1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



171 



JAKE SMITH'S LETTERS. 



THE PALLUS BEE-Hr\"E. 



A. I. Oleenimjs — 

 deer Sir: — I herd 

 from you threw a 

 in an whitch-cura to 

 our house. He told 

 me how you was a 

 grate bee-man, and 

 told me to right and 



'p^f'-irm^-^^0^a -• » ^®" ^^^^ about our 

 ^j'tl^^/^^^^^pi^^iiV bee-pallus and yude 

 '^^**^ -^s^sr < '^""^ print it. Weave" had 

 the pal las ever sints 

 last spring. The 

 way of it was this. 

 A man cum along 

 with the pallus onto 

 his waggon, and 

 sed how he hear I 

 was a 4-handed farmer, always up with the 

 times, and how I kep so menny bees, and he 

 wanted to show me the latest improvement in 

 bees. 



It was a pallus to keep them in. You jist 

 put a common scap, with a swarm of bees in. 

 up on top of the pallus. and then thale bild 

 down and fill up tlie pallus. Then they is a 

 door to it, where you can open the door ct jist 

 cut out a peace of hunny enny time. You see 

 that's reel handy for the wimmln fokes, espe- 

 shelly when curapenny cums. & they can take 

 a plate and a knife and git all they want with 

 hot biskit for supper. 



^\.JAKE SMITH. 



he thought one of the animals in his teem was 

 sum tired out, and mabee he better stop. He 

 woodent miss having the pallus git to the exa- 

 bishen for fifty ($r,0) dollars, but if his teem give* 

 out it mite bender him more than to stop. So 

 he stopt. 



He was reel soshable like, and toald me lots 

 about bees and about the ])allus. He sed how a 

 man the name of Bramler bed a pallus, & I 

 di.sremember rightly now jist how much hunny 

 he got from it, but tenny rate he got from that 

 pallus morn I ever git from all the swarms I 

 ever took up enny year. 1 trubble with bees is, 

 that the worms eats them up. So the pallus 

 has a slantin bottom that rolls out the worms. 



The price of the pallus with a farm rite was 

 ri.) dollars. In the mornin he was afeerd the 

 bad roads was too much for that 1 animal in 

 his teem, and so he diddent know but hede hev 

 togivup gitten the pallus to the exabishen. 

 He hated to, but he bed to: & .seein how it was, 

 and how he coodent go no furder on ackount of 

 the animill, hede make me a discount onto the 

 price; and as he wanted to interjuice the pallus 

 into the nabei'hood, hede make a nuther re- 

 ducktion. & I got the pallus for 15$. and he sed 

 I coodent make ten dollars no easier, and he 

 was a reel nice man. That's how I cum to git 

 the pallus. It wuzzent him that toald me to 

 right to you, but a nuthei' man that was here. 

 He sed his name was do littel. He diddent 

 seam to kno a powerful sight about bees, but 

 he took a celebrated interest into that pallus, 

 and sed youde like to hear about it. 



Eespectably yours. Jake Smith. 



P. S.— Pleas send me a paper when you print 

 it. 



RECOLLECTIONS AND EXPERIENCES. 



.JAKE AND THE PATKNT-RIOHT MAN. 



He was a reel nice man, with a shiny hat & 

 good close. He was sum kind of a agent for 

 the pallus cumpenny that made the palluses. 

 and was a taking it io sum big exabishen. He 

 was verry polite to the gals, and they was con- 

 siderable took with him. He knode all about 

 bees, and diddent seem a bit stuck up, but jist 

 tocked to me as common as you pleas. So I ast 

 him to stay all nite. Along at hrst he diddent 

 ee how h cood; but I irged him, and at last 



SOMETHING FKOM AN OLD BEE-EDITOK: 

 HOW HE BEGAN BEE-KEEPING, ETC. 



In an article that appeared Jan. 15, 

 1893, in Gleanings, we promised to tell 

 your readers something about our meth- 

 ods and how we apply the Hoffman 

 frame. Just after we penned that ar- 

 ticle, friend Root desired us to write up 

 Mr. Hoffman's place and methods. 

 We complied, and the season advanced 

 until we did not again get an opportu- 

 nity. 



The writer, a boy of sixteen, began 

 bee-keeping in April, 1866— a veritable 

 novice, ';;fully enthused by reading N. 

 H. & H. A. King's " Bee keepers' Text- 

 book." It is needless to tell you that 

 all obtainable books on bee culture were 

 read and re-read, and articles in peri- 

 odicals on the subject were carefully 

 searched out. Unfortunately, much that 

 was, and frequently now is, written for 

 the papers is worse than useless, and 

 the inexperienced can not always se- 

 cure the wheat and reject the chaff. 



We soon made the acquaintance of 

 that grand old man, Moses Quinby, 

 than whom few men labored more un- 

 selfishly or gave more freely of their 

 carefully gathered experience, to ad- 

 vance the true interests of scientific and 

 practical bee-keeping. Indeed, his door was 

 ever open and his table always spread for all 

 who saw fit to visit him, and the number was 

 legion. 



We purchased a black colony in a box-hive. 

 We secured H. A. King's American hives, into 

 one of which the only swarm, which came 

 rather late, was hived. Then on the seventh 

 or eighth day we transferred the colony from the 



