564 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1. 



California in the ring until the southern part of 

 the State gets another crop. 



I don't know of any "bug-herder" who is 

 getting rich very fast just now. Many are ty- 

 ing up to the Honey Exchange, and the future 

 will reveal the wisdom or lack of wisdom in so 

 doing. I for one do not fancy the idea of selling 

 some honey at 3 cents, and giving the rest away 

 as tare to a set of men who love us as a canni- 

 bal loves his latest prisoner. I hope the courts 

 will settle the adulteration question. So much 

 talk on the subject is no good. We sell some 

 honey to a merchant or commission Shylock, 

 and then toot our horn full blast to the consum- 

 ers (of course they hear it), "That stuff is adul- 

 terated. I know there is but little honey in it. 

 Toot! toot! Here is some more just as good." 

 Common sense would suggest something like 

 the California Honey Exchange; but so many 

 will let it alone that it seems necessary for the 

 courts to decide there is no adulteration prac- 

 ticed, or else punish those who do it. 



Caruthers, Cal., July 10. 



INDOOR VS. OUTDOOR WINTERING. 



A PROPOSITION FOR DR. MILLER; WINTERING 

 EXPERIMENTS AT THE MICHIGAN EX- 

 PERIMENT APIARY. 



By Hon. George E. Hilton. 



Dear Ernest .' — Referring to your footnote in 

 Stray Straws, p. 488. I will say I am willing, for 

 the sake of giving this matter of outdoor win- 

 tering a thorough test, to send to Dr. Miller or 

 any other responsible bee-keeper 10 hives, either 

 made up or in the flat, as may be preferred. 

 They are to put good prime colonies into them, 

 with not less than 25 lbs. of stores. If the loss 

 in them is greater than the loss in the cellar by 

 May 1st, then I will pay for the entire loss; if 

 not, then the parties shall pay me for the said 

 hives at catalog prices. But I don't want them 

 set on the south side of some building, as does 

 Taylor, where the warm rays of every sunshiny 

 day will arouse the bees and entice them out 

 only to be chilled, and never return to the hive. 

 No, I think the so-called experiment at our ex- 

 periment station in wintering outdoors a very 

 unfair one. Mr. Taylor has a splendid place to 

 winter outdoors, right in his yard," and there 

 the bees should have been left. 



By the way, I should like to know how Dr. C. 

 C. Miller knew that the experiments at the 

 Michigan Experiment Station relative to out- 

 door wintering were a failure. Not one of the 

 six chaff hives at the Agricultural College was 

 taken to Lapeer ; and I question whether, at 

 the time of the doctors writing, an effort had 

 been made to winter outdoors. I wrote Mr. T. 

 J. Butterfield, Secretary of the State Board of 

 Agriculture, some three months ago, asking 

 how many colonies were put into the cellar at 

 the college in the winter of 1893, and how many 



were left on summer stands; but he has not re- 

 plied to my letter. I also asked him bow many 

 they had in the spring of 1893. I was appointed 

 a sort of legislation committee by the State 

 Bee-keepers' Association, to look after matters 

 in general. Among the other things I did was 

 to go out to the college one day in the spring of 

 1893, and look over the apiary. The bees had 

 then been out of the cellar some time. If my 

 memory serves me correctly, there were, in the 

 fall of 1892, 46 colonies placed in the cellar, and 

 G colonies left outdoors in as many different 

 kinds of double-walled hives. Again, if my 

 memory serves me right, I found only 22 alive, 

 and some of them very weak, in single-walled 

 hives; but the 6 in thedouble-walled hives were 

 all alive and in good condition. The above 

 seems to be verified by a letter from friend Tay- 

 lor, bearing date of March 24, 1896, in which he 

 says: 



Friend Hilton:— In answer to inquiries in yours of 

 yesterday, I would reply as follows: I received no 

 bees irom 1 he State, in chaff hives, and have none 

 now in cbaff Lives. ]n single-walled hives i receiv- 

 ed 22 from the State, and have the same number 

 now, belonging to the State. R. L. T. 



I do not know what became of the 6 in chaff 

 hives. Perhaps they were transferred into the 

 single walled hivts when moved from the col- 

 lege station. If so, then the 46 put into the 

 cellar must have dwindled down to about 16. 

 One of my hives has stood in the college yard 

 for the past 12 years; and up to the time of 

 Prof. Cook's going away I had never lost a colo- 

 ny. In the mean time I will venture the asser- 

 tion that over 200 have died in the college bee- 

 cellars that have cost our State hundreds of 

 dollars. 



There is much more that might be said in re- 

 gard to this matter, and it is all in favor of dou- 

 ble-walled hives and outdoor wintering; but if 

 you should publish this letter it may bring upon 

 my shoulders such a weight from the "up-to- 

 date" bee keepers that 1 shall need another 

 round of ammunition; sol guess I had better 

 stop and await results. 



B>emont, Mich. 



A MAMMOTH BEE-TREE. 



By TV. S. Walhridoe. 



Thinking you and your friends might have 

 some curiosity to see what some of our bee- 

 trees look like out in this region I send you a 

 photo of a real one, taken the day we cut it. 

 You say you don't see any bees. Well, hardly; 

 for they enter through a knot-hole 145 ft. from 

 the ground. This monarch of the Washing- 

 ton forest is commonly known as Pugei Sound 

 fir, specimens of which often measure 15 ft. in 

 diameter a few feet above ground. This one 

 measured only 514 ft. where it was cut off. 



Auburn, Washington, May 24. 



