274 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



valuable contribution. I like to be contrary 

 sometimes, and this is one of my " times." 

 You need not make sport of my live-dollar 

 investment, for I think it has turned out 

 pretty well. Do not the friends agree with 

 me? I might have had an engraving made 

 of that box with a bail to it, but I presume 

 we all understand it as it is.* 



WINTEHING ON SUGAK SYKUP WITH 

 NO POIiLiEN. 



CAN BEES REAR BROOD WITH NO POLLEN? 



fHE bees that I put into the cellar the 31st day 

 of last November, solely on sugar-syrup stores, 

 — ' 110 pollen, were removed on the 19th day of 

 April, having had only one fly, March 2d, since 

 last November. Now for the result of the experi- 

 ment: They were all in splendid condition, except 2 

 that were overlooked, and starved, and 2 that were 

 queeuless, but strong in bees; this, however, I con- 

 sider no fault in the manner of wintering, but my 

 own carelessness in keeping such old queens. I 

 never before had bees winter without some of the 

 colonies showing signs of dysentery. There was not 

 a cell of brood nor hardly an egg in the 17 colonies 

 left. Their comb and bees were as clean and bright 

 as they were last November. Now, if they wintered 

 last winter for 100 days without a fly, and came out 

 in good condition in spring, why will they not such 

 a winter as one year ago last winter? 



But before I swing my hat too high, I will wait till 

 I pass through such a trying ordeal, for fear that it 

 may take some of the conceit out of me. I have de- 

 layed reporting till the young brood began to hatch 

 nicely, for bees with me are net wintered until then. 



A. A. E. WiLBER. 



Moravia, Cayuga Co., N, Y., May 23, 1882. 



Yours seems to have been a valuable ex- 

 periment, friend W. If you had seventeen 

 colonies that wintered over without a par- 

 ticle of brood until new pollen came in, it is 

 impossible, almost, that the result was acci- 

 dental, and that your depriving them of pol- 

 len had nothing to do with it. I have, for 

 some years, been under the impression they 

 would winter just as well without pollen, and 

 I should not be at all surprised if your treat- 

 ment would do away with a possibility of 

 dysentery, unless, indeed, they took it and 

 died after new pollen came. ]f you can 

 keep them in the cellar imtil the first of 

 May, it almost seems as if you had a sure 

 thing on that special trouble. 



A STING THROUGH THE EYELID, 



AND HOW TO IXTRACT IT. 



eOME years ago I was stung on the eyelid. It 

 ) did not swell at the time; but two days after- 

 ward I felt a scratching on the eyeball, which 

 became very painful, and inflamed. I went to a 

 physician, who said it could not be possible that the 

 barbed point had broken off and worked through 

 the lid so as to scratch the ball, and yet I was satis- 

 fled that it had. After some trouble I procured a 

 microscope, and found a man who could use it. He 

 found the point of the sting through the Inside of 



the lid, but he could not catch it with tweezers. I 

 then got a piece of soft pine, and he rolled back the 

 eyelid on a lead pencil, and pressed the pine stick on 

 the point of the sting till it pierced the wood sufli- 

 ciently to draw it out. You could then see that it 

 was really a part of the sting broken off. Had I, 

 when I felt the first scratch, got some one to roll 

 back my eyelid on a pencil, and press on it with a 

 soft piece of wood or leather, the sting would have 

 been extracted without trouble, before it inflamed 

 my eye, and have saved me much pain and annoy- 

 ance. Since then I always use a bee-hat or veil. 

 Don'tyou think the sting often breaks off, and that 

 the barbed point still works into the flesh and mus- 

 cles, causing some of those pains that we attribute 

 to rheumatism? John F. Lafferty. 



Martinsville, 111., May, 18S2, 



I hardly think these broken-off splinters 

 produce rheumatic pains, friend L., but they 

 may produce a species of irritation in the 

 muscles that those who handle bees much 

 sometimes experience. Thanks for your 

 suggestions in regard to getting stings out 

 of the eyelid. 



THE CORN INDUSTRY. 



A CHEAP EVAPORATOR WANTED. 



FERHAPS you will remember that one year ago 

 last fall I sent you a small sample of evapo- 

 — ' rated sweet corn, and asked you what you 

 thought of it. You published ray note in Gleanings, 

 and said it looked and tasted as good as fresh corn. 

 I saw the notice, and thought no more about it; 

 but in two or three days I received my first letter or 

 postal of inquiry, and they are coming yet, as I have 

 received a fresh installment this spring. The pre- 

 vailing inquiry appears to be for a small evaporator, 

 or drier, to use on the cook stove. You sell and 

 manufacture household conveniences. If this is 

 not one, I do not know what is. I would suggest to 

 you that you add one to your list of household con- 

 veniences. Let it be one that will do good service; 

 can be used on any cook stove, and is cheap. It' it 

 will fill these requirements, there will be a great de- 

 mand for it. N. F. Case. 

 Glendale, N. Y., May 22, 1882. 



We have just sent to New York for 100 

 lbs. of dried sweet corn, and Mrs. S., who 

 has charge of the lunch-room, says the hands 

 are inquiring for it every day. It costs 

 there, at present, 13c per lb. l)o you want 

 any better paying business than this V I 

 heartily second the call for a cheap evapora- 

 tor, to be used on a common stove, and 

 would like to hear from the man who can 

 make one. While he is studying it up, I 

 may remark that the nicest and sweetest 

 corn we have ever had from anybody was 

 some we dried in our own oven. We have 

 tried it several years, so we know we can do 

 it every time, and have it always alike. I say 

 " we," for mamma dries the corn , and we chil- 

 dren help eat it. Who will simplify and ex- 

 pedite the labor of drying with inexpensive 

 apparatus V Do you want to know what 

 this has to do with bee culture? Why, 

 sweet corn yields honey and pollen, and af t- 

 ter that — green corn. Don't you see ? 



