1893 



(iLEAIS'INCS IN BEE CULTURE. 



933 



and wide end-bars. I would not use frames 

 with top- bars widened at the ends. They are 

 bee- killers. There is no better frame than the 

 Hoffman strahjht tops, ivWi wide erid.s-, one 

 Hide V'd, the other square. 

 Lexington, Ky. W. L. Richmond. 



TH08K "'EVERLASTING FOOTNorES;" WHAT I)U. 

 MIM.KK THINKS OF THEM. 



Speaking of footnotes, I have a word to say. 

 Don't you be browbeaten out of tlieir use by 

 any thing that may be said. Footnotes give 

 light and a vivacity that nothing else does. 

 They are just a little in the line of conversa- 

 tion. They are especially useful in conHrming 

 what is true, as well as throwing in a caution 

 against the false, if any such thing is needed. 

 The orthodox way is to leave the article with- 

 out comment; and then, if the editor has any 

 thing to say about it, to say it in an editorial. 

 That's a bungling way at best; and if the edi- 

 torial is read first, the reader is in the dark; 

 and if the editorial is read last, he must turn 

 back to see what ifs all about. Footnotes, the 

 "everlasting footnotes," as some one called 

 them, have been a striking feature, and a 

 strong feature, in Gleanings. Don't go back 

 on them. They helped make Gleanings what 

 it is. Stick to them. If occasionally dissenting 

 views are given by " E. R." and "A. I.," so 

 much the better. Gleanings is a splendid 

 journal svithout the footnotes, and with them 



itiS * * * * C. C. MlLLEIi. 



Marengo, 111., Nov. 27. 



[We leave off the last part of the last sen- 

 tence, through extreme modesty; therefore the 

 reader may rinish it to suit himself. After what 

 had been said we have had a sort of feeling 

 that perluips footnotes were not really desir- 

 able. However, we have kept on using them, 

 and have tried to make them just what Dr. M. 

 says they are. How is it, reader? shall we con- 

 tinue to use them ?J 



ALFALFA, AND ITS IMPORTANCE AS A HONEY - 

 PLANT. 



Could you give me any information as to the 

 yield of honey from alfalfa clover? What suc- 

 cess do bee-keepers have with alfalfa, where 

 irrigation is carried on — that is, where alfalfa 

 is about the only honey-source? 



Riceford, Minn. G. A. Lunde. 



[Alfalfa is one of the most wonderful honey- 

 plants in the world, and be"-ki'('pei'S in tiu^, 

 vicinity of this plant have had more uniforin 

 success than elsewhere. You will lind a very 

 full account of alfalfa, its cultivation, how 

 irrigated, the quality and quantity of its honey, 

 in Gleanings for Nov. 15, JS8'.), page 887.] 



NON-SPLITABLE HIVE -COVERS OF PUI-P WOOD. 



Why wouldn't it be practical to get hive- 

 covers non-splitable, made of the material of 

 which the fiber water- pails are made? The 

 pails are very low in price, and a thin straight 

 slab ought to be cheaper. You should be able 

 to find some way of working sawdust into ihem. 



.1. C. Hennett. 



Emmetsburg. Iowa, Dec. li. 



[While the wood pulp pails are cheap, they 

 cost twice as much as tin; regular wooden pails. 

 We can buy slabs of wood pulp large (snough 

 for hive-covers, but no oik^ would want to pay 

 the price for hivf^s with such covers. While 

 wood pulp is used for water-|)ails, and, indeed, 

 answers nicely, it is never, if we are correct, 

 used for outside work on houses, though it is 

 frequently used for inside finishing. We hardly 

 think it would stand the weather.] 



A NAIL-PUSH. 



This is a full-sized cut of a hard-wood handle 

 which I use for pushing tacks and small wire 



nails into hives to prevent jarring. It can be 

 carried in the poclvet, and is handy in many 

 ways. 



I find that second swarms put on four frames 

 in a hive, with a division-board in the middle, 

 will build nicer combs than putting them in a 

 hive with a full set of combs. After a week or 

 ten days, put two such swarms into one hive 

 and they make a nice swarm. Kill one queen. 



I smoked a nest of bumble-bees with your 

 Crane smoker, and the workers left for the 

 fields; and what appeared to be queens ran 

 around in the grass, and would not leave. Are 

 there queens and workers like honey-bees? 



Columbus, Wis., Nov. 18. Super Lifter. 



[We have no doubt that the tack-pusher 

 would work nicely. Several years ago, when 

 we used to put up bees in pound packages, we 

 always pushed the tacks through the wire cloth 

 into the wood, instead of using a hammer. 

 Bumble-bees have a queen and drones the 

 same as other bees. In a normal condition we 

 doubt whether a nest contains more than one 

 queen.] 



LADIES'. Conversazione. 



BRACE AND BUBB COMBS. 



ELISHA GALLUP; THREE -DAYS SESSIONS AT 

 CONVENTIONS. 



We have always used the eight-frame Lang- 

 stroth hive, made exactly after the directions of 

 the inventor in his great work, "'On the Hive 

 and Honey-bee." A few years since I asked 

 my husband what bee-keepers meant by brace 

 and burr combs. I think that, if bee-ciilturists 

 had followed in father Langstroth's footsteps 

 closely, and had fixed frames, with only a bee- 

 spac" between them and the honey-board, they 

 would have remained as ignorant as myself as 

 to what they are. 



In looking at the picture of this old white- 

 haired veteran, with liis little ones, I called to 

 mind an old \w,u that stole her nest and brought 

 out a fiock of dow iiy chicks in October. A baby 

 two years old and its fathei 73 seems as one 

 born out of season. 



I do iH)t approve of calling a three-days' ses- 

 sion and holding only two. Why would it not 

 be well to call for a tno-days" session and hold 

 the first one at night, before the first day, as 

 many would iirrive the day previous? Many 

 stopping at the Louisiana Hotel would h^ve 

 enjoyed having tin; opening session at night. 



It was six degrees l)elow zero the last of No- 

 vember; and to dHy, Dec. 4. there is a foot of 

 snow on the ground. Mi;s. L. Harrison. 



Peoria. III., Dec. 4. 



[Bee-spaces alone, according to reports and 

 our own experience, prevent burr or brace 

 combs. Width of top-bar certainly is impor- 

 tant, and thickness has something to do in 

 maintaining bee-spaces.] 



