THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
121 
Extracts from jforelgn Journals. 
SWEET AND ALSIKE CLOVER. 
MBS. L. HARRISON. 
From the American Bee Journal. 
Beekeepers have for many years been 
experimenting with, and seeking after plants 
which will pay to raise for honey alone, hut 
have never found one that was satisfactory. 
The clovers are the most popular honey-plants, 
and, excepting the sweet clover (Melilotus 
alba), are favorites with the farmers. 
The presence of sweet clover is sufficient 
proof that there are Beekeepers near by. It 
is classed among pernicious weeds in Illinois, 
but this is a mistake, as it dies root and branch 
the second year, and does not spread. 'This is 
proved by the fact, that where roads and lanes 
are so full of it, and its growth is so rank that 
it is difficult for a team to drive through, yet 
not one stalk will be seen growing in the 
adjoining fields. During muddy weather the 
seeds are carried on waggon wheels for long 
distances, and seem to germinate more readily 
in this nay. I have an idea that the seed 
heats easily, for several times I have gathered 
it as it ripened and put it into a paper sack, 
and sowed it in waste places, and not e, plant 
appeared. But when I cut off the stalks and 
scattered them, it grew and held its own ever 
afterwards. 
When speaking of this plant, I always 
think of the old minister who had a surly wife 
and would not allow any of the fraternity to 
visit him. When one of his brethren was 
condoling him he said, “ Don’t pity me too 
much, brother; my wife has some good 
streaks.” This plant also has its good points, 
growing and thriving in poor gravelly soils, 
and enriching them by its deep, long roots 
and branches, and preventing gullies by hold- 
ing the soil ; and lastly by producing the 
choicest nectar during drought s and periods of 
scarcity. It has value as a forage plant in 
early Spring, as it grows before other clovers 
and is relished at this season by stock, and 
especially by fowls. It is sometimes cut and 
stored with hay on account of its fragrance, 
ns it will perfume the whole mow. Gather 
the stalks now, and cause the waste places to 
rejoice with the happy hum of industrious 
bees next year. 
White and red clover have an established 
reputation, and need no words of praise. 
Alsike or Swedish clover ( Trifoliun hybridum) 
is a stronger grower than the white, and has 
a white blossom tinged with pink. It forms 
excellent pasture and hay, and somo of the 
Indiana apiarists exhaust our language in its 
praise ; it thrives with them on a damp, clay 
soil. I havo tried to grow it in dry, sandy 
soil, and always failed, but have since learned 
that it is sown in Sweden in late winter upon 
the snow, and I never tried sowing it at this 
Beason. 
EMPTY COMBS. 
How to Fill Them with Svrup or Honey, 
for Feeding Beks. 
C. C. MILLER MAKES IT SO PLAIN THAT EVEN 
A CHILD MAY UNDERSTAND IT. 
From Gleanings in Bee Culture. 
In Gleanings for June 1, 1886, page 403, you 
say that Dr. C. C. Miller, in his new book, 
says that, when he has a colony to be fed, he 
does it by filling empty combs with syrup, in 
a manner similar to that given by our old 
friend Quinby, years ago. Now, will you 
please tell me, either in a letter or through 
Gleanings, how they manage to get the syrup 
into the empty combs, and oblige ? I have 
tried to do it, and failed. I suppose it is all 
easy enough when we know how. 
N. L. Gerrish. 
Nottingham Centre, N.H„ Oct. 14, 1887. 
Dr. Miller replies ; — 
If you lay an empty comb flat upon a table, 
and pour a liquid on it, instead of the liquid 
immediately running into the cells it will lie 
contentedly upon the surface. If the liquid 
fall from a considerable height, so as to strike 
hard upon the surface, some of it will force its 
way into the cells ; so if you pour syrup upon 
the comb out of a pitcher, holding the pitcher 
3 or 4 feet above the comb, you will succeed 
better than if the pitcher be held only a few 
inches above the comb. Even then, if a 
portion of the syrup falls in a compact mass 
upon an empty cell it can enter the cell only 
by displacing the air contained therein ; and 
if the syrup presses with equal force over all 
parts of the mouth of the coll there is no 
chance for the air to get out, and the cell 
remains empty. In other words, if a drop 
larger in diameter than the cel! falls centrally 
upon the cell, the chances are that it will 
simply act as a cork to cork up the air that is 
in the cell ; but if the drop he so small that it 
strikes nowhere upon the sides of the cell, 
there is nothing to hinder it from going 
directly to the bottom tf the cell; and if it 
strikes upon one side of the cell it will still 
make fair progress bottomward. So the 
smaller drops we can have as it falls, the 
better success we shall have ; and to this end, 
instead of a pitcher we will take a watering- 
can from which to pour the syrup. But thick 
syrup will not readily pass through the rose 
of a watering-can, so we must have thin 
syrup ; and as we desire syrup (at least in the 
fall) no thinner than can be made by using 
5 lbs. of sugar to one quart of water, we must 
thin it by using it hot, taking care not to have 
it hotter than about 125°, as beyond this there 
is danger of making the combs so soft that 
they will give away. So now I think we have 
reached the essentials : We lay our comb flat 
upon the kitchen-table, and pour upon it 
from a height of several feet, through the 
rose of a watering-can syrup heated to 125°. 
