346 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



of the dwelling. From this they were dislodged from 

 time to time and robbed, at one time yielding near 

 a ton of honey. . At the Chowchilla ranch, near Mer- 

 ced, Cal., bees inhabited a hollow wall of a granary 

 and their store yielded 3,000 pounds of honey at one 

 time. Stranger still, in the peak of the roof of a 

 farm building there hung pendant a mass of comb 

 and honey at least twelve inches thick and eight 

 feet long, hanging down three feet or more. This 

 was about to be removed for fear it would fall of its 

 own weight. 



In Colorado, the production of honey has fallen 

 somewhat in the sheep-feeding district, since alfalfa 

 has been cut earlier, before it has come much into 

 bloom. This fact of necessary earlier cutting will 

 prevent the bees making so much use of alfalfa in 

 the east a-s they do in the pastoral regions of Cali- 

 fornia. 



Experiments made by the Kansas experiment sta- 

 tion showed that bees were very necessary to the 

 development of alf-alfa seed. Whether there may 

 not be other insects than the honey-bee that assist 

 in this work is a question yet to be definitely de- 

 termined. It is certain that alfalfa seed is abun- 

 dantly produced only in dry seasons. Possibly in 

 dry seasons there is more honey in the blooms and 

 therefore more to entice the bees. 



Alfalfa for Cattle Grazing. — Reference has been 

 made already to the practices of ranchmen in Cali- 

 fornia Where it is not uncommon to see thousands 



