30 MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION 
year. It is a plant which is easily scattered in a new territory and 
is found growing frequently along railroad tracks where it is 
brought in. In a few years it takes possession of the roadsides for 
several miles back from the railroad. 
The lack of an autumn harvest is one of the most noticeable 
things in the State. There are many varieties of golden rod or 
sclidago which serve to keep the colonies rearing brood but are, not 
sufficient to afford stores for the winter. There are some plants 
which may be cultivated and incidentally increase the honey produc- 
tion. Among such plants may be cited Wagner’s flat pea, vetches 
of various kinds and parsnips. In general there are few :f any 
plants that can be cultivated for the honey they may produce unless 
they have some other value also. 
ESSENTIALS OF A GOOD BEE HIVE 
Nearly everyone is familiar with the pictures of the old conical 
bee hives of straw. These hives consisted of rings of straw bound 
together and shaped up like the crown of a hat, measuring perhaps 
eighteen to twenty inches in diameter, and a little more in height. 
At one point on the edge a piece was removed for an entrance, and 
then the whole inverted on a board. Rowed out in this fashion simi- 
lar hives can be seen today in some parts of Germany and Austria. 
When one wished to remove the honey a bit of sulphur paper was 
burried in the entrance, killing the bees; then the combs of honey 
were removed. This method in these days would be exceedingly 
wasteful and very primitive. With the advance of apiculture, sul- 
phuring is being relegated to the upper shelf and bees have increased 
greatly in value. In America the old box hive, on the same princi- 
pal, was in vogue until the middle of the last century. These pion- 
eer hives measured about fifteen inches square and usually stood 
about thirty inches high. As in the old straw hives, the entrance 
was formed by a notch in the edge of the hive which was then in- 
verted on.a bottom board, the latter projecting and forming the 
alighting board. To facilitate attachment of combs, a couple. of 
sticks were sometimes crossed in the box near the top, upon which 
the bees could cluster for comb building. 
The hive now commonly used in Germany, Northern Austria, 
German Switzerland, Italy and Hungary is the one improved by the 
Baron von Berlepsch and known by his name. This hive is arranged 
