1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



527 



Heads of Grain 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



CRIMSON CLOVER FOR HONEY, ETC. 



Honey is almost dropping from locust this 

 season, and white clover is plentiful. I think 

 SO much of crimson clovei- that I should say it 

 is worth untold millions to this country, for 

 turnlnjj: under: and I now lind tinit my b(;cs are 

 swarniiiig upon it. It has lieen in bloom 30 

 days. Arthur T. Golbsborough. 



Washington. D. C, May 30. 



honey from figs. 



I have been told that the fruit of the fig-tree 

 is used by the honey-bee in producing honey. 

 I shonld be glad if you would give me a word 

 of infoimation in regard to it. Figs of every 

 kind grow readily in this climate. If the skin 

 of the fruit were broken, and the bees would 

 make honey from tho fruit, it appears to me 

 that it would be profitable to plant an orchard 

 of fig-trees. I have a few colonies of bees, but 

 no figs. Sara Thacker. 



Applegate, Cal., June 12. 



[Bees would make a sort of fig syrup, but we 

 question after all whether it could be called 

 honey.] 



A GOOO WAY TO STRENGTHEN WEAK COLO- 

 NIES, AND PREVENT SWARMS. 



I think I have a better way to strengthen 

 weak colonies than Dr. Millf^r's way of dou- 

 bling them up. Find the strongest colony, and 

 carry the weak one to it: set the strongest one 

 off its stand: place the weak one on it and the 

 strong on top of the weak one. You build up 

 the weak one. stop the swarming mania, and 

 convert it into a mania for honey-eathering. 

 No patents. Try it. I have often. 'and it ha'* 

 never failed. The change should be made when 

 the bees are busy gathering honey. 



Tucson, Ariz.. June 8. P. Plummer. 



[This, no doubt, would strengthen the weak 

 colony, and possibly prevent swarming, though 

 we should not be sure of it. 



DO BEES SPOIL FLOWERS? 



Mr. Root: — Mr. Schmalhausen. professor of 

 botany in the University of Kiev, told me thai 

 bees eat (spoil) flowers. Please give your 

 opinion. Alexis Ikonnikoff. 



Kiev, Russia, April 28. 



[Friend I., I think your professor must be 

 mistaken, or else the flowers of Russia are very 

 different from those of the rest of the world. 

 Instead of injuring the flowers it is (iuit(> the 

 contrary. Many flowers could not exist were it 

 not for the assistance the bees give them in the 

 way of fertilization, and I have never before 

 heard such a remark from any professor oi' any 

 other man of intelligence. .Some ignorant peo- 

 ple have from time to time conjectured that 

 the fruit would not be as sweet if the bees were 

 to take all the honey out of the blossoms. Prof. 

 Cook Rnd others have, however, repeatedly dis- 

 proved this fallacy.] 



TWO 1,AYING QUEENS FIGHTING. 



Dr. Miller, in Stray Straws, on page 42'). says 

 that he never saw two laying queens show 

 fight. I have, and to the death too. I.,ast year 

 I was requeening my apiary, and. while catch- 

 ing out the old queens, I put two under a t:lass 

 tumbler to see what they would do. In a few 

 minutes, and after their scare was ov(!r. they 



engaged in deadly conflict, and one killed the 

 other. One seemed to be much more vicious 

 than the other, and it was she that was victor. 

 Both fought, however. H. F. Coi,em.\n. 



Sneedville, Tenn., June 7. 



HOW to have THE QUEENS FERTILIZED BY 

 ITALIAN DRO.\ES. 



I have two swarms of Italian bees (from 

 queens bought of you last year), and S(!ven col- 

 onies of blacks. I'wish to Italianize the seven. 

 Now, let us suppose that I follow out your in- 

 structions in the ABC book coneciiiliig queen- 

 rearing and introducing. We will next suppose 

 that the virgin queens are almost ready to 

 srart out on their wedding-tour. I place the 

 bee-guards at the entrance of tiie seven hives 

 containing black bees, and thereby keep drones 

 in that they may have no chance to meet the 

 virgin Italian queen. Would it be most likely 

 to occur that the Italian drones would meet the 

 young queens from the seven hives'? Remem- 

 ber there are but two swarms of the Italians. 



Ranger, N. C. C. F. Walker. 



[The queens would probably be fertilized by 

 the Italian drones provided the perforated zinc 

 did not exclude the queens. Some zinc is made 

 to exclude drones but not queens.] 



Australia's honeyexhibit at thk world's 



FAIR. 



You will, perhaps. b(^ glad to hear that our 

 small exhibit for the World's Fair has been 

 shipi)ed to Chicago. It consists of 12() 3-lb. 

 jars, and. after the exposition; it will be on 

 permanent exhibition in your Department of 

 Agriculture at Washington, D. C. When you 

 get to the show (as, of course, you must do, be- 

 ing a patriotic American), I should be very 

 glad if you will seek out our exhibit and give 

 us a critical opinion on the quality, etc., in 

 Gleanings. You will notice each jar has the 

 same general-idea label; but evei'y lot of six 

 has on that label a distinguishing number. 

 These refer to individual exhibitors, each man 

 being limited to six jars for sample. We should 

 very much like your opinion as to which of the 

 samples of six out of the 126 jars you consider 

 the best, and why, as well as the general ex- 

 pression on the whole exhibit. R. Patten. 



Bolevarra, West Maitland, N. S. W., April 38. 



[When we go we shall take particular pains 

 to look up your exhibit. Thanks.] 



more about the pyramids. 



On page 303, May 1. you tell about the pyra- 

 mids. The building is a good deal more irreg- 

 ular— I mean the steps. They don't look like 

 steps when you are near them, but more like a 

 great stone-pile, as you say. The spaces be- 

 tween one row and the other were originally 

 filled out with plaster and cement and alabasu r 

 stones, carried off to Cairo by Mahomet All lo 

 build the beautiful mosque on the citadel. Be- 

 hind the pyramid of Cheops is the pyramid of 

 Cephrenes. the top of which is still perfectly 

 smooth and unbroken, and from which it can 

 be seen how the others were. Nobody was ever 

 on the top of that one, except the buildi-rs, who 

 must have begun the cementing at the top and 

 continued to the base. A good many cubic 

 meters of the covering are gone, owing to the 

 wind and weather, and man's hand. I was 

 more astonished at the immensity of work and 

 time it took to pile together, than by the beauty 

 of the work, at my midnight visit to the interior 

 of the great Cheops pyramid, with its immense 

 blocks of granite across the sepulchral cham- 

 ber, reported in Gle.\nings in 1S90. 



PiL J. Baldenspergkr. 



Nice, France, May 1. > 



