1882 



GLEAii}i:NGS IK I3EE CULTUKE. 



08 



BVRCH inATTERS. 



MID. GLEANINGS:— I read with interest what Mr. 

 I David E. Kose liad to say i n Nov. Gleanings 



' in reference to H. A. Bur h & Co. I feel it a 



duty I owe to bce-kecpcrs, to g-i\e my experience in 

 dealing with the above Arm. Last spring I ordered 

 10 live-frame nuclei of them, sending- thera $30.00. 

 They acknowledged the receipt of order and money, 

 saying thej' would ship the bees in a short time. I 

 waited until into June, when I wrote them I was 

 anxious to have no further delay, and unless they 

 could All the order at once, to return the money. 

 They replied they were filling orders as fast as pos- 

 sible, and would reach mj' order in a few days. I 

 waited a "good many days," and then wrote thera 

 again to send the bees at once or return the money. 

 After some 10 or 13 daj'S they replied they would 

 ship in two or three days. But again they went 

 back on their promise. I did not write them again 

 until August, and then wrote them that, unless they 

 shipped the bees at once, or returned the money, I 

 should be under the necessity of taking steps to col- 

 lect it. They replied, if 1 wt.uld receive the bees 

 they would ship a*: once. I replied, "Send Ihem 

 along;" but v.gain they went back on their word. 

 About the first of October, I wrote them, if they 

 would send me 6 good strong colonies I would settle 

 the matter. They answered, if I would take 5 colo- 

 nies they would "ship at once." I answered, "Send 

 the bees along;" and, sure enough, in 3 or 4 days 

 the bees arrived. But as soon as 1 lifted the bees I 

 saw it was a rcgidar siviiidlc. I opened them, and 

 the bees looked very well. But there could not have 

 been more than from one to two pounds of bees to a 

 hive. They M'erc in 8-frame Langstroth hives; but 

 about one-half the combs were old and entirely emp- 

 ty. I shall have to double them up and feed them, 

 or they will starve. 



In July, 1880, I ordered a one-frame nucleus of 

 A. I. Root. I put them into an old fashioned square 

 Langstroth hive, and gave them 3 or -t old combs, 

 and in the fall the hive was " chuck " full of bees 

 and honey; so you can see, in all probnbility, what I 

 have lost in not getting the 10 nuclei colonies as 

 promised. Mr. Rose tells us, when be visited South 

 Haven he counted 2t3 c donies in Mr. Bureh's yard, 

 lie does not give the date, but says, " Mr. Burch was 

 Shipping off bees, extracting honey, hiving swarms, 

 etc." Can Mr. Rose tell why Burch & Co. could not 

 find time to ship me my bees, or send me my mon- 

 ey? I now have i full strong colonies from the one- 

 frame nucleus bought of Mr. Root in 1880, and would 

 not give any two of them for the five colonies sent 

 by Burch & Co. I have waited for others to reply to 

 D. E. Rose; but as none see fit to respond, I have. 

 I consider it an outrcujc for Mr. Rose to attack the 

 publishers of Gleanings and A. B. J. in the way he 

 docs - men who for years have been noted for their 

 honesty, uprightness, promptness, and fair dealing. 



F, L. Meurick. 



Kankakee, 111., Dee. 12, 18Sl. 



1 thank you, friend ]\I., for so warmly tak- 

 ing the part of the publishers ; but may I 

 no1t ask of you a little charity for friend 

 Burch ? Vou finally aorreed to take five col- 

 onies, and he sent them. Now, even if they 

 are not so strong in bees, nor so full ot stores 

 as they might have been, shall we not call it 

 settled? Lest some may complain that I 

 have published your letters, and rejected 



theirs, I would explain that I want to pub- 

 lish all cases in which Mr. Burch has done 

 something toward a settlement, and thus 

 narrow up the differences between himself 

 and his customers. Is there not another ? 



DEVELOPING THE (LOVERS. 



'viji') THINK it is long enough since I talked clover 

 Pll to the renders of Gle.\nings, so that I can 

 — ' venture to make another report without serious 

 danger of boring them. This season, my third 

 season in the clover e.xperimont, has been remarka- 

 bly successful (oeariug in niind, of course, what 

 slow work developing plants must secessarily be). I 

 will speak concerning my ten samples, in rf'gular 

 order. 



No. 1 is one of the most unprogressive of the whole 

 lot; and I have decided to drop it, make a new No. 1 

 by dividing No. 3 into two samples. The old No. 1 

 was vtry much like No. 3, except that it was longer 

 tubed, and less inclined to yield to treatment. The 

 new No. 1 varies from the sample it sprung from by 

 having a more abundant supply of honey in its tubes 

 and by hnviiig tubes of greater diameter. 



No. 2 is one of the shortest tubed in my collection, 

 and, being also one of the most variable ones, I value 

 it nighly. Concerning this sample, as well as most 

 of the others, 1 should say that their tubes were not 

 this senson measured in August and September, 

 when the best figures may be expected; press of 

 work, and sickness, prevented. The best recorded 

 tube length of this sample was in July, 1880— 30-hun- 

 dredths of an inch. My impression is, that this 

 5'ear's seedlings, none of them, went quite so low as 

 that. That is, in fact, within 2-hundredths of being 

 short enough. The most interesting sport or variant 

 occurring among this year's seedlings I have chosen 

 as the founder of a new sample as mentioned above. 



No. 3 is dropped, and a promising seedling of No. 4 

 is constituted a new No. 3. The fact is, I got beat on 

 No. 3. It was a white-flowered one, and I failed to 

 get a Avhite-Howered seedling from it. Every young 

 plant gave red flowers. 



No. 4 is also white flowered, and is my favorite 

 sample of all. I didn't get beat on that, although I 

 narrowly escaped failure. About 500 seedlings were 

 raised and brought to bloom, and all were red but 

 one. From that lucky one I had 36 seeds as my stock 

 in trade to begin (his season's operations. Although 

 I expected the third generation to be less obstinate 

 than the second, I felt a little dubious. In due time 

 14 plants came to bloom as the result of this sowing, 

 and four of them were white — 28 per cent. In place 

 of one-fifth of one per cent the generation previous. 

 I was happy. If any of you have had a sweet lady 

 say yes to j-ou, after having said no a great many 

 times, you know how it is yourselves. This is not 

 all. Sample No. 4 had never previously been short 

 tubed. It was rather longer than the average. It 

 was its beauty and vigor that made me feel in my 

 bones that I must conquer It. I supposed that I 

 should have to wait till the preliminary difficulty of 

 color was settled before I could shorten the tubes 

 much. Well, it turns out that one of my four white 

 seedlings has produced some of the shortest flower- 

 tubes that 1 have obtained at all, only 24-hundredths 

 long. Bully! Delightful! Why, I'm just "in clo- 

 ver " ! Imagine mo tossing my hat, and hopping up 

 and down. But, will there not be some little thorn 



