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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15. 



with a wagon having a tight-bottomed bed. 

 Throw in a layer several inches thick, and with 

 the fork beat it until all the seed is off. Then 

 I throw off all the straw I can, and drive on 

 and throw on another layer, and so on, leaving 

 the wheat in the wagon. I then run it through 

 a good fanning-mill, and it is ready for the mill 

 or to sow again. 



Any one considering this too slow work can 

 cut it with a self-binder, binding in rather 

 small bundles, and then thrash it with a ma- 

 chine. It is not well to rake it with a hay-rake, 

 as too much seed is lost. 



The best time to sow it, if wanted for seed, is 

 the first and second weeks of July, as it then 

 yields the most seed. But if wanted for bee- 

 pasture it is better to sow during the latter part 

 of the month or the first part of August. It 

 will then yield a fair crop of seed, and as much 

 nectar as at any other time, and will not give 

 the bees a swarming craze, as is often the case 

 if sown earlier. 



I have learned by experience that buckwheat 

 is one of the best egg-producing fuoiis for hens 

 that can be had. It sells at about 75 cts. per 

 bushel at the custom mill here. The average 

 yield is 20 to 25 bushels per acre, which, consid- 

 ering the short time it occupies the land, makes 

 it a profitable crop to raise, as the same ground 

 can be put in wheat again as soon as the buck- 

 wheat is taken oft', and it has occupied the 

 ground only while it otherwise would have lain 

 idle. But the ground is a little worse for wear. 



It may be sown at any time from May to 

 August, or even September, if it is to be turned 

 under as a fertilizer; but it grows best in the 

 fall. I have heard that it makes good hay if 

 cut and dried like clover; but i have not tried 

 it myself, and therefore will not indorse it. 



Carpenter, 111., July 3. 



[I can indorse almost every word of the above, 

 from actual experience. I have only to add 

 that, in our locality, or south of it, 1 would sow 

 crimson clover at the same time with the buck- 

 wheat. From my experience 1 think the clover 

 does better with the protection given by the 

 buckwheat. As soon as tlie buckwheat is killed 

 by the frost, or harvested, the clover then very 

 quickly covers the ground. In our locality we 

 have succeeded in getting an excellent crop of 

 grain when the buckwheat was sown as late as 

 the first week in August. — A. I. R.] 



EARLY AND LATE REARED QUEENS. 



By Ocorgc L. Vinal. 



One often reads in the various bee-journals 

 about the advantages of late-raised queens over 

 those raised earlier in the season. For the last 

 six years I have tried to find out the difference, 

 if any. and what it was, between a queen raised 

 early in the season, one raised in the middle of 

 the season, and one raised as late in the fall 

 a« it was safe to expect them to become fecun- 

 dated (that was October), all from the same 



mother, and under the same conditions as re- 

 gards number of bees in the hive, and feeding, 

 if required; also, as far as possible, with select- 

 ed drones, and drones from selected queens. 



I find that queens raised late in the season 

 are, as a rule, larger in circumference, by mea- 

 surement with a very finely adjusted pair of 

 calipers; also that they are from -^ to :i^ inch 

 longer. They are more fully developed in a 

 general way, the same as a queen tnat is raised 

 by a colony to supersede the old one. If raised 

 in the fall I find that the next spring they com- 

 mence to lay earlier, and are more prolific; 

 that, as a rule, their progeny are larger and 

 more industrious ; that they are not so apt to 

 swarm; they live from three to four years, and 

 perform their work as queens better. In other 

 words, as a rule they rear more and better 

 brood. 



We now might ask, " Why is this so? " If we 

 look at it frum a physiological point of view I 

 think our question is answered by a little re- 

 flection and thought on the subject; that is, 

 that the queen raised in the early or middle 

 part of the season goes to work at once, and is 

 forced, by the demands made on her, to furnish 

 brood for the full capacity of the hive, for four 

 or five months, and to commence to do it from 

 the time she is ten or twelve days old, thereby 

 impairing her vitality and strength, taxing 

 them to their utmost, while the late-raised 

 queen has a long winter's rest during the corre- 

 sponding five months, thereby developing into 

 full strength and womanhood before she is re- 

 quired to draw on her vitality to the extent of 

 her earlier-raised sister. 



If we look at the queen's oviduct, with a pow- 

 erful microscope, we see the lining membranes 

 of the early raised queens are thinner than 

 those raised late in the fall. I think this shows 

 impaired vitality. From my observations I 

 have come to the conclusion that a queen raised 

 in the fall is stronger, and has, through the 

 winter, become more vigorous before being call- 

 ed upon to perform her natural functions to 

 their fullest extent, thereby having time to 

 store up vital force. Having gained strength, 

 and developed to their fullest capacity all of 

 her organs of productiveness before she is call- 

 ed upon to use them, when she does that by the 

 strength gained by her rest and development in 

 early life, she is better prepared to stand the 

 strain tliat is required of her during the follow- 

 ing season; and when that ends she has anoth- 

 er long rest to lecuperate her vitality before 

 she is called upon to go through another sea- 

 son's work. 



Charlton City, Mass., June 15. 



7/ you would like to have any of your friends 

 see a specimen copy of Oleanings, make known 

 the request on a postal, with the address or ad- 

 dresses, and we will, with pleasure, send them. 



