178 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1. 



numerous the fruit-growers are troubled at 

 this season while packing fruits, and naturally 

 condemn the bees without stopping to reflect 

 upon the advantages to be derived from them 

 in fertilizing the trees and vines from which 

 the fruit is taken. 



In England a fruit-grower was surprised to 

 Hnd that, in one corner of his garden, in which 

 were placed colonies of bees, the trees were 

 heavily laden with fruit, while those more re- 

 mo e had set very sparingly. Then he called 

 to mind the circumstance of its being very dark 

 and foggy during the blooming of the trees, so 

 that the' bees flew but a short distance from 

 their hives. 



The proprietor of a cherry orchard in Cali- 

 fornia found that his trees did not bear remu- 

 nerative crops after the flat of the raisin-growers 

 banishing the bees to a distant canyon. Being 

 convinced of the necessity of bees to fertilize 

 the bloom, he procured some colonies, located 

 them in his orchard, and then realized satis- 

 factory returns. Horticulturists and apiarists 

 are like the American Union— one and insep- 

 arable.— Iri'igation Age. 



BEE-HUNTING. 



I am still climbing bee-trees. I went down 

 into the sunk lands this fall and climbed two 

 trees. I got !iO gallons of honey. I had a 

 picture taken of one tree S feet through and 90 

 feet high. If you wi-h one to put in your 

 journal I will send you one. I am going into 

 the bee business. I have 13 stands. I had only 

 one stand last summer, and I sold from it .M9..50 

 worth of honey at 15 cts. per pound. 



Green Derrington. 



Poplar Bluft', Mo., Jan. 5. 



[Send us the picture, friend D., and. if suit- 

 able for a half-tone, we shall be glad to use it. 

 If you can get $19.,50 from each stand in a whole 

 apiary, you will soon be a " big bee-man."] 



HOW TO STOP BEES FROM EATING THROUGH 

 OILCLOTH. 



A friend recently showed me a way by which 

 he prevented propolis l)eing fastened to the 

 oilcloth cover of his hives. Like many of us he 

 was troubled by the bees eating through it. He 

 makes a light frame of wood, about a quarter 

 of an inch thick and an inch wide, the size of 

 the hive, and nails it across, keeping it from 

 sagging by putting a doubled strip of tin across 

 the center. This cover laid over allows a bee- 

 space between it and the tops of the frames. 

 This may not be new. but it is efficacious with 

 him. He also prevents the combs being joined 

 together by making the frame 1% inches wide, 

 allowing a space between when placed in the 

 hive. R. B. Hugenan. 



Boeru", Tex. 



HOW TO KEEP BEES AWAY FROM WATERING- 

 TROUGHS, ETC. 



I grease the tops of my watering-troughs 

 with any kind of old grease with a little kero- 

 sene mixed with it, and have not a bit of trouble 

 with bees in them. 



There is a colony of bees located in the chim- 

 ney of an empty liouse right here in Carpenter. 

 The combs have become very much blackened 

 from the rains washing the soot down among 

 them, but the bees are still working away. 

 They cast one swarm which hung on the 

 branch of a tree near the house for two days, 

 right in the sun too. No one In Carpenter had 

 the courage to hive them, as they were rather 

 high up. At last some one sent me word, but I 

 was not told of it until they had gone. 



Carpenter, 111. Edw. Smith. 



AN EXCELLENT PLAN FOR GETTING RID OF 

 LAYING WORKERS. 



To get rid of laying workers, take the colony 

 infested and set it on a wheelbarrow; then 

 put a clean hive on the stand just vacated, 

 with a frame of good brood, and a queen-cell if 

 you have it. You are now ready for all the 

 field-bees that are out. Wheel the hive that 

 has the laying workers, twenty or more rods 

 from the apiary, and shake the whole outfit of 

 bees off on the ground, and let them find their 

 own way back to their old stand. You can put 

 the combs back, or you can distribute them 

 among other colonies, and give the colony on 

 the old stand frames of empty comb, or founda- 

 tion, just as you may wish. We never failed to 

 get rid of laying workers by this plan, and we 

 have had considerable experience, especially 

 with laying workers among Cyprian bees, and 

 we very much doubt whether there are any 

 worse bees in that respect than the Cyprians; 

 and if there is a more vindictive bee than the 

 Cyprian, we really should like to see it. 



Rochester. O. M. W. Shepherd. 



A CHEAP WAY OF COOKING WHEAT FOR FOOD, 

 ETC. 



God gave us wheat, but we do not use it as he 

 gave it to us. We first take part away. Take 

 the runners off your sleigh, and how will it 

 work? 



Milk is the best of food; but the injunction, 

 not to wash our solid food down with it, can not 

 be put too strong. Also, it is said w(> should 

 not drink it fast. A nice way to prepare wheat 

 for food is to obtain ii perfectly free from foul 

 seed and other matter. Take the whole wheat, 

 wash it, soak it five or ten hours, then boil it in 

 a tin basin over the augite mat. Any dish may 

 do to boil it in; but you want the mat, as it is a 

 bad job without one, for the wheat must be 

 boiled half a day. Eat it hot or cold, in milk, 

 with cream, or with butter, or alone. I prefer 

 to hav(> most of the water cooked out when 

 done. B. D. 



. Eagle Point, Wis. 



EMPLOYING HELP, ETC. 



When I read of your views and trials with 

 hired help, I am painfully conscious that many 

 men who have land enough to keep half a 

 dozen men at work the year round think it the 

 safest to do what they can with their own 

 hands, and let the rest go. The important 

 thing for all of us is, to endeavor to learn what 

 " temperance in all things " means, in all its 

 phases and in all its fullness, and then strive 

 to live up to it. W. H. J. Drew. 



Chateaugay Lake, N. Y'.. Oct. 2.5. 



coldest WINTER IN YEARS ; SEVERE LOSSES. 



We have had the coldest winter here that we 

 have had for years; and the result as to bees is 

 fearful. Fully fifty per cent of them have fro- 

 zen and died. Those who tried to winter on 

 summer stands without any packing have lost 

 nearly all. I commenced the winter with 30 

 colonies on summer stands, byt packed as di- 

 rected in the ABC, and have lost none. 



Sneedville, Tenn., Jan. 38. H. F. Coleman. 



FROM ONE COLONY TO 6000 IN 13 YEARS. 



If it interests you and the readers of Glean- 

 ings I will state that, in 1870, a gentleman 

 brought a few colonies of bees (the first) to 

 Tahiti, Society Islands, in the Pacific (French 

 colony), and in 1883, when I left the island, they 

 had increased to six thousand colonies. 



Pully, Switzerland. I. P. Greno. 



