1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



651 



as it is in heaven ? By the way, permit me to 

 say that, although the Bee-keepers^ Enterprise 

 is young, it is a very clean and pure little jour- 

 nal. May it receive the support and encour- 

 agement it justly merits. A. I. R. 



Bro. York, of the American Bee Journal, 

 commenting on the fact that the Bee-keepers' 

 Review is going to try to have bee-keeping rec- 

 ognized at all the State Experiment Stations, 

 s;ates that he can not see why every State 

 should spend its money for conducting its ex- 

 periments. He suggests that, as Michigan 

 already has one. that suffice for the North. He 

 would have another one in Texas, for the 

 South; and for the East, one in New York or 

 Vermont; and for the West, one in California. 

 We do not understand that Bro. Hutchinson 

 would try to secure an apicultural experiment 

 station in every State; but by making the 

 effort there might be four or five States, vari- 

 ously scattered, that would establish such a 

 station. Of course, it would be unnecessary 

 to have every State experimenting and cover- 

 ing about the same ground. Some intelligent 

 effort, supported by the bee-journals, ought to 

 be made by some responsible body representing 

 bee-keepers' interests; and the Bee-keepers' 

 Union, as has been suggested, is just the or- 

 ganization to do it; for, under its new consti- 

 tution, it can act in this matter as well as upon 

 any other, with the consent of the Advisory 

 Board. 



FREE DISCUSSION, ETC., THROUGH GLEANINGS. 



Since I have given a little space of late to 

 those who wish to challenge the Christian i-e- 

 ligion, or, at least, some phase of it, a great 

 many communications have come in, some on 

 one side and some on the other, and many from 

 men who take extreme views in certain direc- 

 tions. First, space will not permit us to use 

 many of these articles; secondly, while we wish 

 to give a full and free discussion of all subjects 

 connected with home interests as well as bee 

 culture, perhaps it may be well to add that the 

 present managers of this journal are so well 

 satisfied that the teachings of the Bible exhort 

 to a higher state of morality, purity, and tem- 

 perance than any other book in the world, we 

 can not consistently give space to any thing that 

 is decidedly irreverent toward that book. At 

 the same time we are always glad to make room 

 for any thing that will help people along in 

 their search for truth and purity. A very few 

 may charge us with being narrow-minded; to 

 which I reply, that it is better to be narrow- 

 minded than to poison the minds of the rising 

 generation by something that leads only down 

 to ruin and despair. A. I. R. 



EXPERIMENTS AT THE APIARY OF VERNON 

 BURT; A SHORT "' BIKE " TOUR. 



Last week we took a short bicycle run down 

 to our neighbor's apiary, and, as fortune usual- 

 ly favors us on such occasions, we found the 

 proprietor in the yard, evidently "waiting for 

 something to turn up." We leaned the bicycle 

 against a tree, and in a few minutes more were 

 talking with "the bee-man we didn't know be- 

 fore.'" After we had both deposited ourselves 

 on hives for seats we remarked: 

 " Your bees seem to be working some." 

 " Yes, they are bringing in some honey." 

 "Our bees have been getting honey from 

 some source, but we can not decide what. We 

 think it is probably from white clover." 



"My bees," said our friend, "seem to be 

 quite busy on common thistle." 



"But." said ve, "we did not know you had 

 enough of them around here to make such a 

 hum." 



Although the sheep had gnawed the grass 

 down closely throughout the yard, they had 

 left the thistles entirely alone. It was about 

 the only herbage of any kind that they did not 

 touch. These Mr. Burt left, knowing that they 

 sometimes produce honey. 



"See," said Mr. Burt, rising from his seat; 

 " here are tive bees on one head." 



True enough. We counted three on one 

 head; four on another; several others, five; 

 and on another one, six bees, all busy, almost 

 standing on their heads trying to gut down to 

 the treasured sweets. We never saw bees 

 working on any plants— not even the Chapman 

 honey-plant— more busily than they were on 

 these few thistles within range. 



"This," said Mr. B., " is about the way bees 

 are working on all the thistles." 



" You must have a good many of them in 

 your vicinity." 



"Yes, a good many. I take no particular 

 pains to cut them down. In dry seasons they 

 are more apt to yield honey; and they can 

 stand a drouth, because they send their roots 

 down so deep into the ground." 



" What is the quality of the honey ? " 



"It seems to be equal to clover," said he; 

 "but it is not possible, following so closely on 

 the heels of clover, to detei'raine its quality 

 exactly; but it certainly will not injure the 

 fine quality of the clover." 



Glancing at a few more thistles we said that 

 we noticed that there were a good many more 

 heads to open up. 



'• Y'es," said Mr. B., " they will yield honey 

 for a good while yet." 



" How did those five-banded yellow bees pan 

 out?" 



" Good," said our friend. He then took us 

 over to a couple of hives containing queens 

 that came from Mrs. Atchley's apiary. They 

 were beautiful bees, and they piled in a large 

 amount of honey. 



"Do you find them gentle?" 



"I do," said he. "I am going to put in a 

 good many more." 



He had already placed his order, and his 

 queens were coming in, in small installments, 

 to take the place of hybrid queens. 



" By the way, how do your hybrids compare, 

 any way, with pure Italians?" 



"Not any better, so far as I can see,'" he re- 

 plied. " and they are not nearly as nice to han- 

 dle." 



" But don't they make whiter honey ? " 



"Perhaps a little; but I run principally, you 

 know, for extracted honey." 



" You certainly find that they shake oif the 

 combs better for extracting, don't you? " said we. 



" That is of little importance," said he, " for 

 I use bee-escapes. There, you can see them on 

 the hives now." 



" How long before the bees are out? ' 



"I do not know exactly," he replied; "but I 

 know that the supers put on the night before 

 are clear the next morning, with the exception 

 of, perhaps, two or three bees." 



" What escapes have you been using ? " 



"Mostly the Porter; and you remember that 

 I got at your place two or three of the Lareese 

 escapes.' They are doing equally wc^ll." 



"Oh! how about those Langdon non-swarm- 

 ers that we gave you to try?" we e.xclaimed, 

 changing the subject. 



" It was so late that I did not have an oppor- 

 tunity to put them on; and, besides, I used 

 chaff hives, and the liangdon devices require 

 the boring of a hole right through the front of 

 a hive. I do not think they will work; but 

 another season I intend to give them a careful 

 trial." 



Some weeks previously we had given to Mr. 



