1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



527 



queen below, and allow the bees to put surplus 

 where we want it. 



BEES AND FKUIT. 



An interesting paper on raising fruit was 

 read recently before the Ravenna Grange by 

 Mr. Smith Sanford. After stating the condi- 

 tions necessary for that business, and the en- 

 emies and drawbacks to contend with, the mat- 

 ter of the influence of bees on fruit came up. 

 Mr. Sapp gave the following strong testimonial 

 as to the value of bees to the fruit-grower: 



Mr. Sapp referred to the part that bees take in 

 successful orcharding. He referred to orchards 

 which had produced abundant crops of fruit when 

 a nurober of colonies of bees had been kept near 

 the orchards, that had partially or completely failed 

 after the removal ot the bees. 



As the above comes from outside of our own 

 ranks, it is of special interest. We are indebted 

 to the Ohio Farmer for the clipping. 



THE APICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS, AS REPORTED 

 IN THE REVIEW. 



I AM always glad to read the articles in the 

 Review, by R. L. Taylor, detailing his experi- 

 ments at the apicultnral station, providing I 

 can study out the conclusion. But several 

 times I have found myself almost unable to 

 gather the lessons taught by the tables. I sup- 

 pose it is my own thick-headedness, but I have 

 heard others speak of it several times. If our 

 friend R. L. T. would help us to translate them 

 a little more it would add greatly to the value 

 of the report. I was about giving an editorial 

 summary of the one in the Ttevicw of June 10. I 

 maybe thick-headed; but for the life of me I 

 could not boil it down. I kept still, however, 

 and said to my co-worker, our proof-reader and 

 stenographer, in my usual tone, "I wish you 

 would make an editorial summary of this." I 

 have sometimes asked him to do this before, 

 when I have been pressed for time. The next 

 day I came around and said, "Well, have you 

 got that summary ? " 



" No," said he. " that is a sticker." 



" Have you read it ? " said I. 



"Yes. especially the reading-matter; and 

 while there are many interesting and valuable 

 facts all through the article, I can not bring 

 them all to a focus so as to state the result of 

 the problem as a whole." 



I know my friend Mr. Taylor will not take it 

 unkindly when I say I am not fault-finding; 

 but I make it as a criticism, hoping that it will 

 enable some of us to understand the tables a 

 little better. He sometimes gives us a sum- 

 mary, or the gist of the matter in a nutshell, 

 and thus unquestionably throws much light 

 on the tables, making their meaning more in- 

 telligible. Perhaps I ought to be able to do 

 this; but surely Mr. Taylor can interpret his 

 own figures more correctly. 



I am willing to acknowledge that I have my 

 fair share of thick-headedness; but some of the 

 brightest bee-keepers I know of acknowledge 

 that they have been greatly indebted to Glean- 

 ings for the editorial summaries of the Mich- 

 igan apicultural reports, as they were not able 

 to understand the original report in the Review. 

 I should like to give the names of some of these 

 bee-keepers; but for fear they would not like 

 the mild insinuation that they are thiclt-headed, 

 like myself, I forbear. 



The point is right here: There are very few 

 readers who will take the time to study out a 

 set of figures, or read a thing through several 

 times to get its meaning. If they do not catch 

 the meaning at first glance they will simply 

 skip it. 



foul, brood ; how to get rid of it among 



neighbors; the policy at the home 



OF the honey-bees. 



We recently got track of a bad case of foul 

 brood in our own county. Some time ago I 

 took a bicycle-trip down to investigate. Sure 

 enough, it was a rotten case, and needed com- 

 plete extermination. As it was only about 

 seven miles from us, I offered to furnish the 

 party foundation, frames, and hives, if need be, 

 all new and complete, free of charge, on condi- 

 tion that he would burn frames, hive, and all, 

 but save the bees if he liked, by driving them 

 on to frames of clean foundation. We feel that 

 we can not afford to have that dread disease 

 within even seven miles of us. 



I think it greatly behooves all intelligent and 

 progressive bee-keepers, when they know of 

 cases of foul brood, to offer, if need be, the owner 

 of the infested stock their services, and furnish 

 them foundation, frames, and a new hive. Our 

 apiary is perfectly healthy, and we have little 

 to fear of the disease making any serious in- 

 roads on us again, because we feel that we are 

 able to nip it in the bud. But notwithstanding 

 this, we take every precaution, and therefore 

 sell nothing but queens by mail. The business 

 of selling nuclei or bees by the pound was dis- 

 continued over a year ago. The mere fact that 

 foul brood broke out in our own apiaiysome 

 years ago, and reappeared in another yard some 

 five miles south of us two years ago, and again 

 within a few days past in an apiary seven miles 

 north of us, leads us to believe our policy is 

 wise. But we feel perfect safety in selling 

 queens, because we never knew of a case where 

 a queen carried foul brood from one colony to 

 another. A very few such cases have been re- 

 ported; but there are so many other ways in 

 which it could have been carried, I have been 

 inclined to doubt them all. In fact, as our old- 

 er readers have known, when we had foul 

 brood we carried queens from diseased colonies 

 and introduced them into perfectly healthy 

 ones. The experiment was repeated a good 

 many times, but foul brood never appeared 

 where the queen was put. 



