186 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



April 



EUROPEAN MNDEN, OB BASSWOOD. 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT BASSWOODS IN GENERAL. 



MAVING planted a row of European linden, or 

 linn, as they call them in Eng'land, I noticed 

 that the one which bloomed last summer and 



the year before was considerably earlier than the 

 American basswood. Has this come under your ob- 

 servation? If not, when they bloom this year I will 

 give you notice. Another thing very important: 

 both male and female trees may be noticed among 

 the European lindens, planted about our city as 

 6hade trees; the males never bloom, and are useless 

 as honey-producers. Do you know if, among their 

 American cousins, the same thing is observed? 



Cleveland, O., March 2, 1882. A. C. Kendel. 



I believe it is a fact, that the European 

 linden blossoms a week or two earlier than 

 the American linden ; and were it not that 

 clover is almost always at its height at this 

 time, I presume we should have made more 

 effort to grow them. A dozen were plaiited 

 in our basswood orchard, about eight years 

 ago ; but most of them, if not all, have died, 

 indicating, seemingly, they are less hardy 

 than ours. I believe many of our native lin- 

 dens produce no blossoms; but I never 

 thought of the reason for it that you ascribe, 

 friend K. I really wish we might have a re- 

 vival of basswood planting. Since ouv ex- 

 periment last July with the spring scales, I 

 am getting the fever pretty strongly, and I 

 have just asked friend Morris, who advertis- 

 es in this number, Avhat he would take for 

 10,000 of his little trees. ^Vho can furnish 

 me 1000 of the European lindens at the best 

 rates? A linden that would blossom two 

 weeks later than ours would be a desidera- 

 tum. 



SUIiPHUB FOB BEES. 



MUCH has been said about what produces dys- 

 entery of bees. I have come to the conclu- 

 son, from what I have seen and read, that it 



is bacteria. I have been convinced for many years 

 that diphtheria, catarrh, scrofula, pulmonary con- 

 sumption, and all the skin diseases, were caused 

 from parasites. I am well aware that an assertion 

 amounts to nothing, unless proven. Medical men 

 of all schools admit that sulphur is the greatest 

 anti-psoric remedy known. That it will cure psora, 

 diphtheria, and very many of the skin diseases, is a 

 settled fact. How does it do it, except by destroy- 

 ing the parasites? One case toward proof: A friend 

 of mine in Ridgeville, who was pretty well posted in 

 bee culture, had, in the spring of 1880, colonics of 

 brown bees, one of which, a strong one, had been 

 kept through the winter previous in a chamber 

 room about eight feet square. Their ingress and 

 egress was through the window, with the whole low- 

 er casement left out. He showed them to me one 

 day about the first of May, and remarked they had 

 gone up. The floor was strewn with dead bees and 

 dysenteric fteces. What to do to save his bees, he 

 didn't know, and I was equally ignorant. I saw his 

 bees again in about one week. They were all right 

 and working nicely. " What did you give your bees 

 to cure them?" 1 asked. He replied, that he filled a 

 tea-saucer about half fuUof sulphur, set it on the 

 floor near the hive, and it was amusing to see the 



bees go for the sulphur. They went right into it, 

 and wallowed like a duck in water. They took all 

 the sulphur in less than one day. What cured the 

 dysentery but the sulphur, as nothing else was giv- 

 en? Would the disease have abated without any 

 treatment? I have never heard of sulphur being 

 used for dysentery of bees before or since, to my 

 knowledge. It may have been used by others for 

 aught I know. G. F. Peckham, M. D. 



Elyria, Ohio, Feb. 21, 1882. 



As you all know, I am, as a general thing, 

 quite averse to medicine or drugs, and I 

 was ready to enter a protest when friend P. 

 first suggested sulphur; but when told the 

 little chaps rolled in it. like fowls in the dirt, 

 I began to be interested . If they really want 

 sulphur, by all means let them have it ; but 

 they certainly did not eat up a saucerful, did 

 they y Is it possible they loaded it on their 

 legs as thoy do sawdust, thinking it might 

 do for pollen? Will anybody else's bees 

 make use of sulphur? Thanks for the fact, 

 friend V. 



I'P^VABB VENTIIjATIOIV, AGAIN. 



WILL PLENTY OF PURE AIR PREVENT DYSENTERY? 



^D^jELIEVING it to be the duty of every bee-keep- 

 J^S er to contribute his mite toward a solution 

 *^^^^ of the problem how to prevent dysentery, I 

 wish to give a few facts that have come under my ob- 

 servation. 



Many years ago I commenced to keep bees, and 

 watch their habits. I soon discovered that they ex- 

 haled a good deal of moisture, causing dampness to 

 both bees and stores, if the w inter was mild, or seal- 

 ing up the honey in a case of ice, thereby causing 

 starvation, if cold was long continued. I had one 

 hive, which was built with a chamber over the 

 brood-nest, having a box, or drawer, holding perhaps 

 20 lbs. Entrance to this box was by six holes, match- 

 ing corresponding holes in the hive. After remov- 

 ing the honey, this box was replaced, with the holes 

 left open ; and this hive, year after year, never failed 

 to come out strong in the spring; was tbe first to 

 swarm, and always gave the most surplus of any 

 colony in the yard. Acting on this hint, I tried re- 

 placing top boxes as soon as emptied, leaviny the, 

 holes oijcn, and with the best results. 



A few years ago I obtained some copies of the A. 

 B. J., then sent for Gleanings and the ABC. Pack- 

 ing and blanketing was all the rage; and, supposing 

 these "scientific" publications taught " pure gospel," 

 I tried packing and blanketing, and succeeded in 

 packing my bees out of existence, except two col- 

 onies, and they were so nearly gone, it took all the 

 next season to build them up. The packing had 

 prevented the escape of the moisture, which ac- 

 cumulated so as to actually run out of the hives. 



The same winter, a neighbor had his bees protect- 

 ed by corn-stalks stacked around each hive. One 

 night his cattle got in and upset several hives. He 

 did not notice it. Over a week after, I was passing, 

 and, seeing the condition of things, I called him, and 

 we commenced righting them up, replacing caps, etc. 

 We found one hive lying on its side, cap and quilt 

 both off, and the wind and snow blowing through un- 

 obstructed, except by the bees themselves; plenty 

 of ventilation, surely, for a severe storm had been 

 rag'ing, and mercury nearly to zero. Weren't they 



