 

 loss of queen. 



As all the bees wintered so well during the past winter, no special dif- 

 ference could be seen between those fed late the previous fall and those that 

 were not. All bred so late as to vitiate the experiment. The experience 

 of the summer shows that the following honey-plants not only yield well, 

 but that they bloom well early in July till autumn, covering a period when 

 there is a dearth of native honey-bloom : Mignonette, borage, and black 

 mustard. Chinese mustard is inferior to black mustard. It blooms early, 

 and the bloom fades away much sooner. Sun-flowers are unworthy cultiva- 

 tion, while the Eocky Mountain bee-plant blooms too late to be valuable 

 where there is plenty of fall bloom native to the region. With no native 

 bloom to furnish autumn honey, it would be valuable. All of the above do 

 well on light sandy soil. The autumn experience proved that golden-rod 

 honey, though rather dark, is of very superior flavor. Several good judges 

 have pronounced it superior even to linn or white clover. — N. Y. Tribune. 



Grape Pruning. — People have been befogged and bewildered by read- 

 ing grape books and articles on grape culture, so much so that many are 

 fearful to apply the knife or use common sense in pruning. . A variety that 



