616 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1. 



that is, those of you who have never ridden 

 wheels. But such feats are of rather common 

 occurrence now. and we mention them only to 

 show that the bicycle is a rapid and practical 

 means of conveyance to ])oints within 100 miles. 

 Indeed, we could not have taken a train and 

 visited the various points we did, because the 

 trains seldom or never go so as to start and stop 

 whenever we want them to; and while the or- 

 dinary passenger trains make much faster time 

 when traveling, we often have to wait several 

 hours before we can take them, and, of course, 

 valuable time is lost; but the ever ready wheel 

 stands at our bidding. 



.JOHN CHINAMAN, AND THE " PICTER " ON 

 PAGE .'jTl. 



If it hadn't been for the aforesaid picture, I 

 think I might have forgotten to say any thing 

 about how John carries tremendous loads by 

 means of his pole. Near Los Angeles I went 

 out to visit the Chinese gardens. The rows 

 of cabbages were so long that Mrs. Root got 

 tired, so I wandered off by myself. The China- 

 men were not very communicative in this gar- 

 den, but I managed to get a few answers to my 

 questions. One of them was gathering cauli- 

 flower. He had two baskets, each one of which 

 would make a pretty fair half of a one-horse 

 wagonload. He tilled these brimming full, and 

 then adjusted his ijole; and after he had got 

 his load vibrating just right he skipped along, 

 making the vibrations keep time to his steps, 

 and moved his immense burden with astonish- 

 ing ease and celerity. I dou't suppose a Yankee 

 could ever learn to carry a burden in that way, 

 and I am afraid he would never learn to carry 

 as much, and as safely and quickly, as a China- 

 mau. even if he could. In Portland, Oregon, a 

 Chinaman had a job of carrying firewood up- 

 stairs. He did it with a couple of baskets and 

 a pole; and tin- way he trotted upstairs, with- 

 out bumping a basket, with more wood than 

 an Irishman could have carried ou a wheel- 

 barrow, was a wonder. Somebody told me 

 that they could not carry these large loads if it 

 were not for those peculiar vibrations. It 

 probably works something like the sprocket- 

 wheel on the modern Columbia bicycle. No 

 matter; if you haven't seen a Chinaman carry 

 a small wagonload on a pole, just watch him 

 the next time you have an opportunity. Now, 

 Rambler may succeed in swinging his pole of 

 honey Chinaman fashion; and he may possibly 

 get some wooden shoes and a starched skirt 

 coming down a little below his regular coat; 

 but I don't believe he will ever be able to carry 

 any such load as they do. I have several times 

 wondered why it was that the rest of the world 

 did not learn how to carry heavy burdens as the 

 Chinese do. 



Trade Notes. 



A SURE WAY OF PREVENTING SPARKS FROM 

 HOT-15LAST SMOKERS. 



A few days ago we were favored with a visit 

 from Dan White, that bright and enterprising 

 bee-keeper of New London, O. Like all the 

 rest, he has experienced a phenomenal honey- 

 flow; but like the rest, too, he had let a portion 

 of his bees die during the past winter, because, 

 the last four or five years, it had not paid him 

 to keep them. He now says that, if he had 

 given those that died about $50.00 worth of 

 sugar, he would have received in return over 

 «;3no worth of honey. 



He was greatly pleased with the principle of 

 the Cowan extractor and the new Crane smoker. 



He has always used the Bingham, and likes it. 

 While we were discussing smokers he mention- 

 ed, incidentally, that he had got rid of the 

 spark nuisance by inserting in the nozzle a 

 piece of common window-screen wire cloth, 

 about S}4 inches square. " But," said we, 

 " doesn't this fill up and cause trouble? " " Once 

 in a great while," said he; "but it is so little 

 trouble to get hold of one corner and pull it out, 

 and give a few raps on the bench, and replace 

 it, that I would never think of going without 

 the wire cloth again, because it prevents the 

 throwing of the sparks from the smoker-nozzle 

 absolutely."' 



We considered the idea so valuable, cheap, 

 and effective, that we have decided to insert it 

 hereafter in all the Crane nozzles; and we feel 

 quite sure that Bro. Bingham will favor his 

 trade in a similar way. AH bee-keepers now 

 owning Crane or Bingham smokers, or. in fact, 

 any smokers with detachable nozzles of the hot- 

 blast type, will find it a decided advantage to 

 put the wire in now; and then when their smo- 

 ker gets nearly empty they will have no trouble 

 from sparks. 



THE LANGDON NON-SWARMER; A REPORT OF 



HOW IT IS WORKING THIS YEAR AVITH 



THE INVENTOR. 



On page .576 we asked for reports as to how 

 the Langdon non-swarming device was work- 

 ing this summer; and among others a report 

 from the inventor himself. He has kindly re- 

 sponded as follows: 



Mr. Boot:— In regard to the non s"'armer8, 1 am 

 oblig-ed to s<iy that, for some reason, tliey have not 

 done quite so well as they did last season with me. 

 Also, I have had a few reports of failures by those 

 using- them. One neighbor makes his go all right, 

 and is getting a lot of honey from the two hives. 

 Another liad three swarms from ten devices In use. 

 Eugene Secor writes that his did not work right; 

 also Mr. Gemmill, in Ontario. A few others are all 

 I have heard from. 



How much the difference in mine depends on the 

 season is hard to tell. There has been some swarm- 

 ing—a small per cent — from the 60 non-swarmers 

 in operation on my house, and I find, from my ex- 

 perience this year, and from the few reports I have 

 received from those using them, that there are 

 three points i hat it will not affect; viz., occasional- 

 ly a queen is killed, and hatching cells make trouble 

 afterward. If the queen is old, and the bees try to 

 supersede her, they will build cells in the closed 

 hive; and then if it is opened soon after, she might 

 lead out a swarm. This can be .stopped by keeping 

 all queens in their prime as every bee-keeper should 

 do. 



Again, it is known that they will sometimes swarm 

 in the ordinary way with only eggs in the queen-, 

 cells that they leave. Running so many bees into 

 the same hive seems to encourage this extreme of 

 the swarming fever, and it has been done more fre- 

 quently witli the non-swarmer in place than before. 

 To what extent shading the hive would help this, is 

 yet to be seen. Also, there might be a great differ- 

 ence of bees as to ttiat point. I liave only Carni- 

 olans, and .so do not know what Italians would do 

 under the same circumstances. 



These are exceptions; but they may stand in the 

 way of having the plan largely adopted. I can 

 make it of important use to mj'self in combination 

 wiih my house-apiary, even a^ it is ho m, because, 

 with the loss I have had. I am ahead in the saving 

 of work. They were put in operation and on the 

 market late, and I think that will account for the 

 failure of some. But I made one mistake in my 

 circular, in instructing them to make tlie change of 

 bees and cases from one hive to the other once in 

 seven days instead of not over five. 



A natural queen-cell hatches in nine days; so if 

 the bees have the swarming fever very badly, and 

 start a cell from a larva just hatched from the egg, 

 or one day older, they can seal it and swarm on the 

 fifth or sixth day from the time they are turned in- 

 to the other hive if they start it the same day. 



I think this is where the most of the failures lie; 

 and that, by a careful working-up of these points, 

 under the different conditions found in the various 



