1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



93 



Slate, that the bees are found to mostly work 

 upon ? Has the experiment station experiment- 

 ed any to determine the relation of bees to fruit? 



I am afraid we shall not £?et much aid from 

 this source; but I am going to use Prof. Cook's 

 article to the best advantage, if you have any 

 of the leaflets left. Ahthuk Hanskx. 



National City, Cal.. Nov. 30. 



[Yes. that is the thiiip to do: give each a 

 copy of Prof. Cook's article on bee-fertilization, 

 and in addition tell them that, in that progress- 

 ive State of Michigan, the bee and fruit men 

 have met together in convention, and each side 

 acknowledged their dependence on the other. 

 The fact is, the fruit-men of California should 

 be willing to put up with a little annoyance 

 from the bees during the ripe- fruit season, for 

 the sake of the good the bees do earlier in the 

 year while the trees are in blossom. If the bees 

 were taken all away for a year or so, the fruit- 

 men would be very glad to get them back again, 

 iust as they did years ago in Massachusetts. 

 History repeats itself.] 



INTRODUCING QUEENS— KONIG'S METHOD: DI- 

 RECTIONS FROM A CORRESPONDENT IN 

 NORWAY. 



Among the many methods of introducing, the 

 following affords some advantages: No hive is 

 to be made queenless; no waiting 48 hours, nor 

 even 24 is needed, for the new queen can be im- 

 mediately introduced to a strong colony, etc. 

 All this IS of interest with a valuable queen. 

 The method here described I call the " Konig." 

 as I have it from Mr. Konig. of Lodz, in Poland, 

 to whom I sent some Norwegian queens this 

 summer. 



When a queen arrives, prepare a hive for her 

 with one honey-comb without brood, and two 

 empty combs and a drone-trap before the en- 

 trance. Put the queen into a wire cage on the 

 honey-comb; take one comb with bees from a 

 hive (look sharp for the queen; if she is there, 

 take another comb instead of it); brush the 

 bees off before the entrance of the new queen's 

 hive. In like manner goto another and a third 

 hive, etc., and take a comb as befoie, and brush 

 the bees off. The drone trap will catch a queen 

 if such a one by mistake should follow the 

 brushed bees. The new hive will then contain 

 bees from three or more hives mixed together; 

 the queen is set free after 24 hours, and is 

 always cordially accepted. 



Engvai.d Hanson. 



Aamli, Norway, Oct., 1892. 



goi-den's salt cure for bee-paralysis 

 challenged. 



I read the discussion and experiments of T. S. 

 Ford and J. A. Golden on the subject of bee- 

 paralysis. Please allow me to ask some ques- 

 tions in regard to the subject. First, might not 

 the bees have been poisoned by visiting fruit- 

 trees that had been sprayed too soon ? If not, 

 might they not have got the poison from later 

 spraying, where honey-dew was abundant? 

 Might not the cure of Mr. Golden have been a 

 success on account of less poison in vicinity. 

 in the solution used in iiis case? Is salt an 

 antidote for mild poisons? Do not bees go out 

 of the hive to die? Allen I^artow. 



Milan, O., Dec. 5^ 



another and shorter way to kill skunks. 

 Mr. France's method of killing skunks is 

 amusing. To kill a skunk, take a stout stick, 

 of convenient length, not over two feet. Walk 

 slowly to within reach of the skunk, and kill 

 him by a blow on the head. You can then car- 

 ry him several hundred yards before the slight 

 involuntary discharge of "smudge." which al- 

 ways takes place about five minutes after 



death. Young skunks can be taken alive by 

 hand, without danger. I give all of the above 

 from experience. Geo. M. Wertz. 



Johnstown, Pa., Jan. 7. 



[Y^our plan will surely work if you can get 

 within hitting distance. Still, if you have 

 "been there" you know.] 



HOW PAPA ships extracted HONEY. 



I will try to explain how papa ships extracted 

 honey. We usually ship in tin buckets holding 

 12 or'2.5 lbs. We punch a hole through the lid, 

 to give the air free passage. Then we stretch 

 a thin wire tightly across the lid. to keep it 

 from getting off, and to strengthen the bucket. 

 We have shipped honey In this way for years, 

 and it always arrives in good order. Our honey 

 crop is very poor this season. 



Fred H. Gkaeper. 



Westphalia, Ind.. Dec. .5. 



[Good I let's hear from more of the little folks. 

 If your papa doesn't like to write, and he has 

 something good and useful, tell us about it.] 



A NOTE FROM OUR SPECIAL ARTIST; THAT 

 WILDER man: whirlwinds, ETC. 



A. I. Root: — Say! Is Hutchinson or Hasty, or 

 any of the other bee-men. inquiring after my 

 address? Don"t give it them. After reading 

 that Wilder letter, and seeing the way Ram- 

 bler wiggles out from under the tub by a dis- 

 tant whack at his poor artist confederate, I am 

 beginning to feel alarmed: and as my means of 

 defense are extremely limited, I confess I don't 

 know what to do. Perhaps the whirlwind is 

 coming this way. May be some of the others 

 will be after me now that Rambler has sicked 

 'em on. I didn't think that of him. If he 

 ■' pours oil on the troubled waters " in the way 

 that Wilder man says he does, well, what's to 

 become of me? I am stationai'y, while he is 

 skipping all over this beloved country. I can 

 hardly bear my own load: yet he wants to 

 lighten his so he can skip out still faster. But 

 really as to that tongue, I expect soon to write 

 a book on tongues, and with, perhaps, the as- 

 sistance of the (tleanings people, we will 

 explain something in regard toWilder's tongue. 

 In haste, 



GOLDENROD from FLORIDA. 



Mr. J. Pierpont Murdock. Oxford, Fla., sends 

 me specimens of goldenrod — Solidngo tenni- 

 foUa. with a small bottle of the honey from it. 

 He says that in October or November, some 

 colonies gathered (i.5 lbs. from it; and that it 

 grows two feet high, and bears a profusion of 

 yellow flowers. The prairies are covered with 

 it. He thinks the honey the finest he ever saw. 

 The leaves of this goldenrod are very narro.w, 

 as the specific name indicates. The honey is 

 uery lo/iifc; indeed, it has no more color than 

 water, and is of excellent flavor. We are used 

 to seeing golden honey from these flowers, and 

 so this Is very interesting. Is all goldenrod 

 honey from the South so light? A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich., Dec. 19. 



VERBA SANTA. 



Mr: Root:— In your issue for Dec. 1.") our friend 

 Rambler spells " yerba santa "' " herba santa " 

 —a change in the first letter of the name only, 

 and one which does not affect the pronuncia- 

 tion to any extent. This herb, or bush, grows 

 all over the State, so far as I know, and is 

 plentiful hereabout. I have not undertaken to 

 write at this time to correct Rambler's spelling 

 of the word, but I have taken this occasion to 

 connect this plant with San Francisco's original 

 name. The city spoken of was called by the 



