1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



373 



Sittings 



I5y J. E. Crane, Middlebury, Vt. 



Hive-stands recomniended by F. Greiner, 

 p. 149, Mar. 1st issue, are very satisfactory. 



Whew! but don't they do business down 

 in Texas in destroying foul brood the same 

 as every thing else? See ])ages 77 — 80. 



I don't know which I admire Dr. Miller 

 most for — the nice things he says or the 

 mistakes he sometimes makes. Both are 

 comforting. See page 143, March 1. 

 ■4f- 



Page 162, Mar. 1st issue, Mr. .J. D. Yancey 

 tells us how his bees gather honey from the 

 leaves of the cotton-plant — that certain 

 glands on the under side of the leaf secrete 

 it. Now, it would add much to our knowl- 

 edge if such honey could be secured in suf- 

 ficient quantity to be analyzed and com- 

 pared with that of flowers as well as with 

 "aphis honey." 



Prof, (iillette doubts the value of carbolic 

 acid in keeping bees from taking poison, 

 page 134, Mar. 1st issue. It might be ob- 

 served that tarred paper, cedar, camphor, 

 etc., seem quite effectual in keeping moths 

 from furs; and I have found the past year 

 that little branches of pine boughs serve a 

 better purpose in keeping away currant- 

 worms than frequent sprays of hellebore. 

 I used nothing the past year but pine 

 boughs, and the leaves were uninjured. 

 ^- 



I was much interested in Prof. Gillette's 

 lantern lecture on the structure of the 

 honey-bee. p. 192. Mar. 15. I wish we had a 

 good set of the slides, not only on the struc- 

 ture of the bee, but on combs, hives, and 

 apiaries, as well as various tools and all 

 that goes to make modern bee-keeping a 

 success. I believe such could be used to 

 good advantage by many during the winter 

 season, and would add much, if properly 

 conducted, to the education of those to 

 whom we wish to sell honey. 

 «*• 



SWEET CLOVER MORE AXD MORE IMPOR- 

 TANT. 



That article on sweet clover, by R. L. 

 Snodgrass, page 871, seems to me one of the 

 most sensible I have ever read. He tells 

 just how to manage to get a good stand 

 most useful for the bees, and then enrich 

 the soil for a grain crop, showing how to 

 raise the clover for honey, and make it ]:)ay, 

 at the same time, for grain and pasture. 

 One statement he makes that should forever 

 give it a right to a place in our country is 

 that no other clover is such a soil-renovator 

 as sweet Glovei\ I notice in a recent num- 

 ber of the Rural New-Yorker that Mr. 



Chas. B. Wing, of Ohio, who has had a 

 large experience in raising it, claims the 

 same. 



W'HY COMBS ARE GNAWED. 



Mr. L. B. Smith would have us believe 

 that bees never gnaw combs except for a 

 supi^ly of wax, p. 76, Feb. 1. Well, perhaps 

 they don't in Texas; but here in Vermont I 

 find they will tear out one side of a piece of 

 worker comb and build drone-cells in the 

 place of the worker-cells, just because they 

 wanted to. 



GRADES MIXED BY A DEALER. 



Mr. Holtermann, page 70, Feb. 1, refers to 

 the folly of mixed grading; and what he 

 says is true: but, alas! bee-keepers are not 

 altogether to blame. One retail dealer com- 

 plained to us the past season that our hon- 

 ey was not graded as well as formerly. We 

 looked the matter up, and found the jobber 

 had been selling him Xo. 2 honey for our 

 best grade. 



HIVES ARRANGED IN GROUPS OF THREES. 



That method of arranging hives given by 

 Dr. Miller on page 68, Feb. 1, is well worth 

 remembering. I moved a yard during the 

 winter, and intend to set the hives in rows, 

 twenty in a row, in groups of twos and 

 threes' in the rows, and with good spaces be- 

 tween. Then it will be easy to find any 

 particular hive. I think there is no more 

 danger of the bees or queen missing the 

 hive when three stand close together than 

 there is when there are only two; but I doubt 

 if it is wise to go beyond this number. 



4t^ 



THE ONLY WAY TO STIMULATE THE USE OF 



HONEY. 



One can not help wishing that those who 

 never will could read Mr. Orel L. Hershiser's 

 articles in Gleanings for Feb. 15 and March 

 1. In the last twenty-five years we have 

 made tremendous advances along almost 

 all lines of practical honey production, and 

 yet how little has been " accomplished in 

 placing our honey in the hands of consumers 

 in the cheapest and most practical way! I 

 believe every considerable city should have 

 some one person whose business it is to sell 

 honey, both to retail dealers and to con- 

 sumers direct, not as his own, but as the 

 agent of bee-keepers, and accountable to 

 them. 



From our own experience I believe the 

 amount consumed would be increased be- 

 yond our expectations, and at prices that 

 would gladden the heart of the average bee- 

 keeper. Left in the hands of the commis- 

 sion man, what would have become of the 

 fruit industry of C California? Organized 

 fruit-growing pays, while we of the East can 

 eat navel oranges to our heart's content, at 

 prices that are not prohibitive. Organiza- 

 tion is the watchward of the times, and 

 those who can not organize are likely to be 

 ground beneath the upper and nether mill- 

 stones. 



