396 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



prolific — or, what is more likely to be tlie case 

 queens whose bees are poorly marked. These 

 queens can be removed, and selected queens 

 from the after-swarms introduced in their place. 

 In this way the apiary can be requeened very 

 cheaply. 



T. T. F.. of Tennessee, asks how to have a 

 queen fertilized by select drones. Answer. — The 

 only way is to place perforated zinc over the en- 

 trances of the colonies having undesirable 

 drones. B'or this purpose, drone-guards or Al- 

 ley traps may be used. Drone comb should be 

 given, and stimulative feeding should be prac- 

 ticed on the colony or colonies having select 

 drones. Unless such bees are fed daily a small 

 amount of sugar syrup when honey is not com- 

 ing in, they will be liable to kill off the drones, 

 or refuse altogether to rear them. The condi- 

 tions of an ordinary honey-flow should be 

 brought t^ bear upon the colony as nearly as 

 possible. 



F. W.. of Connecticut, says he has three colo- 

 nies of bees in Dovetailed hives, and wants to 

 know how he shall manage them to obtain the 

 most comb honey. Answer. — This question re- 

 quires too long an answer to be given her<' in de- 

 tail: but in a general way we may say that early 

 brood-rearing should be encouraged so that 

 there may be a large force of bees a couple of 

 weeks old when the honey season opens up. To 

 procure either comb or extracted honey, this is 

 the most important factor to be considered. A 

 large force of bees of the right age, and a rea- 

 sonable honey -flow, means honey. A small 

 force of bees, or even a large force too young, 

 means a practical failure so far as the produc- 

 tion of honey is concerned. But our querist 

 may ask how to start early brood-reaiing. As 

 soon as the weather opens up warm, feed the 

 bees daily about half a pint of sugar syrup. It is 

 assumed that the colonies have been caiefully 

 packed in double-walled hives, otherwise there 

 will be times when the brood will be chilled 

 from this early stimulative feeding. 



MY VISIT TO T. B. TERRY'S. 



THE KEST OF THE VISIT. 



After my mention of the ditching-dredge, in 

 our last issue, the manufacturers were kind 

 enough to send me an electrotype of it. Bui I 

 do not like the electrotype of it as well as I did 

 the machine itself. In the first place, it is not 

 tearing through a swamp. Secondly, that 

 great walking-beam, as I call it, is out of all 

 proportion. It should be nearly as long as the 

 whole boat, and then that scoop is insignificant. 

 Why. the one I saw would hold a whole family, 

 providing there were not too many of them. 

 The steel horns in front, you will notice, tear 

 up the soil, and then when it is swung around 

 over the dry land, or over the bank, the oper- 

 ator, by moving a lever, drops the bottom out. 

 The arm, or handle, attached to this scoop, 

 runs in grooves so it can be drawn back or let 

 out, while the great walking-beam can be 

 raised up at any angle, or swung either to the 

 right or to the left till it brings the digger in 

 such a shape that the man on the platform 

 handles the whole as he would a spade or fork. 



Now for the outdoors. 



One marked feature of friend Terry's prem- 

 ises is the fact that there is no rubbish around 

 the barn or around the house. There is not an 

 old wagon, not a hay-rack nor a corn-crib, 

 chicken-coop, pig-sty, nor any thing of the 

 sort. There is not any muddy barnyard, be- 

 cause the barnyard is covered up under a roof; 

 and while, at the same time, it is dry and 



pleasant to walk around in, it is almost as airy 

 and light as all outdoors. Again, there is not 

 any woodpile, no ash-leach, no dead trees, no 

 sticks of timber, no old rails; in fact, there are 

 not any piles of lumber, old or new. The prem- 

 ises are as clean and tidy as any city residence. 

 While I enjoyed the effect, I do not know but a 

 small -sized groan escaped me, and I came pret- 

 ty near saying to myself, "Oh dear me I if Mr. 

 Terry /(<((? to have this, that, and the other 

 around his home, that I have to have, he would 

 find it a hard matter," etc. I made up my mind 

 that I was going to find out about the wood- 

 pile, bits of odd lumber, etc.. for a very pretty 

 new fence had just been built between his land 

 and his neighbor's. I felt pretty sui'e there 

 were some posts left — may be some boards. Of 

 course, the wood was in the wood -shed, as ev- 

 ery farmer's wood should be. But while we 

 were looking over the farm, away off on the 

 back side, over the hill, where it could not be 

 seen from the street, was a sort of lumber-yard. 

 There were the extra fence-posts, and the tire- 

 wood that could not be put into the wood-shed, 

 probably because there was not room for it, and 

 certain odds and ends that would accumulate, 

 and which were too valuable to throw away. 

 Friend T. had gone to the trouble and expense 

 of hauling this away off out of sight, or very 

 likely it was taken out of sight in the first place. 

 In fact, a good deal of it was just as convenient 

 to get at there as anywhere else. Now, not all 

 of us, perhaps, can do as much as he has done 

 in this direction. He is a great teacher, and he 

 ought to have a model place for the rest of us 

 to look at. But we certainly can get rid of a 

 great part of the rubbish that mars and de- 

 forms the prospect around our homes. This is 

 nothing new to me. I have been at work at it 

 for years. Below is what I had printed on 

 some cards and scattered all over our establish- 

 ment, and gave all our people an exhortation 

 on this subject. 



OKT RID OF RUBBISH, AND SLICK UP. 



If you want to help me, friends, just lend a hand 

 while we get rid of all useless stuff that encumbers 

 our various building's, rooms, and counters. Let us 

 get rid of every empty barrel (l)e sure to preserve 

 the head along with it), empty liox or basket that is 

 not used or wanted; all unsalable goods; tools that 

 happen to be left in your room tliat are not used; 

 old iron; old lumber; discarded rubbish of all sorts. 

 Take the barrels and boxes to the box-bouse; and, 

 by the way, wherever you find a barrel in your 

 room that is less than half full, put its contents into 

 a basket of proper size, and get rid of the box or 

 barrel. This will give us more room, and it will 

 also enable the packers to have more boxes and 

 barrels without buying them. Be very particular 

 about letting tools that are not yours, and which 

 you do not use, remain in your room. A while ago 

 our men were luinting all over the farm for our 

 four shovels. I found one of them in the express 

 room. The expressman said it had been there for a 

 long time; and he said he did not know whose it 

 was, not where it belonged. Now, please let us 

 avoid this state of affairs. If you do not know 

 where a thing belongs, bring it to me, or call my at- 

 tention to it. If there are any tools or machinery 

 in regard to which you are undecided as to whether 

 they will be used again or not, call my attention to 

 it, and I will decide where it belongs. And, please, 

 do not leave any old coats, shoes, rubbers, umbrel- 

 las, etc., here on our premises. I give you fair 

 warning, that I am commencing my " spring clarin' 

 up," even now, this second dny of January, 189.3; 

 and if you do not take care of your property forth- 

 with, it may turn up missing before you know It. 

 Let us all get at it and turn allthese accumulations, 

 that are doing no good, into the hard cash that you 

 and I both stand in need of. Tnings that won't sell 

 for cash at all--not even for kindling-wood— let us 

 get out of sight, and have our premises present a 

 better appearance when our spring visitors come to 

 see us. If it will pay to have a broken thing mended, 

 the very best time to mend it is when it is first 

 hroken. You know, "Order is heaven's first law," 



