218 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUilE. 



May 



that is ornamented with scrollwork in that artistic 

 manner that crops out quite frequently in many of 

 his productions. All of his bees are in chaff hives, 

 where they wintered without loss. The Adams 

 horse-power was closely examined, and I may some 

 time give a detailed description of it, tog-ether with 

 the hints and suggestions that friend II. offered in 

 regard to improvements that might be made. Dur- 

 ing my stay here I was surprised to see that Alsike 

 clover is grown very extensivelj'. If I understand 

 the matter aright, it was owing to the efforts of 

 friend H. that the farmers in his vicinitj' were in- 

 duced to give this clover a trial. 



GOING TO THE CONVENTION. 



April 11th.— Friend H., his wife, and myself, drove 

 to the city. We passed friend Cotterell's (near Fer- 

 ry's seed farm), where friends H. and C. have an 

 apiary in partnership. (It was at friend C.'s, I be- 

 lieve, where you, friend Root, ate so many raspber- 

 ries.) At the seed farm, the onions that are to fur- 

 nish such immense yields of honey when in blossom 

 have just nicely commenced to grow. There are 

 about SO acres of onions — all in such nice, straight 

 rows. The country boy (W. Z. H.) gazed with plea- 

 sure upon the "sights" of Michigan's metropolis. 

 The City Hall, Music Hall, Ferry & Co.'s seed-house; 

 Newcomb, Endicott & Co.'s drj'-goods house; C. R. 

 Mabley's clothing and furniture establishments, 

 and many other places, are certainly objects of In- 

 terest to one who has never seen such "sights." 



AT THE CONVENTION. 



Prominent among the bee-keepers whom I had the 

 pleasure of meeting at the convention, were A. B. 

 Weed, Otto Kleinow, and J. H. Robertson, PewamO) 

 Mich. I wrote to E. E. Hasty, asking him to meet 

 me at the convention, and what do you suppose he 

 said? Well, here is his reply:— 



" I'm ' skittish' of conventions, and don't want to 

 go. May be, some time when my ship comes in I can 

 afford to come all the way, and see j-ou at your own 

 apiary. 



"My idea of the way things ought to be done, is to 

 have apiarians divide up into little associations of 

 about half a dozen, to meet at each other's apiaries 

 in rotation. If all live near each other, they can 

 meet once a month; if widely scattered, once or 

 twice a year. Possibly a fellow might want to be- 

 long to two juntas, one of his immediate neighbors, 

 and one of the friends he had got acquainted with 

 through the bee papers. It you and Frank Wright 

 and Cook and Ileddon and Townley were to meet at 

 either apiary, with no crowd, no clap-^trap, no swell 

 report, no essays, no nothing but a friendly talk, and 

 an inspection of a live apiary —why, then I should 

 wish very much that I was worthy of an invitation, 

 and could go. Fraternally, E. E. Hasty." 



Now, friend Hasty, at this convention not an essay 

 was read; and the only attempts at addresses were 

 made by the president, and by your humble servant ; 

 and in neither case were ten minutes occupied, and 

 the remainder of the time was passed in a conversa- 

 tional, social manner. (I know I said that I should 

 deliver no address, but I was asked to talk about 

 dollar queens, and I talked, but I " cut it short.") I 

 will admit, however, that, to my mind, a very inter- 

 esting convention was held in friend Hunt's sitting- 

 room, upon the evening of my arrival, when friend 

 A.. B. Pierce, who is president of the association, 

 dropped infer a quiet chat. Friend Pierce wintered 

 his 80 colonies in his cellar, and wintered them suc- 

 cessfully too. By the way, friend Hasty, or any one 

 else, if friend Hunt ever Invites you to make him a 

 visit, you will miss a good thing if you do not ac- 

 cept the invitation. Friend Robertson, of Pewamo, 

 wintered his 511 colonies in his cellar. He prefers to 



have his bees remain quiet, without breeding, as 

 long as possible in the spring. He also thought that 

 the best of queens could be reared in the fall, if the 

 bees were fed when no honey was coming in, and 

 gave, as a reason, that there were more bees at 

 home to "attend to the business." He had reared 

 many queens, and spoke from experience. His bees 

 had access to 500 acres of Alsike clover. He had 

 tried sweet clover, and had discarded it, but noic 

 thought he should give it one more ti-ial. Friend 

 Hunt was quite enthusiastic over chaff hives and 

 wired frames. Otto Kleinow raised quite a laugb by 

 saying that sections gi%'en a Holy-Land colony last ' 

 July were yet in the hive. He had not been able to 

 remove them; and, as for subduing the Holy-Lands 

 with smoke, he said: "The smoker does just as 

 much good when left in the house." He found 

 them very prolific, but not more so than sonic of his 

 Italians. 



A COLD SNAP. 



April 12th.— Oh, my! wasn't it cold last night? If 

 there are any bees that I don't worry about, those 

 under gtound are the ones. This day was very 

 pleasantly passed at friend Hunt's, and in visiting 

 friend Pierce's apiary. 



ONCE MORE ON THE ROAD. 



April 13th.— Here I am at Plymouth, waiting for 

 the train that is to carry me back to Flint, where I 

 expect to meet Mrs. H. and the babies. As I have 

 had nothing else to do, I improved the time in writ- 

 ing the above notes. 



Two o'clock P.M.— It has been only four days since 

 I saw the faces of my loved ones, yet it seems like a 

 longtime; and how slowly the express train does 

 seem to move! 



Five o'clock p.m.— Myself and family arc aboard 

 the cats, bound for Tuscola County, Michigan, where 

 we are going to visit "Grandpa Hutchinson." Those 

 of my readers who have not seen their parents dur- 

 ing the past year, can perhaps imagine with what 

 pleasure I look forward to the meeting. 



April 15th.— Here I am, off upstairs at Grandpa 

 Hutchinson's, writing again. I have a younger 

 brother who has not yet left home, to whom I have 

 been sending Gleanings the past two years. Slowly 

 but surely he has been getting the " bee fever," and 

 I have promised to give him a colony next spring. 

 HOME Again. 



April 18th.— As Mrs. Hunt remarked, "It is nice 

 to go visiting, but it is nicer to get home." I dug 

 out the remainder of my bees yesterday, and found 

 them all in good condition, except the very lightest 

 colony, which was dead. These bees had been con- 

 fined five months, and yet they were perfectly quiet, 

 with no signs of dysentery, and with what a will 

 they did go to work when they were released! 



W. z. Hutchinson. 



Rogersville, Genesee Co., Mich. 



Very good, friend H. I rather think it 

 does you good to go visiting. Neighbor 

 Blaljeslee once said it always did him good 

 to visit other bee-men, because it took the 

 " conceit " out of him. I shouldn't wonder 

 if this were the case with all of us. And I 

 most heartily approve of the kind of conven- 

 tions friend Hasty wrote about, and the one 

 you attended.— So you have really conquered 

 the wintering troubles, friend H., or at least 

 you have during such a winter as last. Now 



