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 as 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 alfalfa 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 
