1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



177 



extensively on bee culture, as I have a few 

 bees— 78 swarms— in good shape. 



W. H. J. Drew. 

 Chateaugay Lake, N. V.. Jan. 24. 



[Well, friend D., I should think you were a 

 good-natured man. We are glad to have 

 Gleanings read, especially when the readers 

 seem to enioy reading it as do those you men- 

 tion. Well, if (/ou can stand it. all right: but 

 whenever any nnmbei's of Gleanings get lost 

 or worn out. just apply to us and you shall 

 have more free of charge. Oh! I want to say 

 to our readers, that the explanation of your 

 wonderful good nature lies in that opening 

 paragraph. You learned when a boy that new- 

 milk, right from the cow, was good to di'ink, 

 and cheaper than doctors' stuff; but, by the 

 Way, do not be too sure that you will never 

 need medicine. I sincerely hope you may not; 

 but you remember the old injunction, "Let 

 him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest 

 he fall."] 



A SAD LETTER FROM A BEE-KEEPER'S WIFE. 



Deal' Mr. Rovt: — I have sad. sad news to 

 write. My dear good husband, John D. Adams. 

 was drowned Aug. 21, while trying to save our 

 hired man's life. They were both drowned. 

 \Ve all know he died trying to do his duty; but, 

 oh it is so hard to give him up! it was such a 

 shock on us. If he had been sick, and I could 

 have stood by his bedside, knowing that he 

 must go, it surely wouldn't have been so hard. 

 Mr. Root, no one knows what it is to part with 

 a dear good companion until the trial comes. 

 Just a few weeks ago our home was lively and 

 cheerful, but now it is sad and lonesome. Oh 

 how we miss him! 



A precious one from us has gone; 



A voice we loved is still; 

 A place is vacant in our home. 



Which never can be filled. 

 God, in his wisdom, lias recalled 



The boon liis love had given ; 

 And, though the bodj' slumbers Uvre, 

 The soul is safe in heaven. 



I beg (lU interest in the prayers of the bee- 

 keepers that I may ever do my duty in raising 

 my fatherless children. He loved his bees so 

 dearly we can not bear to part with them, so 

 we intend to keep them, and do our best with 

 them. Oh so many responsibilities I have to 

 shoulder! Pray for me. Annie F. Adams. 



Nira. Iowa. '' 



[Most certainly will we remember to pray for 

 you; and while doing so we can rejoice that 

 yours is a faith that goes beyond tliis world, 

 ilust at this time, when floods are likely to oc- 

 cur with the breaking-up of the ice and the 

 melting of the snow, it behooves us to be care- 

 ful about taking risks in water. Many a person 

 has been drowned, when he evidently scarcely 

 thought of being in danger. Dear friend, you 

 may rejoice in the thought that our good 

 brother died in the effort to save the life of a 

 fellow-man.] A. I. R. 



a plan for converting dark honey into 



white; not by the glucose method, 



bvt substitution. 



Many a bee-keeper in this vicinity found last 

 fall a considerable part of his surplus to be 

 buckwheat and other dark honey; and, on at- 

 tempting to sell it. found but a limiti^d market 

 at a very low price. 



If I could set forth a scheme by which such 

 an unsalable article could be instantly convert- 

 ed into nice white honey I suppose they and 

 others similarly situated would be made much 

 happier. While I know of no magic by which 



dark honey may be tr(msmuted to white; yet I 

 tliink there is a plan by which it niay be ex- 

 didiKjcd for white at the cost only of time and 

 a little labor. It is better not to try to market 

 such honey, nor even to take it from the cases 

 in which it was made. 



My plan is, to place the cases in the spring 

 »Hdcr the l)rood-chamber of the hives, before 

 the time for putting on surplus cases arrives, 

 calculating the matter so that all space in the 

 body of the hive will be lilled by the honey 

 which the bees will carry up e.xcept what is 

 needed for brood-rearing. This will force early 

 swarming and the storing of all white honey in 

 sections when surplus cases are added, on the 

 advent of the white- honey season. At the close 

 of tlie clover and basswood season, take oft' all 

 cases, remove merchantable honey, and return 

 the rest to the cases, putting the best and most 

 nearly completed by itself; then return to the 

 hives. selecting energetic swarms having combs 

 occupied either with honey or ijoiiikj brood. 

 Place a heavy case on the top, and its comple- 

 ment under the brood -nest; and in a very short 

 time the upper one will be filled from the lower, 

 and completed. This plan gives you white 

 honey without admixture of dark. VVhen there 

 is such a mixture the dark sells the light, not 

 the light the dark. 



For the after- crop of honey, second-hand 

 boxes may be used; but it is false economy to 

 put on old boxes for clover and basswood. In 

 the same way. eniptv combs are a detriment to 

 the fancy part of your crop, but an advantage 

 to the lower- grade portion. 



Flint. Mich. Emily E. West. 



[We believe this plan has before been pro- 

 posed, and has to some extent been put into 

 practice. At first we thought you were going 

 to propose to lighten the honey by glucose; but 

 your plan is far better, and. what is of far 

 greater importance, is perfectly unobjectionable 

 from a moral point of view.] 



queens from the south vs. those from 

 the north. 



Has any one experimented to see whether 

 the progeny of queens raised in the South, and 

 sent north, are as hardy as from queens raised 

 in a cold climate? If queens raised in the 

 South are as good for the North as those raised 

 up here, Southern breeders have a great ad- 

 vantage over Northern queen-breeders. 



HOW MANY COLONIES WILL 2000 BASSWOODS 

 SUPPORT? 



How many colonies of bees could profita- 

 bly be kept to pasture on 2000 young bassuood- 

 trees, averaging in. through, and 2000 that 

 would average 3 inches? The trees are 15 or 30 

 years old. 



I am much interested in the adulteration dis- 

 cussion, and 1 consider honey sugar or sugar 

 honey a dangerous' thing. I hope it can be de- 

 tected readily, ana prosecuted to the finish. 



Cherokee, la., Feb. 1.5. L. J. Fairfield. 



[So far as we have been able to observe, 

 queens from the South are just as good as those 

 raised in the North. With regard to the bass- 

 wood, your qin^stion is a hard one to answer. 

 In good seasons, tlu; 2000 trees might yield all 

 that 500 colonics could gather for ten days. 

 Indeed, they might do much moi'e. and per- 

 haps much less. Basswood is a wonderful hon- 

 ey-plant, but we have no accurate data.] 



BEES AND fruit; SOME SENSIBLE W'GRD.S. 



The question of bees and fruit-trees again 

 commands the attention of horticulturists and 

 apiarists. In some sections where bees are 



