688 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15 



mothers in every home where Gleanings goes. 

 May you be a united family here on earth, 

 proof against every suggestion of the prince ol 

 darkness; and may you be united, too, in that 

 heavenly home of which we know so little, but 

 where, we may be sure, we shall all meet again. 



ON THE WHEEL. 



" Mr. Root, you have never been out to visit 

 my apiary, and yet you go around on your 

 wheel a good many miles further off. Just 

 come out and see how we have got things fix- 

 ed." 



The above remark was made by a young 

 man whom I have seen frequently at our place 

 buying bee-supplies, etc. Among other things, 

 he told me they had a field of 17 acres of buck- 

 wheat in full bloom, and it was only seven 

 miles from my home. Yesterday, September 1, 

 I found time to get away for a few hours, and 

 was very agreeably surprised when I turned up 

 at the residence of M. C. Kramer, Mallet Creek, 

 O. The lawn around his house and buildings 

 made me think of T. B. Terry's. One of the 

 prominent objects at the further end of the lawn 

 was a very pretty windmill completely inclos- 

 ed, rising above quite a good-sized building, 

 with a tank and other appliances connected 

 therewith. From this windmill and tank, pipes 

 are laid so as to furnish water to every one of 

 their numerous buildings on their 300-acre 

 farm. Not only this, but there are pipes for 

 attaching a hose in three or four places wher- 

 ever water may be likely to be needed around 

 the premises. I asked if those pipes would not 

 freeze up in winter. 



"Oh, no!" said Mr. Kramer; "for before 

 freezing weather comes we draw off the water; 

 then the plug at the top of the pipe is screwed 

 in while the pipe is full of air. When they are 

 thus arranged, no water can get up into the pipe 

 to freeze, until the plug is removed so as to let 

 the air out." 



I mention this because we have gone to con- 

 siderable expense in our hot-beds and cold- 

 frames that we may empty our pipes of water 

 so they may not freeze in winter. 



The apiary is located in the orchard. There 

 are about 7.5 hives nicely painted and tastily 

 arranged. ' When friend K. made the remark 

 that they were not yet through extracting, I 

 expressed some surprise; but on going into the 

 honey-house I saw sealed combs of honey tier- 

 ed up in the hives waiting for a spell of hot 

 weather, so the thick honey could be thrown 

 out. Several large cans were filled to the brim. 

 On sampling the honey I uttered an exclama- 

 tion of surprise. It was very thick, of crystal 

 transparency, and of that peculiar rich ripe- 

 ness that we get only where the honey is sealed 

 over, say in July, and left in the hive to ripen 

 till vSeptember. If I wanted some honey to put 

 on our table I would rather give 10 cents per lb. 

 for some like friend Kramer's than 5 cents for 

 honey that is sometimes shipped in to us by 

 bee-keepers. Now, this idea is an old one, but 

 it is one that should be emphasized again and 

 again. Their honey crop was all sold at 10 

 cents per lb. I use the expression their, for 

 there are three or four brothers who manage 

 the 300-acre farm; and two of them, if not 

 more, turn in and help when the honey season 

 is rushing. 



Their honey is engaged in the city of Cleve- 

 land, delivered to private customers. Their 

 crop for the past season was about :i500 lbs., 

 both comb and extracted. The comb honey is 

 put six sections in a neat wooden box, with a 

 circular opening in each end to show the quali- 

 ty of the honey. These are sold at an even 

 dollar a box, the sections being so arranged 

 that each package of six sections weighs pret- 

 ty nearly the same amount. This makes a 

 very neat strong package to handle, and many 

 well-to-do people would prefer to buy it a dol- 

 lar's worth at a time. 



I asked one of the boys if there were any 

 other crop on their farm that paid any better 

 than their bees, considering the amount of time 

 they required. He said he did not know of any 

 thing else that paid as well at the present 

 time. But this Industry would not pay with- 

 out the careful painstaking that is apparent 

 everywhere. These people did not expect me 

 when I came, for the invitation was given over 

 a month ago; but the house where they do 

 their extracting was neat and tidy. You could 

 walk over the floor without making a snapping 

 noise with your shoes because they stuck to the 

 floor. The door to the honey-room was through 

 an outside entry; that is, you open and shut 

 two doors in going in. The entry was perfect- 

 ly dark. This made it next to impossible for 

 the bees to get in and get a taste of stolen 

 sweets. The bees are all very finely marked 

 Italians, and there was no robbing or buzzing 

 around anywhere. 



They aimed to extract all of the white-clover 

 and basswood honey. If the bees do not fill up 

 on buckwheat sufficient for winter, they are 

 fed in the open air, for there is not a hive of 

 bees kept "in any direction within three or four 

 miles of this apiary. This outdoor feeder is 

 simply a large pan used for boiling sap, with 

 corncobs placed all over the surface of the 

 syrup, to keep the bees from drowning. In a 

 little while they can feed enough so tbat every 

 colony in the 7.5 has a pretty good stock of 

 syrup for wintering; and the Kramer brothers 

 are satisfied that sugar syrup is better for win- 

 tering than late fall honey, or even the honey 

 from their clover and basswood, for that matter, 

 or any other honey. You see, they are firmly 

 satisfied that the position your old friend Novice 

 took more than 20 years ago is a sound plat- 

 form. I suggested that perhaps those combs of 

 sealed honey standing in the honey - house 

 would be cheaper feed for the bees than the 

 syrup — that is, after the sugar syrup was de- 

 posited in the combs and capped "over. They 

 claim, however, that, even were this true, 

 sugar syrup is a safer feed for winter. About 

 ten years ago young Kramer had nearly a hun- 

 dred colonies. During a disastrous winter he 

 lost all but six. and he pretty nearly lost his 

 enthusiasm. Since then he has depended 

 mainly on sugar syrup for wintering-stores, 

 and has pretty well the upper hand of the win- 

 tering troubles. 



"Oh! look here, Mr. Root; you must not go 

 away without seeing my grapes." 



Across the road from their residence is a lit- 

 tle piece of ground of between a quarter and 

 half an acre in size. It slopes gently toward 

 the southeast, and at the bottom of the slope is 

 a carp-pond. The grapevines are trained on 

 three wires. The wires are held tight by a 

 roller at one end. A crank can be placed on 

 this roller, the wires be drawn up, and the roll- 

 er fastened with a set-screw. The Concord 

 grapevines are planted about a rod apart, I 

 should judge; and although I have seen loads 

 of fruit on Concord vines, I think I never saw 

 such great masses of fruit as on some of these. 

 Why, the great stout wires were really bending 



