574 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1. 



ities will meet the ends in view. And this rule 

 applies with unusual force at a time like this, 

 when there is a stringency in money matters. 



If Mr. Doolittle will reflect for a moment, he 

 will remember that there has been a general 

 decline in prices, of nearly all kinds of prod- 

 ucts, since 1874. Wheat, corn, pork, beef, pota- 

 toes, and other farm products have declined to 

 an extent that is almost alarming, and we 

 should not be surprised to see honey in the 

 wake. 



And there is still another rule, founded in 

 economy, that has its influence on the prices of 

 honey. Honey is a luxury: and when men are 

 in the straits, financially, they curtail expenses, 

 and the luxuries are the first to bp dispensed 

 with.— il. F. Coleman, in Am. Bee Journal. 



The date of the North American has been 

 fixed at Oct. 7th and 8th, and the place is Lin- 

 coln, Neb. For further particulars see Con- 

 vention Notices elsewhere. 



It may be a surprise to some, but we have 

 four of those large Boardman solar wax-ex- 

 tractors in use in our apiary constantly. They 

 are used principally to work over and refine 

 wax dirt, sweepings and scrapings from the 

 wax-room floor. It Is astonishing to see what 

 nice wax they will make out of what appears to 

 be dirt, and very dirty dirt at that. 



The Jardine bee-escape, illustrated on p. 428, 

 does not work. We have been trying it thor- 

 oughly, and I regret to say that the hinges to 

 the little doors became so badly propolized after 

 a few days' use as to become inoperative. Come 

 to think of it, hinges of any kind in a bee- 

 escape have proven failures, because bees will 

 propolize working joints. The Porters have, in 

 adopting slender flexible brass springs, hit the 

 nail on the head. So far the Porter, with us, is 

 in the lead. 



Here is a letter more like what we have been 

 receiving than the one referred to protesting 

 against saying so much in favor of sweet clover: 



Dear Ernest:—! see In Gleanings for July 15th 

 that some one has made complaint about your 

 speaking favorably of sweet clover, claiming that 

 it Is a noxious weed. Now, I wish to say that I 

 hope Gleanings will not give sweet clover a black 

 eye, for I do not see how any one can call it a nox- 

 ious weed, as stock will eat it, and it is such a tine 

 honey-plant. We must plant somethingr that will 

 yield honey, as the honey-producing wild flowers 

 are getting to he very scarce. 



Please keep the favorable paragraphs on sweet 

 clover going right along in your journal. 



Slaghts, Colo., July 23. W. H. Price. 



Yes, indeed, we propose to keep up the agita- 

 tion if the will of the very great majority is any 

 criterion to go on. 



improvements in bee culture. 

 Some time ago it was asserted that no very 

 great improvements might be expected in the 

 line of bee culture; that we had about attained 

 perfection. If I am any judge of apicultural 

 progress there are still some great advances yet 

 to be made over our old methods. Just as soon 

 as we drop into that rut, with the feeling that 

 we have "got there," and don't need to try to 

 better ourselves, just so soon shall we fail to 

 make progress. I can not think we have reach- 

 ed perfection in any thing relating to bee- 

 keeping yet. I believe, first of all, we need and 

 shall have foundation with deep cell-walls and 

 thin base; that along with this improvement 

 will come at least partial control of swarming. 

 I believe still that there is a chance for im- 

 provement in styles of brood-frames; and there 

 is still something yet to learn as to the best size 

 of hive. 



A queer but a good season. 

 This season is peculiar in several respects. 

 To begin with, every thing started out much 

 earlier than usual. Fruit-bloom showed up 

 quite perceptibly in the brood-nests — something 

 it has not done for some years. Basswood 

 came on almost a month earlier, with great 

 promise. It did, in fact, begin to yield nectar 

 before white clover (it usually follows) ; but the 

 quantity of blossoms was a very imperfect in- 

 dex of the amount of honey. Then we waited 

 for white clover; but instead of honey from 

 that source there was a fair flow from sweet 

 clover. Now that this is going to seed, white 

 clover near the latter part of this month (a 

 month late), owing to these copious rains, is 

 beginning to show itself everywhere. Honey is 

 coming in again, and being stored. How long 

 this will last, or what we may expect next in 

 this season of contraries, it is hard to say. Dur- 

 ing this month we have drouths as a rule ; but 

 noiv the ground is as wet and soaked as in the 

 spring. The roads are muddy, and the bicycle 

 is at a standstill. This is almost unheard of in 

 Rootville during summer. 



reduction in freight rates on extracted 



honey in FLORIDA. 



The following letter from W. S. Hart speaks 

 for itself: 



Mr. Boot;— Kindly announce, through the columns 

 of your magazine, that, througli the efforts of Mr. 

 W. J. Jarvis, of the Florida Bast Coast Line, the 

 committee appointed at Atlanta "to secure a re- 

 duction of freight rates on honey" have succeeded 

 in securing a reduction of the rate on extracted 

 honey to that of 6th class, which is the rate charged 

 for syrup, over all lines in Florida. I feel quite con- 

 fident that this reduction could have been secured 

 over all the lines of the Eastern States had both the 

 committee and bee-keepers generally brought more 

 pressure to hear at the meeting in Washington, as 

 suggested by me through Gleanings. As it is, It 

 will be quite a boon to honey-producers of this 



