1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



567 



Our bees are doing well. Had 160 colonies, 

 290 now; have taken ten tons of honey, and still 

 at work. I produce extracted honey only. I 

 am located 3K miles from the railroad. 



Piru City, Cal., June 10. John Holser. 



Bees are booming; weather is fine; white 

 clover in abundance, and every thing points to 

 a big flow. vSwarming commenced June 9. and 

 continues with unabated fury. Fatality among 

 bees in this vicinity was great during April, 

 mnstlv spring dwindling. A. Y. Baldavix. 



De ivalb, 111., June 19. 



Bees haven't done better for ten years. They 

 have the surplus arrangements filled. Honey 

 sells readily at IS to 20 cents. The bees are 

 swarming some. We have had a honey-dew 

 for two weeks, and the ])oplar, basswood. and 

 white clover are full of bees. 



C. E. Shreckengost. 



Putney ville, Pa., June 27. 



Bees have been booming for the past week: 

 even the weakest colonics are tilling up their 

 hives with brood and honey fast. Nearly all 

 the better colonies are working in the sections: 

 some of them have one case of 28 sections full 

 of clover honey, which is in full bloom, and 

 very plentiful. Linden promises much; trees 

 are loaded with buds, which look healthy. 



C. Theii.mann. 



Theilmanton, Minn., June 21. 



BIGGEST HONEY-FLOW IN YEARS. 



We are liaving an old-fashioned season here 

 for honey. The fields are white with clover, 

 and the bees are just booming. It yields honey 

 this year. Basswood is commencing to bloom; 

 can't say yet how it will yield; but if it does 

 fairly well we shall get the biggest yield of 

 white honey in four years. In fact, we have 

 already, on clover alone. S. H. Mallory. 



Decatur, Mich., July 6. 



Honey is coming in fast now, and it is nice. 

 If my bees had been strong this spring I should 

 have had more honey by this time than in any 

 other year since I have had bees. You can tell 

 how the honey is coming in, for I put a swarm 

 on combs, and they filled the hive with honey, 

 and capped it in five days; that is good enough; 

 I have about 600 lbs. in sections now, and they 

 have worked better to-day than ever before. 



Dover, "Mich., July 6. A. N. Whitlock. 



BEST HONEY SEASON SINCE 1888. 



Friend Root: — We have had, and are still 

 having, the best season since 1888. The season 

 opened with a good flow from cherry-bloom. 

 Three days of very warm weather at the time 

 enabled the bees to restock their hives with 

 stores, and gave brood-rearing quite a boom. 

 Then four days of hot weather during apple- 

 bloom crowded the stronger hives with honey, 

 and enabled me to extract 200 lbs. — something 

 which occurs but about once in five years here. 

 After the fruit - bloom, horsechestnut, haw- 

 thorn, and locust kept the bees moderately 

 busy till white clover. This is a great year for 

 the clovers. I never saw the roadsides and 

 fields fuller of white clover. Basswood is about 

 opening, and promises well. This, with sumac, 

 sweet clover, catnip, etc., will, with an occa- 

 sional rain, keep the bees busy till about the 

 2,5th of the month, when our white-honey sea- 

 son here usually comes to a close. Last season 

 bees were on the brink of starvation all through 

 June, and began to gather a surplus only about 

 July <). Jas. McNeill. 



Hudson, N. Y., July 8. 



Ourselves and Our neighbors. 



And he said to tliem all, If any man will come 

 after me, let him deny himself, and take up his 

 cross daily, and follow me.— Luke 9:23. 



A great circus was coming to Medina. The 

 bills were up all over the town, and for days 

 people would stop and look curiously at the 

 great colored pictures. P"'or a number of years 

 circuses have given Medina a wide berth: in 

 fact, for several seasons no circus at all has 

 come to our place. It was reported that the 

 showmen gave, as a reason, that the town was 

 so puritanical they could not get enough to 

 pay expenses. Of late, however, they stop here, 

 usually once in a season; and I fear they are 

 pretty well patronized also. Now, in saying 

 this I take into coiisid(^ration that a great 

 part of my readers may not agree with me that 

 circuses are. as a rule, demoralizing; and it is 

 possible ihat I am wrong about it. I do not 

 think I am wrong about their being demoraliz- 

 ing, after all; but it may be possible that there 

 is enough good connected with them to coun- 

 terbalance the evil. I say may be; yet I feel 

 very sure that I am right. A great many times 

 during the past few days I have been asked to 

 give my reasons for hating circuses. Well, in 

 one sense I do not hate them. A young friend 

 of mine said, a few days ago: 



" Why, Mr. Root, if you do not like circuses, 

 of course yon do not need to go to them; buli 

 why not let other people, who do like them, use 

 their own judgment, and go?" 



"But, my young friend, you are mistaken. I 

 do like circuses; and I feel sure I should great- 

 ly enjoy going— that is, there would be one 

 kind of enjoyment. This enjoyment, however, 

 would be greatly marred by the twinges of a 

 guilty conscienc". To tell the truth, it is quite 

 a cross to me now, and has been all my life, to 

 stay away from circuses. I feel ashamed of 

 myself when I admit it; but perhaps I can help 

 you more by confessing the truth." 



I have sometimes thought there were few 

 people in the world who have such keen enjoy- 

 ment — that is, enjoyment of a certain kind — in 

 worldly things, and perhaps I had better be 

 still plainer, and say sinful things, as I have. 

 But the constant thought with me— that is, I 

 hope it is my constant thought — is not, what I 

 ivant to door would like to do, but what I ought 

 to do. I have told you about having times of 

 temptation when I could say, almost with a 

 groan, "Oh, I wish it were not wicked to drink 

 lager beer!" Well. I have lately said to myself, 

 not with much of a groan, however, I am free 

 to confess. "Oh, I svish it were not wicked to go 

 to circuses, and take the children!" How I 

 should enjoy going with the little ones, and 

 explaining things to them, providing the inno- 

 cent part of the entertainment could be sep- 

 arated from the wrong and wicked! 



Perhaps some of you would like to have me 

 define more particularly about the wrong and 

 the wicked. Let me say. first, that there are 

 extremes both ways in this matter. A very 

 good Christian friend of mine can not be satis- 

 fled because I have taught that it is right to go 

 to fairs, and taki' the children. He thinks fairs 

 are wicki'd— that they are the works of the 

 Devil. Well, so do I, to a certain extent; but 

 they are. in a measure, educational, like our 

 schools, and tin' fairs belong to «.s as a people. 

 We can stop the gambling, the hoi'se-racing, 

 and the drinking; and we arc stopping all 

 these things by going with our families, and 

 taking right hold of the management, and in- 

 sisting on decency and sobriety. Now, the 

 circuses are not ours. They are mostly in the 

 hands of men whose aim is to make money, 



