^30 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



more even. Board up and down with cheap lumtier; 

 batten the cracks; there should be small openings 

 in the gables, for ventilation. Now you can dry 

 corn, fruit, or any thing else, rain or shine, out of 

 the way of Hies, chickens, children, etc.; and when 

 you want to fumigate empty combs, etc., all you 

 have to do is to remove some of the sieves, or 

 shelves, put in your combs, throw in some sulphur 

 on an old pan of coals, shut the door, and then go 

 off about your business. H. G. King. 



Baraboo, Wis., Juno 15, 1883. 



We have had a great number of communi- 

 cations, reports, and suggestions, in this 

 matter, and it may be well to consider the 

 general principles' involved. To dry fruit, 

 lumber, green corn, or any other article, we 

 want to send over it a continual stream of 

 dry air. As the readiest means of making 

 the air dry is by heating it, heat is generally 

 used ; but heat without a continual change 

 of air is of little or no avail ; therefore, what- 

 ever plan is used, dry air should be admit- 

 ted freely at the bottom, and let out freely 

 at the top, after it has become charged with 

 the moisture taken from the article to be 

 dried. In one of the plans submitted to us, 

 the damj) air, after it passed from the fruit, 

 was carried off by a small pipe leading into 

 the stovepipe. This is the same plan so 

 generally used for drying bee-cellars, and 

 the stovepipe gives a draft by drawing or 

 " pulling " the air through, as it were. 

 Make or buy what you want, without pay- 

 ing any attention to patents or " family 

 rights." Where steam is available, the most 

 perfect apparatus can be made with a series 

 of tin pipes, such as we use in melting wax, 

 evaporating syrup, etc. By having the wire- 

 cloth trays set directly over the steam-pipes, 

 we can get any amount of heat, and distri- 

 bute it evenly, and with great regularity, 

 and with no possible danger of scorching. 



THE FL.O0D, AND SOME OF ITS UOllVGS. 



SORELY TRIED, BUT NOT DISCOURAGED. 



afJ MUST confess, friend Root, I am not in such 

 spirits as I was last year. The flood came, and 

 I lost GO out of 70 colonics; 59 of them had 

 young and beautiful Italian queens. I lost a great 

 many hives and frames, besides my entire crop of 

 cane and corn, which I estimate worth some $2000, 

 cane included. My bees were in good ti.v, with their 

 honey-boxes on ready for business. I had flvo feet 

 of water on my apiary, so I had to put them on my 

 gallery, side by side and three deep, and all this at 

 day time, so you can imagine what a mess; and how 

 they found their hives again is a mystery to me, un- 

 less they did away with their general rule of fight, 

 and went in any hive most convenient. They did 

 not spare me when waste-deep in water, where I 

 could not handily retreat. If bee-stings are a cure 

 for sickness, I think I ought to be healthy the rest 

 of my days. My loss gave me such a shock I thought 

 I would ask for a place in Blasted Hopes. My wife 

 thinks that I deserve a place in the Growlery. 1 

 think I had a right to growl; what say you? So I made 

 up my mind not to go in either. I had 3 stories on 

 the hives, which were full of honey and brood from 

 bottom to top. I do not think I ever saw so many 

 bees in that number of hives. Could it be that the 



bees which were lost, having clipped queens, re- 

 turned to the remaining hives? I extracted Y^ bbl. 

 honey, and I made 10 colonies from brood and bees 

 from honey-boxes, and I also made 10 nuclei from 

 the bottoms to raise queens from. I had only one 

 Italian left, and I fear 1 am giving her too much to 

 do. I captured 9 late swarms, which will give me 39 

 colonies. I intend to gio into the woods and hunt 

 some up that I lost. What bees I have are better off 

 for honey than they were this time last year. Al- 

 though four-fifths of the land was under water, I 

 am only H mile from heavy timber and swamps, 

 back of which is a beautiful lake. I think the fall 

 crop of honey will be large, as we usually have a 

 great deal of smartweed, and a great many other 

 varieties of weeds and flowers after a flood. 



M. A. Garrett. 

 New Iberia, Iberia Par., La., June 3, 1882. 



Since hearing of the losses our friends 

 sustained in tlie South, I have often thought, 

 when I looked on our flourishing apiary, 

 what I would do if they were drowned out 

 as yours have been. The account of it may 

 serve to remind us to be thankful while we 

 are well off. 



HO^V SHALL WE PUT UP OUR HOISEY 



FOR SALE? 



THE GREAT QUESTION FOR HONEY - RAISERS. 



IJIIE enterprising editor of the Bee-Keep- 

 ers'' Instructor has taken the pains to 

 propound to the honey-dealers in our 

 large cities, a series of questions in regard to 

 the way in which honey should be put up ; 

 and as the whole article is of so much value, 

 we give it entire. One cheering part of it is, 

 that all the dealers seem to agree so well, 

 and their opinion of the 1-lb. sections part- 

 ly explains why we have had such a whirl- 

 wind of orders for them for the past few 

 months. Here is the article : — 



MARKETING HONEY. 



The manner and style of packing, and the size of 

 package used, both for comb and extracted honey, 

 are matters of much importance to every bee-keep- 

 er who desires to realize the largest possible returns 

 from the sale of his product. When the production 

 was limited, and honey looked iipon merely as a 

 luxury, the manner of marketing it and the style of 

 package used were of comparatively little impor- 

 tance. But the production has increased many fold 

 during the last scoi-e of years, and honey is fast be- 

 coming a staple article of food instead of a luxury. 

 With this increased supply and demand has come a 

 demand for smaller and neater packages than those 

 formerly used; in fact, the large boxes used almost 

 exclusively a few years ago are scarcely salable now 

 at all. 



The size of package used, and manner and style of 

 packing, having so much influence on the prompt 

 sale of honey at the most remunerative prices, it is 

 self-evident that it will pay every bee-keeper to give 

 special attention to these points. Realizing the ad- 

 vantages to be gained by securing and marketing 

 the honey crop in the most salable shape, we a 

 couple of weeks since sent a number of questions to 

 commission merchants and dealers in honey in New 

 York, Chicago, Boston, St. Louis, Cleveland, Cin- 

 cinnati, and Baltimore, which were designed to draw 

 out the most pertinent information obtainable on 



