GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



673 



In 1849 he was asked to take place, tempora- 

 rily, as steward in Bishop Gobat's orphanage 

 on Mount Zion, until the right man could be 

 found, and only under such conditions. He 

 left the desert of Judea, where he lived in 

 peace with every man; and, having married a 

 young Alsatian, who came out to Jerusalem to 

 join him. they occupied the place. The bishop 

 died ten years ago. The orphanage passed 

 into the hands of the Ciiurch Missionary Socie- 

 ty, and both of my parents are still waiting the 

 arrival of the " right man '' to occupy the place 

 held by them temporarily for the past 44 years. 



I send also a picture of the orphanage on 

 Mount Zion. Near by may be seen the walls 

 of Jerusalem. In the center is the Tower of 

 David, held by Mohammedans. In the same 

 building is also shown to visitors the room in 

 which Christ and his disciples had th.^ last 

 supper, on the evening before the cruciii.xion. 

 Beside the school house is the Pretestant ceme- 

 tery. Behind the cemetery is a Russian tower 

 on lop of Mount 01iv(^s, several miles away 

 from Mount Zion. Near the center of the or- 

 phanage is a small arch in which bees were 

 kept tor 30 years in the (»arthenware jars till 

 friends Jones and Benton taught us bettf^r 

 ways in 1S80. and took the first Holy- Lands 

 introduced to Europe and America from this 

 spot. 



The rain water gathered in Solomon's pool, 

 below the aboved-named citadel, originally 

 flowed to Jerusalem along the mountainsides 

 for about 13 miles, and was designed for the 

 ablutions of the faithful in the temple court. 

 The aqueduct passes Ijelow the orphanage, and 

 goes around Zion to Mount Moriah, where now 

 only Mohammedans enter freely, and have use 

 of the water when ihei-c is any. Christians are 

 admitted only by paying a fee. and under the 

 protection of the consular agent of their 

 respective countries. Jews are not admitted 

 at all, under any circumstances. In fact, it is 

 only since the Crimean War that Christians 

 have been admitted, in compliance with a 

 treaty of peace between England, I'Vance, and 

 Turkey. Any attempt before that period to 

 enter disguised was severely punished, and in 

 many cases the transgressor was brutally 

 murdered by the mob. Although the sultan 

 allowed some distinguished persons to enter, 

 the sly mufti interpreted it tiius: "You have 

 permission to enter, but none to goout," where- 

 upon the parties declined. The first person 

 who entered the Holy of Holies was the king 

 of Belgium, soon after the Crimean War. 

 Since then almost every visitor to Jerusalem 

 has been admitted. Ph. J. Bai^denspergek. 



Nice. France. 



THE EIGHT-DAY RULE FOR SWARMS. 



THE EFFECT OF THE PRESENCE OF THE QUEEN 

 ON THE SIZE OF THE CELL. 



I think I see the twinkle in Doolittle's eye as 

 he caught me upon that "straw " about cut- 

 ting queen cells. He knows very well, that, 

 whatever may be the proportions of swarms of 

 one kind and another, when we talk about pre- 

 vention of swarming, if the expression is not 

 modified in any way. prevention oi first swarms 

 is always meant. And I don't know of any 

 problem that has been more steadily growing 

 in interest than that same one to prevent all 

 swarming. And if we can prevent all first 

 swarms, we need worry little about after- 

 swarms. And let me say right here, that, if 

 my "straw" was the means of bringing out 

 Doolittle to give the rule for cutting out cells 

 8 days after the first swarm, or, better still, 

 after hearing piping, then it was a good thing. 



But. just for the sake of paying him back, 

 Fm going to say that his rule can not be relied 

 on in all cases; for too often a cell will be 

 missed. A cell may be curled up between the 

 comb and bottom-bar in such a way that even 

 the experienced eyes of Doolittle would miss it. 

 Still, these cases will be few with sufficient 

 care. 



One thing 1 do not remember seeing mention- 

 ed. It is. that you are five times as likely to 

 succeed in cutting out all cells if they are 

 started with a queen present as you are if they 

 are started after a queen is taken away or 

 caged; for with a queen present I think queen- 

 cells are always started with a cup larger than 

 a worker-cell and from the egg. If the queen is 

 absent or cagi-d. then grubs in worker-cells are 

 chos(Mi; and when these are completed they are 

 often very insignificant-looking and hard to 

 tind. Sometimes they are liidden in corners, 

 and sometimes they are on the middle of a 

 comb, right among sealed worker brood, the 

 only thing to show them being that the queen- 

 cell is a little larger than the worker cells 

 around it, but scarcely projecting any more 

 above tiie surface. And yet such cells may 

 produce large queens, for aught I know as good 

 as any. Still, I must confess a preference for a 

 cell that looks like a big peanut. 



SHALL WE TRY TO PREVENT PRIME SWARMS'? 



With some little trepidation I attack that 

 last sentence of brother Doolittle which sug- 

 gests that cutting out queen - cells before 

 swarming may result in a loss of honey. In 

 the main it may be true, and I am not sure that 

 I shall ever cut another queen-cell to prevent 

 swarming; but the statement seems to draw in 

 its wake a sort of belief that it is best in general 

 to let bees take their own course with regard 

 to swarming; in other words, that we should 

 entirely give up the problem of prevention of 

 swarming— that problem in which such a keen 

 interest has been awakened. 



I have no doubt that there are cases and 

 places in which more honey can be oljtained 

 from a colony and its swarm than from the 

 colony alone without any swarming. But for 

 a great many of us, where swarming comes 

 right in our harvest, with little or no prospect 

 of any after-yield, the colonies that never take 

 it into their head to swarm, other things being 

 equal, are the ones upon which we can rely for 

 best work. 



Besides, we are not merely to count which 

 will give us most honey— a colony with or 

 without swarms. That may do for those who 

 keep bees for the pleasure of it. I have no 

 quarrel with the man who takes more pride 

 and pleasure in getting .500 pounds from one 

 colony than in getting 1000 from ten colonies. 

 He is working for the pleasure of it, and he has 

 his reward; but for those of us who swap our 

 honey for bread and butter, the case is differ- 

 ent. I am notso much interested in the amount 

 I can get per colony as I am in the total crop. 

 An average of 30 pounds per colony will suit me 

 better than 100. providing that the plan thai 

 gives 30 pounds per colony will allow me so 

 much less labor per colony that I can have a 

 greater total crop. 



Just here I slopped and looked up my as- 

 sistant and said to her. "Emma, what propor- 

 tion of our work, in your opinion, after the bees 

 are out of the cellar, is given to the prevention 

 or managenuMit of swarming?" 



She looked thoughtful for a minute, and then 

 with a little laugh said, " 'Most all of it." 



" That's putting it pretty strong," said I; and 

 yet Fm not so sure that it's far out of the way. 

 Given a strong colony of such a breed that I 

 know it will have no thought- of swarming, and 



