18S2 



glea2?i:ngs i:n bee culture. 



have never npticed that they were much excited 

 over it- . They can't hold a candle to the box elder 

 (the willows, not the bees). 



It must be that the air around friend Doolittle is 

 surcharged with honoj-, judging from the enormous 

 yields he gets from his bees; in fact, every thing he 

 touches or even writes about rains honey. I have (iU 

 colonies packed for winter on summer stands. As I 

 wintered my bees successfully last winter, I had 

 thought to make a report, but have neglected it. 



I went a long way to see you last fall, friend Hoot, 

 and spent quite a numl)cr of dollars, and I must say 

 1 was just a little disappointed in my visit. It was a 

 rainy day, the ne.xt day after Garfield's funei-al, and 

 everybody felt a little blue, and perhaps I had imag- 

 ined you to be well, I don't know what -some- 

 thing as my brother remarked when I introduced 

 him to you: "Good morning, Mr. Koot: this yoimg 

 man here has always swallowed whole everything 

 you have written." Mayhap I have swallowed too 

 much. However, 1 hope not. 



P. S.— The black Tartarian cherry is supposed to 

 have come from one of the territories of Tartarj'. 

 near the Sea of Japan. It is a seedling, and is prop- 

 agated from the under branches, which sprout up 

 thickly all around the tree, like the Alorcllos, and is 

 a rather new one on that account. 



Kantoul, 111., Dee. S, 1881. II. M. Mormis. 



Friend M., there is sornetliina: in your 

 closing remarks that nialces me feel very sad 

 indeed. It is, that it is almost beyond my 

 power to give my vast circle of friends the 

 kind treatment and consideration I feel I 

 ought to. To tell the truth, I did not know 

 until this minute that you had ever paid us 

 a call, and quite often some one writes about 

 having made us a visit, whom I would have 

 been very glad to have seen. Perhaps I can 

 explain it to our mutual help. A great part 

 of the season I am shaking hands with new 

 friends almost every day of my life, and im- 

 less the name is a very unusual one, although 

 I know you by your letters, I can not recog- 

 nize you by name. If you introduced your- 

 self as Morris, it would hardly give me any 

 more light than if you said Smith or -Jones"; 

 but had you said, '' I am H. 31. Morris, of 

 Bantoid, /H.," I should have recalled you at 

 once, principally by the rather unusual name 

 of your postotfice. We in the office almost 

 always name you with your postoffices, or 

 there would never be any chance of our un- 

 derstanding each other. A man once came 

 into the office and introduced himself as 

 Newman. I shook hands with him, and 

 talked quite a Avhile on bees, supposing him 

 to be ^sewman of Norwalk, O. ; but when I 

 found he was the editor of the ^1. IJ. ./., I 

 had to shake hands over again and take a 

 fresh start. I want to be courteous ; but it 

 often pains me much to be obliged to tell 

 some very good warm friend of mine (whom 

 I have known for years through the letters), 

 when he comes to me, that I can not remem- 

 ber of ever having heard of such a person 

 before. Xow let me advise: When you 

 come here, come riglit up into the office ; we 

 never have closed doors, so you need not 

 knock, and the girls will, sorrie of them, be 

 sharp enough to remember you, even if I am 

 not, and they will make it plain to me what 

 friend it is we are entertaining, and, may be, 

 entertain you better than I can, especially 



when I am burdened with a load of cares, as 

 is often the case.— May I suggest, that the 

 black Tartarian cherry seems sometimes 

 tolerably hardy, even as far north as we are, 

 and that our young friend who advertises 

 them may not be far out of the way. after all? 



A WOICU FOIC BLACK (WITH "BANDS" 

 ON THEM) BEES. 



ALSO THE OTHER SIDK OF LAST WINTEK. 



M\S Others send in their report, I do so too. Our 

 yW^ best flow of honey was in September from 



' black heart. I had 4 colonies in spring, and 



took off 433!i lbs., an average of 105^4 lbs., and in- 

 creased to 7. 1 bought 5 Italians in the spring, of 

 Geo. Grimm, .Jefferson, Wis. The 5 gave me 517 lb?., 

 and increased to 13. I used about 12 lbs. fdn. for 

 starters, and I thinlc it pays to use them; an aver- 

 age of over 100 lbs. I also had the care of 4 others, 

 belonging to my brother. His gave 385 lbs., an av- 

 erage of ill)! i, and increased to 13. The 13 gave 1323 

 lbs., all (-omb honey, an average of over 100 lbs., and 

 increased to G3. .My only box hive last winter stood 

 in an open shed, 1 foot from the ground, the bottom- 

 board cracked so the bees went down through, and 

 warped so they came out on the north side, and 

 more so on the south side than they did at the regu- 

 lar entrance on the east side, with three corn cobs 

 under a timothy-chaff pillow as a honey box, with 

 si.\ one-inch holes open down through. This gave 

 me 139 lbs. and 2 swarms. The first new swarm gave 

 91 lbs. And you say transfer! While the box hives 

 do as this does, I transfer by putting new swarms 

 into sash hives. One hive gave 126' 2 lbs. and h 

 swarms, the first swarm giving a big swarm Aug. 1st, 

 and also on the ISth. The one that gave the most 

 honey, 139 lbs., was a black; the one that increased 

 most (5) was a l)lack; the one that gave the least 

 honey, 75 lbs., was a black, and the one that swarmed 

 the least (0), were blacks. From the above, you see 

 the blacks did the best in honey, the best in swarm- 

 ing; also the poorest in the same; both honej' and 

 swarming. The blacks here are more or less band- 

 ed by 1 heir own mixing. I bought the above 5 Ital- 

 ians partly to introduce new blood. 



Limerick, 111., Nov. 21, 1881. E. Picicup. 



■•-MM* 



clltivatiojV of blckavheat. 



S^UCKWHEAT is called the lazy man's crop, be- 

 jfJQw cause, no matter how poor the cultivation, he 

 is pretty sure to get something. But I find 

 there is no crop that responds quicker to gnoil treat- 

 ment. The cultivation of buckwheat for grain or 

 honey is the same; but in selection of soil, and time 

 of sowing, there is a material difference. To yield 

 honey freelj', the soil must be strong enough to pro- 

 duce a good crop of corn or potatoes. A field that, 

 with good cultivation, would produce a fair crop of 

 grain, nine times out of ten would not furnish a 

 pound of honey. 



If I were sowing expressly for honey, I should 

 proceed as follows: If the field to be sown were 

 greensward, I would plow it as soon as the frost left 

 the ground in the spring, and let it lie until about 

 the first of June. At that time I would select some 

 very warm day, and go over it several times with a 

 two-horse cultivator. My reason for taking a warm 

 day is, that I would be sure to kill all weeds and 



