62 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



presses them in nicely. Then I put in about four 

 little quarter-inch wire nails, which hold them se- 

 curely in place. 1 first cut the cloth just the size of 

 my frames, and then dip it in the wax about four 

 times, when it is thick enough for all purposes. 



Now, friend Root, is it not possible for you to get 

 a very fine wire cloth, say of copper, woven so as to 

 make the meshes about 30 to the inch, so as not to 

 cost more than one or two cents to the foot? If 

 that can be done, bee-keepers can make a founda- 

 tion that will be the thing for this hot country. If 

 iron wire could be made fine enough, I have no 

 doubt but it would be just as good, but I have my 

 doubts about their being able to make it fine 

 enough to answer the purpose. You have done 

 much in furnishing bee-keepers with cheap wire 

 cloth for other purposes, and if atm one can get this 

 thing, you can. Let us hear from you on this sub- 

 ject. John L. Gregg. 



Tempe, Arizona, Dec. 14, 1889. 



Friend G., no doubt you can succeed with 

 cheese-cloth by coating it with so great 

 a quantity of wax ; but, dear friend, just 

 think what it costs you. You are not aware, 

 perhaps, that we have ah-eady tinned wire, 

 so small that it will just give us only the 

 strength desired. In fact, No. 36 we have 

 decided to be too small for the wired frames 

 illustrated in our catalogue. Our good 

 friend Vandeiisen, however, makes flat-bot- 

 tom foundation on this very small wire, and 

 he can put in just as many wires as you 

 choose. You will find this wired founda- 

 tion much cheaper, I am sure, than to use 

 so great a quantity of wax as you do on 

 cheese-cloth. The expense of the wax is the 

 trouble. If you use less wax, so as to make 

 the base of the cells about the usual thick- 

 ness, the bees will surely go to work and 

 tear the cloth, sooner or later. We have 

 tested it pretty thoroughly. Very likely 

 you require not only wired combs, but 

 combs with additional wires, in your very 

 hot climate of Arizona. 



BEE-YARDS. 



SHALL THE GROUND BE SODDED, OK SCRAPED 

 LIKE A BRICKYARD, A LA BOARDMAN? 



In Gleamngs for Nov. 1.5 I notice what friend 

 Boardman says in regard to scraping off the turf, 

 etc., in bee-yards, and in some former edition I 

 think you stated yourself that a bee yard should be 

 as clean as a brick-yard. No one enjoys seeing a 

 nice bee-yard more than I do; but what makes the 

 nicest bee-yard may be a difference in taste in dif- 

 ferent persons. For my part I do not like to see a 

 bee-yard or any other yard appear as barren as the 

 ground of the " Garden of the Gods" in the Rocky 

 Mountains. Nothing in the world can approach in 

 appearance a lordly coat of verdant green sod, as 

 well in a bee-yard as any other yard or lawn. How 

 would a public park in a city appear if the turf were 

 scraped off with Bro. Boardman's saw-scraper? 



CEMENT BOTTOMS AND DOORYARDS FOR EN- 

 TRANCES, AND HOW TO MAKE. 



I love to have bee-yards as well as house-yards as 

 green as they can be made; but at the same time, 

 have a clean place without grass, to place the hives 

 upon. This can easily be liad by simply making a 

 cement floor for that purpose. To do so, make a 



frame of strips two inches wide by one inch thick, 

 of a size large enough to project over the sides and 

 rear of the hive four inches, and in front 34 inches. 

 Nail stays across to keep it sq uare. Place it on the 

 ground where you wish to set your hive, and mark 

 around the outside of it. Remove it, and with a 

 sharp spade cut down through the marks about 

 four inches deep, and remove the ground to that 

 depth inside of the marks. Then fill up the exca- 

 vation with fine rocks, pounded down solid, and 

 just even with the outside surface. Remove the 

 stays on your frame, and apply it as before, sloping 

 downward in front about an inch. Now fill up the 

 frame even with the top, with a mixture of ^.i good 

 cement and ^:i sand, thoroughly mixed dry, and 

 then water enough to make a thin mortar. Slope 

 off the top corners after leveling off with a straight- 

 edge and trowel, and you have an everlasting floor 

 for your pets that needs no scraping. Sow'your 

 yard in dandelion and white clover; and in the 

 spring, when the former is in bloom, and you see the 

 bees enjoying themselves at it, I think you will 

 want no more scraped bee-yards. The lawn-mower 

 is sufficient. J. B. Baumberger. 



Washington, Kan., Dec. 10. 



Friend B., your plan is tiptop. Essential- 

 ly the same thing has been given, however, 

 before. Are you sure you have got it thick 

 enough to stand 15 or 20 below zero ? Even 

 if it is, I am inclined to think that many of 

 us can get slates or very thin stone flagging 

 so as to be cheaper than the cement. 



HONEY FROM LOBELIA. 



medicated honey FOR THE CURE OF COUGHS, 

 . COLDS, CONSUMPTION, CATARRH, ETC. 



We respectfully call your attention to our lobe- 

 lia honey that the bees gathered and stored with 

 our surplus, during the months of August and Sep- 

 tember, 1889. We wish they hadn't done it, tor our 

 surplus is not salable unless for medicinal pur- 

 poses. The pastures were thickly covered with lobe- 

 lia, and in due season the bees went to work and 

 stored honey that has a strong taste of lobelia. In 

 fact, it is so strong that a very little of it will nau- 

 seate a person, and in many cases vomit him. We 

 got but little honey that was not so tinctured with 

 it as to be worthless; yet it is beautiful, clear, heavy 

 honey. Brood-chambers are full of it, so our bees 

 have their cough medicine handy. What next? 



Rochester, O., Jan. 1. M. W. Shepherd. 



Well, old friend, I am inclined to think 

 that the lobelia honey you have on hand is 

 worth a good many times the [price of ordi- 

 nary honey. Lobelia is now a recognized 

 remedial agent in medicine, and I think it 

 quite likely that this notice will bring you a 

 call for all you have, at a good price. You 

 may send me five or ten pounds for our own 

 use. I have before mentioned, that, when I 

 was quite small, I was for several years 

 weak and feeble from the effects of inflam- 

 mation of the lungs. Well, my cough was 

 so distressing that almost every winter for 

 several years they were afraid it would be 

 the death of me. Lobelia always gave re- 

 lief. I used to take enough to feel just the 

 least symptoms of vomiting, and then the 

 cough would "letup." When I got older I 

 used to carry lobelia-pods in my pocket, to 



