1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



303 



JAKE SMITH'S LETTERS. 



MY NU APERY HELP, AND HOW IT SKIPT OUT. 



A. I. Oleenings— 

 deer Sir: — Did you 

 ever was reel bizzy a 

 workin at yure bees, 

 and 1 of yure gals 

 cum out an toled you 

 they was a lady wan- 

 ted to see you? And 

 K^i' ■ -s-ite&aai^BMB \ • ^^^^^ yf'u diddent see 

 ?2^^-f^^^^^'^^^^'^ how you cood leeve 

 yi^^^sntidi .^s^^^ .- '-■^s-tiie bees jist then, 



but you diddent 

 want to beimpalite, 

 and you diddent 

 know but it mite be 

 1 of yure relations 

 that you set a good eel of store by, whitch she 

 had cum to supprise you. and then you went in 

 and found a young gal that wanted to sell you 

 the life .fe deth of Calico-eye the queen of 

 Hayweigheye. And then you bot it to save 

 time, and felt cheep when yure wife cast up to 

 you that you was soft. 



1 day last summer I was a hivin a swarm. & 

 hed got them down on to a sheet when they all 

 riz and settled on to the top of a oak-tree. Jist 

 then 1 of the gals hollered to me they was a 

 gentleman in the house to see me. It was a 

 risky peace of bizness to go off and leeve that 

 swarm in the yumer they was in. but I hed 

 to go. 



I went to the house and got off my riggin and 

 slickt myself up sum, the gals all the time a 

 snickerin to theirselves kind a quiet like, but I 

 thot I woodent yumer em by askin no questions. 

 I made up ray mind it was Gordus Tull, him 

 whitch married my wife's next oldest sister 

 Anny frum Nebrasky. Gordus is 1 of the best 

 fellows ever was. & Ide be glad to see him enny 

 time, and I thot they hed him in the parler like 

 he was a strainger, jist to supprise me. 



THIS IS "that PICKTER." 



Well, I opened the parler door, & I tell you I 

 was supprised. You wood a been supprised too, 

 woodent you? Jist look at that pickter, and see 

 if you woodent. I thot, " If that's Gordus, he 

 has changed sum." But it wuzzent Gordus, for 

 he's of the cockcashun or white race, and this 1 

 was jist as black as a hive full of 2.5 year old 

 cobm. His feetyours wuzzent what you mite 

 call small, leastways not his mouth and feet. 



Look at the subdood meekness of his counte- 

 nants. It was the subdoodest meekness I ever 

 see. He hed a carpet bag that lookt very fool, 

 but the way he handled it afterward it must a 

 been fool of straw. 



He toled me how his name was Rev. George 

 Washington Augustus Jones, and he represent- 

 ed the grate cullured youniversity of sum place, 

 I disremember what; and he hed heer tell how 

 liberl I wus, and he hed cum to giv me the 

 preshus privalege of hevvin my name handed 

 down the annuals of time as one of the found- 

 lings of the grate youniversity. 



I toled him how they was a swarm on to the 

 top of a tree, and wood he excuse me for a short 

 period of time. He replide he wood be grately 

 delitened to accumpenny me. So he cuvered 

 up his cork-scroo curls with his stove-pipe hat, 

 and took his carpet-bag and went along, sayin, 

 " It will efford me plesher to render you all the 

 resistance I can to the extent of my debility." 

 He ment he wood help me. 



So I let him help me, and when I clum the 

 tree and sawed off the lim he held the hive un- 

 der to ketch the bees. The lim cum down with 

 a jerk, the Rev. George Washington Augustus 

 Joneses hat cum off. and the bees lit all over 

 his kinky head. He dropt the hive, grabbed 

 his grip in 1 hand his hat in the uthther, and fit 

 the bees for a minnit with each, then started 

 likeastreek; & the last I see of him he was 

 makin a windmill of his self with both hands. 

 I hevvent saw him sints, and ime afeerd I 

 woont be handed down the annuals of time. 



Jake Smith. 



CALIFORNIA. 



IS THE SMOKER UNHEALTHFUL? 



In the course of a busy day a bee-keeper is 

 obliged to inhale more or less of the smoke he 

 directs from his smoker upon his bees. I said 

 obliged, but this is hardly so. More truly I 

 should have said that he can not help taking 

 into his lungs much of the smoke that issues 

 from the smoker while he is at work among the 

 bees. To most persons this smoke is quite disa- 

 greeable; to some it is sickening. In my own 

 case I find that, though it does not make me sick, 

 still it is apt to be the means of bringing on a 

 cold of greater or less severity. Just to what 

 extent it affects other persons I am not fully 

 prepared to state. I know, however, that it gives 

 most persons a " cold in the head." Why this is 

 so, I am sure those bee-keepers who belong to 

 the medical profession can tell us. It would be 

 well for all those who are thus troubled to be 

 careful in the use of their smokers; they can, if 

 they will, direct the blast so that the smoke will 

 not be blown in their faces; at least, only a 

 small portion of it will be inhaled by the oper- 

 ator. 



PROPOIJS GALORE. 



There is no place in California where the bees 

 gather and use so much propolis as in the region 

 opposite San Francisco. Why this is so I do not 

 know, unless it is because it is "before the city." 

 If this is so, the bees must understand Greek; for 

 '■ before the city " is English, you know, iorpro- 

 poUs. The place I mentioned where propolis is 

 so plentiful is in the Oakland and Berkeley hills, 

 opposite the Golden Gate and the Pacific metrop- 

 olis. I have seen hives so badly glued with this 

 natural product that the interior was almost 

 coated on with a thick layer of this disagreeable 

 stuff. It is mostly obtained from the alder and 

 the balm-of-gilead. 



RAMBLER OUTDONE. 



While in Los Angeles early in February last, 

 four bee-keepers, from as many counties in the 



