Scientific Agriculture. 



228 



[March, 1912. 



have a strong colony. Of course we do 

 this way only when we have nothing 

 else to do, and can sell the increase with- 

 out weakening our working colonies. 



Clothing in the Tropics. 



We use but little smoke and try to 

 raise quiet bees. If we have a bad colony 

 we kill the queen and try another. Of 

 course, all our bees will sting ; but we 

 mean by this an exceptionally cross 

 family. Queens of our own rearing are 

 cheap, and are good for only about two 

 years here any way. We have been 

 using the Swarthmore system for two 

 years, and prefer it for queen-rearing. 

 In working here we dress for comfort 

 regardless of bees, and our outfit consists 

 of short-sleeved undershirt, duck or 

 linen trousers, low shoes, and a panama. 

 Veils, gloves, etc., are in the way for 

 fast work, and too warm. When, 

 through our negligence, oversight, or 

 overwork we have a swarm, it is brought 

 back on cur arm or in our hat. Don't 

 understand that we are immune to bee- 

 stings, but they are few, and of no con- 

 sequence except for the instant ; and a 

 few stings occasionally are very good 

 for one's health. We don't have 

 rheumatism. 



We do not shade our hives except in 

 locating an apiary. We select a place 



where there are a few young palms, and 

 perhaps some other small trees. Hives 

 are placed on two bricks, flat, one at 

 each end. Everything is removed from 

 the apiary, and Beimuda grass planted. 

 It grows fast, is short, cannot be killed, 

 and ants dislike it. 



Crboline to Stop Robbers. 

 For robbers we use pure creoline, 

 applied with a feather at the ends and 

 on sides of the hive. For brood rearing 

 with our Italians we note no difference 

 day in and day out except that they 

 usually let up for about thirty days from 

 the middle of January to the middle of 

 February. 



About what is the average yield of 

 extracted houey per colony per year in 

 the cold countries ? We figure thirty 

 gallons here, the lowest I know about 

 being fifteen and the best forty-five. Un- 

 less all signs fail, this will be a good year 

 for us. Cuban honey has had a black 

 eye in the past ; but it is not all alike, 

 for we can market as good as there is. 

 There are few modern bee-keepers with 

 modern machinery here, the larger per 

 cent, of bees being still kept in logs. 

 Consequently, in the past a lot of honey 

 has been shipped in very bad shape ; but 

 present pure-food laws should tend to 

 remedy this. 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE. 



THIRTEENTH REPORT OF THE 

 WOBURN EXPERIMENTAL FRUIT 

 FARM. 



By the Duke op Bedford, k-g., p.r.s., 

 and Spencer U. Pickering, m.a., p.r.s. 



Summary. 

 The action of grass on fruit trees is 

 often so deleterious that it arrests all 

 growth, and even causes the death of 

 the tree. In none of the experiments on 

 the subject, which have now extended 

 over sixteen years, has any recovery from 

 the effect been noticed, except in cases 

 where the roots began to extend beyond 

 the grassed area. But trees which be- 

 come grassed over gradually during the 

 course of several years.apparently accom- 

 modate themselves to the altering condi- 

 tions, and suffer much less than when 

 the grass is actually sown over their 

 roots. It is partially due to this circum- 

 stance that the effect of grass in com- 

 mercial orchard is often less than that 

 observed in the experimental plots at 

 the farm ; whilst another reason for 



differences in the results is that the 

 effect undoubtedly varies in intensity 

 in different soils, though the instances 

 where the effect appears to have been 

 nil are very rare. The fact that a tree 

 has become well-established in the 

 ground before the land is grassed, does 

 not, however, prevent it from suffering 

 from the grass ; trees at the farm were 

 grassed over four years after they had 

 been planted, and they were so much 

 affected that many of tbem were nearly 

 killed ; and the trees — standards as well 

 as dwarfs — when similarly treated twelve 

 years after planting are behaving in the 

 same way, though they did not suffer 

 so severely till the third or fourth 

 season after the grassing. 



Some varieties of apples— dependent, 

 no doubt on their vigour of growth — evi- 

 dently suffer less from grass than others, 

 but very little difference has been fouud 

 between the effect on standards on the 

 free stock and dwarfs on paradise, and 

 no explanation of the difference in the 

 grass-effect in different soils can be 

 traced to the depth of good soil avail- 



