1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



99 



QUEENGESS COLONIES IN WINTER. 



Don't worry if you have a few colonics quecnlcss. 

 We have four or five such, nnd they are wintering 

 just as well as any, so far; and if it is desirable to 

 prevent brood-rearing, the iibscncc of a queen will 

 probably be just as effective as the absence of pol- 

 len. Friend Viallon, or somebody else down that 

 way, will have young queens ready lor us in April; 

 and who knows but that they will be all the better 

 for having no queen until April? I should not be at 

 all surprised, from the experience I have had in 

 such matters. 



A BEE PAPER IN CALIFORNIA. 



It is coming, friends, and I think it a pretty good 

 Idea, if they have some one to direct it who is not 

 afraid of work, and, so far as I know, friend Lever- 

 ing seems to be the man. See:— 



Please mention in your Feb. No., if you oan, that tlii.-; State is 

 to have a bee paper, "The California Aiiicultinisl ;" tluit it 

 will be out by the Ut of Feb., and publi.--hecl at lliisi'Uy anil 

 Los Angeles, with N. Levering as editor. Subscription price 

 $1.00 per year. Cal. Api. Pub. Co. 



Oalilaticl, Cal., Jan. 20, 1S82. 



1 confess, friends, I would much rather see the 

 name of some good square man, in the place of "Cal- 

 ifornia Apieultural Pub. Co." 



In regard to the Square List, it has occurred tome 

 that candidates for this list had better be pro- 

 pounded a month ahead; and if no objection is 

 raised, they then go in. Also, as it may not be al- 

 ways possible to settle according to everybody's de- 

 mands, why not have difficult cases settled by ar- 

 bitration? Any party who refuses to submit to ar- 

 bitration, I suppose would have to be called a 

 "heathen," and passed by as unworthy of count. 

 You may say this is getting a little complicated; 

 but there is great need of something of the kind, as 

 many of you well know. 



TDE BLIZZARD. 



The morning of the Slth it was 3^ below zero here. 

 I am told that, in some parts of York State, it was 

 40°. Here is what Doolittle says:— 



This is the coldest morning we have had here at Borodino 

 since I have kept bees. The rneicuiT stands at 26 deg-i'ees be- 

 low zero as I write. At such times I can not help but feel that 

 a good cellar, keiit at a uniform temperature of 4.5 degiees, is 

 the best plan for bees during winter. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y., Jan. 24, 1882. 



And here. Alley:— 



Whew ! 20 degrees below zero here . Coldest ever known . 

 Wenhani, .Mass., Jan. 21, 1SS2. 



Now, I don't feel so sure we want cellars, in our 

 locality, especially if it turns round as quickly as it 

 did here; for in 'H hours, or a little more, we had 

 mud again. 



THE PRESENT CONDITION OF AFFAinS AT THE 

 PATENT OFFICE. 



The following is an extract from the Humbug De- 

 partment of the American Ar/yiculturitit for Febru- 

 ary:— 



A few years ago we asked the then Commissioner of Patents 

 whj' an inventor could not do business directly with the office. 

 He replied that, while he would give an inventor every facility 

 in so doing, he would not advise the attempt, as (lie Patent 

 Laws, which he had no hand in making, were so intricate, and 

 in such confusion, as to reciuire an expert to avoid mistakes 

 which might invalidate a patent. 



Well, friends, if such was the case a few years ago, 

 is it any thing strange if, at the present time, one 

 getsapatent onanything,if heonly pays the money, 

 no matter how many times it has been patented be- 

 fore? 



going to renew in a club," it is a pretty hard matter 

 for us. If we send it without pay, of course we must 

 charge it; and then when the club agent sends in 

 the name, how are we to know that the charge 

 should be balanced on the ledger? Again, you say, 

 "Keep my name on your list, and don't let Glean- 

 ings stop. I will remit in a few days." Well, when 

 you remit, a great many of you don't say a word 

 about this little transaction, but just say, "Here is 

 your dollar for Gleanings;" and the consequence 

 is, you get two copies— one paid for, and the other 

 charged to your account. We have had several 

 quite respectable little fights (we try to have no oth- 

 er kind with our patrons) from misunderstandings 

 growing out of just this one thing. Now, won't you 

 try to help us? 



A SUCCESSFUL HOUSE APIARY. 



Mr. J. p. Needles, Alanthus Grove, Mo., has re- 

 cently paid us a visit, and, among other things, I 

 learned he had a house apiary which he has had in 

 constant use since before the time ours was built. 

 He uses it only for comb honey, and never lifts out 

 the combs, nor opens the hives at all, except to 

 take the honey off, and as he does this only after 

 the bees are driven out of the boxes by cold weather, 

 he never has any bees out in the house. The honey, 

 while there over the hives, is safe from moths, 

 thieves, and all other enemies, and it Is never 

 moved until he wants to take it to market. I pre- 

 sume he gives each colony all the boxes they can 

 possibly fill, at the commencemeat of the season; 

 for, in fact, he saj's he sometimes piles them almost 

 up to the ceiling. In this way he would get a better 

 ripened quality of honey, but it would not be so 

 clean and white to the eye. 



We always like to accommodate; but when some 

 friend say?, " Send us Gleanings right along, I am 



I THINK, friends, I shall have to give you a little 

 chapter on alarm clocks, as so many are complain- 

 ing their clocks don't alarm when they are set. The 

 trouble is, you forget that the alarm is dependent 

 on the position of the hour-hand of your time-piece; 

 if you move the hour-hand to set the clock after it 

 has run down, your alarm is out of tune. 



HOW TO 8ET the ALARM CLOCK CORRECTLY. 



Wind the alarm a little, and then move the clock 

 forward by the minute-hand, until the alarm sounds. 

 Now let go of the minute-hand, afid place the hour- 

 hand exactly over the time you wish to get up, say 

 half-past five in the morning. You see the alarm 

 has just sounded, and it is half-past five by the hour- 

 hand. Therefore it will ahvays sound at half-past 

 five until the hour-hand is again moved independ- 

 ently. Wind up your clock, and set It by the min- 

 ute-hand as usual. Now don't wind your alarm dur- 

 ing the day, or it will sound in the afternoon at half- 

 past five; but wind it in the evening, before j-ou re- 

 tire. 



Suppose some one should say, "Potatoes can not 

 be raised for 2.') cents a bushel. I can demonstrate 

 itbyflgiu-es. If anybody offers them at that price, 

 he is damaging the community, for they can not be 

 good." Would not somebody soon say, " Whj-, 

 friend, what means this singular vehemence? 

 Have you a spite against anybody who does raise 

 them at that price? Very likely you can not afford 

 to do it; but how do you know what others can do? 

 See, here are carloads of them going off, and those 

 who have used them for j'cars do not find them ma- 

 terially different from those they have at other 



