189i> 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



51 



suit the most ardent sight-seeker, and happi- 

 ness ought to (and seemingly did) prevail. 



CHAT ON EUROPEAN MATTERS.— NO. 4. 



By Charles Norman. 



DISCOURAGEMENTS. 



By J- D. Fiiofhe. 



Friend Root: — I believe that, as bee-keepers, 

 we should repo/t discouragements and losses as 

 well as successes. I know to report loss is not 

 nearly so pleasant as to report success in our 

 business. It has been said, and truly it looks as 

 if it were true, that misfortunes never come 

 single. I will come forward as a bee-keeper 

 who has been reasonably successful in the busi- 

 ness for about IS years; but I must say that 

 this year has been the most disastrous that we 

 have had during the whole of the 18 years; and 

 not only in the bee business, but nearly all 

 other industries failed to the extent that what 

 we made as money, crops sold, and is being 

 sold, fell below the cost of production. The 

 March freeze that caused such widespread de- 

 struction showed Itself in the harvesting of our 

 grain crops. The wet summer we had told 

 seriously on the cotton crop, which is our money 

 crop: and, to cap the climax, cotton fell in price 

 to 5 cts., and at times below that. This is un- 

 precedented in the knowledge of this genera- 

 tion, since the war, and it Is needless to say 

 that all classes are feeling the depression from 

 low-priced cotton. I am not disposed to com- 

 plain, for an all-wise Providence can overrule 

 all these disasters and disappointments for our 

 good; but, really, the situation is certainly 

 gloomy to begin to farm for another year, to 

 raise cotton at ."> cts., which is the main money 

 crop for the South. 



As lo my bees, they are in excellent condition 

 for the winter, having stored plenty of honey 

 to carry them through to spring in excellent 

 condition. Had I not fed my bees after the 

 March freeze, I should have lost at least % of 

 them, as most people here who had bees lost in 

 that proportion. I shall try to set out another 

 year, trusting that we shall have better success 

 than this in all departments of business. My 

 bees, upon the whole, gave about as good re- 

 sults from the outlay as any thing else that I 

 engaged in. 



I mention these facts to show that, while we 

 may be sanguine and prosperous in various de- 

 partments or enterprises, we do meet with fail- 

 ures occasionally, but no more nor oftener in 

 the bee business than elsewhere. I set a large 

 lot of cabbage-plants last spring, which were 

 all killed, and had to contract for :.'000 lbs. 

 seven-top-turnip seed, which was all killed. I 

 now have a contract for 4000 lbs. of seven-top- 

 turnip seed, and can sell thousands of early- 

 cabbage plants if I get orders for them; but it 

 seems, of late years, that all or nearly all our 

 success depended upon getting safely through 

 March. 



Coronaca, S. C, Dec. 1. 



A correspondent writes that, in September, at 

 a time when the bees were killing the drones, he 

 heard tones that came out of several hives, and 

 these tones he took to be the piping of queens. 

 In one hive the tone was so strong that he heard 

 it at a distance of ten feet. He opened the lat- 

 ter hive, but found nothing unusual. He thinks 

 the sounds were produced by drones " molested 

 by the bees," for "at this time they sometimes 

 make a noise that is not dissimilar to the pip- 

 ing of ([ueens." 



Mr. Doolittle's excellent article on the preven- 

 tion of robbing, in Gleanings for Mar. 1, page 

 191, was duly appreciated, for Mr. Bertrand has 

 translated and published it in full for the bene- 

 fit of his readers. 



To tind out to which hive the robber-bees be- 

 long, we are often told to sprinkle them with 

 flour, etc. Instead of doing this a correspond- 

 ent puts at the entrance of the hive, all along 

 and very near the entrance, a strip of flour, so 

 that the bees which leave the hive are obliged 

 to whiten themselves in this flour in passing. 



The present low price of honey is a source of 

 great anxiety and complaint to the French and 

 Swiss bee-keepers. There are numerous com- 

 plaints to be found like this: " At this time the 

 great effort of the apiculturist needs not to be 

 directed any longer toward the increase of his 

 crop (as to this, enough directions are given to 

 us), but much rather how to dispose of it;" and 

 in this direction these French-speaking apicul- 

 turists display a vim and energy which beat 

 Mr. Dadant's " dreadful Yankees " all to pieces. 

 At their frequent exhibitions (more frequent 

 than in our country) they not only present their 

 finest honey in the most attractive form, but 

 they combine with them a regular honey-mar- 

 ket where many visitors who would not buy 

 otherwise are induced and persuaded to pur- 

 chase, with the expectation of creating a de- 

 mand on the part of the public for good pure 

 honey. Moreover, they try all kinds of ways of 

 transforming honey into eatable or drinkable 

 things. They make vinegar, hydromel, brandy, 

 and liquors of it; use it for the manufacture of 

 chocolate and bonbons; give directions for mak- 

 ing apothecaries' syrups, etc. As the temper- 

 ance movement is known there by name only, 

 and they are not yet up to an understanding of 

 its noble principle at all, both laity and clergy 

 take a deep interest in the production of the 

 above "drinks;" and not seldom one hits upon 

 articles written by Protestant ministers as well 

 as Catholic priests, in which recipes for making 

 these stuff's are given, and the urgent necessity 

 of creating a market for their sale is set forth 

 with genuine zeal. Allow me to cite just one 

 instance, to illustrate the blindness with which 

 my continental countrymen (I am a German 

 with a little admixture of French blood) are 



