638 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Auo. 15. 



contracting the brood-nest. Simply by wider 

 wedges; or, if several frames are taken out, by 

 sticks cut off the required length. 



One of the chief advantages of compressing 

 the brood-frames endwise is, that the frames 

 may be perfectly even, so that the ends of the 

 frames shall present on the inside of the brood- 

 nest a surface as smooth as a board, allowing 

 no projections for propolis. I think you are 

 much mistaken in regard to the durability of 

 the hive-cover joints. Julius Tomlinson. 



Allegan, Mich., July 32. 



HONEY AND — CIKCUSES. 



Basswood is in full bloom here, but I don't 

 think the bees are doing as well on it as they 

 did on white clover. We have got more honey 

 this season than we got all together in the last 

 three years; but if we do not get some rain 

 soon we shall not get any more honey this year. 



CIKCUSES. 



Mr. Root, 1 am glad some one is not afraid to 

 give an opinion of circuses. We went to one 

 the other day. It was the Irwin Brothers' 

 show. I wanted ihe children to see the men- 

 agerie. They had only a few animals; but, oh 

 such wicked gambling that was going on in the 

 side show! My heart ached as I looked on and 

 saw young men and boys lose their hard-earned 

 dollars trying to beat a man at his own game. 

 Those gamblers took in hundreds of dollars in 

 a few minutes. How I wish all of the people in 

 this world could take Gleanings! You seem 

 always to hit on the right subject. I don't 

 know how many tim(>s we liave opened oiii' new 

 Gleanings and found in the Home talks the 

 same subject that we had just been talking on. 

 It is really remarkable. Mrs. F. T. Hall. 



Barron, Wis. 



BEES ORNAMENTAL AS WEI,L AS USEFUL. 



I thought, up to July 1, that keeping bees out 

 here on the open prairie was a purely ornamen- 

 •ri pastime. Since then I have had reason to 

 change my mind, as every surplus box is full of 

 honey gathered, T believe, from horsemint and 

 a yellow nettle. I need an extractor badly, and 

 would have ordered one, but the freight charges 

 are enormous. However, I will get one early 

 in the spring. I think by that time I shall have 

 inaugurated a bee-fever around here, as it has 

 already broken out. I live only sixty miles 

 west of Mrs. Jennie Atchley. of Greenville. 



J. Harry Wilson. 



Orphan's Home, Tex. July 38. 



BEES DYING FROM SPRAYING WHILE TREES 

 WERE IN BLOOM. 



My bees did finely, considering the loss by 

 poisoning during apple-bloom, from spraying 

 with Paris-green water by farmers across the 

 White River, west of the city. I lost no colo- 

 nies; but my best, that had the early morning 

 sun. got very weak. Such as were more in the 

 shad<' did not suffer much. For three days my 

 garden was literally covered, every inch of it, 

 with wriggling and dying bees. On Monday 

 following, a big rain stopped it. 



Geo. L. Hollenbach. 



Noblesville, Ind., July 30. 



[Spraying does little or no good if done on 

 the full bloom. It should be done after the 

 petals have fallen. Then there is no danger 

 to the bees. Your neighbors need educating.] 



WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE BARLEY IF WE 

 STOP DRINKING BEER? 



Bees are entirely idle for the past few days. 

 The weather is very dry; vegetation is suffer- 



ing badly. A good deal of the corn, and many 

 potatoes, are drying up. We shall not get 

 much fall honey if we do not get rain soon. 

 The honey we got so far is of excellent quality, 

 and I am well satisfied with the quantity I got 

 of white honey so far. 



I should like to ask A. I. Root what we should 

 do with the large (luantities of barley that are 

 produced here if nobody would drink beer. No. 

 1 wheat at 48 cts. per bushel won't pay. Barley 

 pays best here of any small grain, therefore we 

 sow it. C. Theilman. 



Theilmanton. Minn., July 37. 



[Friend T., that is a good square question, 

 and one that we have got to meet in a Chris- 

 tianlike and temperate way. I myself raise 

 rye. as you know, on a small scale. Almost 

 every season somebody asks me how I know 

 that it is not used for making whisky. Well, 

 as all I raise is sold for seed, I feel pretty sure 

 that the product of my grounds is never used 

 directly for making whisky. The people who 

 buy of me, however, may sow it for the purpose 

 of raising grain for a distillery: but my opinion 

 is, that we are going too far when we under- 

 take to circumscribe ourselves to that extent. 

 Rye is used, at least to some extent, for bread. 

 The crop is also largely raised to plow under; 

 and rye straw is quite a commodity for various 

 paper-mills. It may be that barley is used 

 principally for making beer; but not altogeth- 

 er, for in California it is their great hay crop: 

 and it is used largely for feed in the form of 

 hulled barley. I would not make a business of 

 raising rye or barley either, on purpose to sup- 

 ply a distillery; but with my present light on 

 the subject I would raise either one of them, if 

 it were convenient for me to do so, and sell the 

 product to the grain-dealers for whatever they 

 would pay. Some good Christian people of my 

 acquaintance once complained because I bought 

 ice of a saloon-keeper. Now, this saloon-keeper 

 also had a farm, and raised potatoes. When I 

 asked the question if I should refrain from buy- 

 ing potatoes of him because he was a saloon- 

 keeper, thev thought I ought not to buy even 

 potatoes of him. I thought, and still think, 

 that it was my duty to encourage him in every 

 honest industry, whether it be putting up ice 

 or raising potatoes. In other words, I certainly 

 would not aid, either directly or indirectly, any 

 thing in the way of production or sales of in- 

 toxicating liquors; but at the same time I 

 would take great pains to encourage the very 

 people engaged in this trafific in obtaining a 

 livelihood by some other means. Please remem- 

 ber that corn and even honey can be used, and 

 are used, for making intoxicating liquors.] 



THE LANGDON NON-SWARMER A FAILURE. 



As you call for reports on the Langdon non- 

 swarming device I send mine. Bees swarmed 

 out in six days after putting on. I then hived 

 the bees in a new hive, and put the boxes on 

 the swarm. I then adjusted the device to two 

 other hives, and it smothered about all of the 

 bees in the two. I then tried it on two more 

 and smothered them, and then concluded to 

 quit. It seems that, when you have a very 

 large lot of bees in a hive with the device on, 

 and close the slide, the bees bank up at the 

 inch hole where the cone escape is, and con- 

 clude they are fastened in, and then get up 

 such a heat as to melt the combs down and all 

 die in a pile. Henry Marden. 



Roodhouse, 111., July 35. 



[It would be possible to remedy the trouble 

 from smothering, but perhaps not so easy to 

 prevent the very things we want to prevent — 

 swarms.] 



