1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



283 



"Yes," said she,"! knowed it would level him; 

 it's pizen— pizen as a cohort." 



" Cohort!" says we. 



"Cohort I " said she. 



Says we to Nig, " Get up," and she went. We got 

 Into a brown study for the next half-hour, and 

 passed several homes before we solved the prob- 

 lem. The dear woman had got her Scripture slight- 

 ly mixed with that old but highly respected rat-poi- 

 son, cobalt. We felt better, and concluded we 

 would stop at the little brown hou^e behind the 

 spruce-trees. No answer to our repeated knocks; 

 but a sound from the back yard led us in that di- 

 rection, and tlifre we found two cherubs in a bar- 

 rel. 



"Well, my dears, what you doing in there? 

 Where's the folks? " 



" Gone on scursion. Put us here to keep us out 

 of mischief." 



We learned afterward that this mother regularly 

 barreled her children when she left home. They 

 were used to it, and evidently enjoyed it. 



Our journey for the day, with many more varied 

 •experiences, finally came to an end at the resi- 

 dence of Mr. Goodwin, on the Danby Mountains. 

 Mr. G. is the owner of a large farm, and is also in- 

 terested in the raising of sweets from throe thou- 

 sand sugar-maples. His annual yield is hundreds 

 of gallons of syrup, which adds much to the reve- 

 nue of the farm. In the production of honey there 

 is not much done in that line, that we could learn; 

 but we should judge it to be one of those good 

 places as yet unoccupied. The mountains on each 

 side of the valley are of such height that the honey- 

 flow from basswood must be greatly prolonged, as 

 vegetation is seen to put forth green leaves fully 

 ten days earlier at the foot of the mountains than 

 it does at the summit. Buckwheat is also sown to 

 ■& considerable extent, and goldenrod is abundant. 



cious manure-pit, which point, the Rambler is sor- 

 ry to observe, many farmers are very careless 

 about, hence the fertility of the soil is wasted 

 around the barn. While riding behind the ox team 

 we discussed and decided that it would be a capital 

 rig with which to peddle maple products and honey. 

 Of course, the peddler would have to go slow, and 

 this would give people time to make up their minds 

 to buy; besides, how attractive such a team would 

 be in any of our cities! Let us not despise the bo- 

 vine, is the conclusion arrived at by the 



Rambler, 

 Friend R., when I first read your account 

 of putting the children in the barrel to keep 

 them out of mischief, I thought you were 

 drawing on your imagination ; but a near 

 neighbor assures me that this is no fiction. 

 He says, that in his childhood it was a com- 

 mon thing to " barrel " the children to save 

 the bother of chasing after them. May the 

 Lord be praised, a different state of affairs 

 has come about in the matter of caring for 

 children. Since you mention it, I think it 

 quite likely that an ox team would be one 

 of the tallest kinds of advertising for honey 

 and maple syrup. These knowing chaps 

 who talk so much about manufactured comb 

 honey and adulterated maple syrup would 

 vervlikelv have faith if oxen drew the rig, 

 and the driver were to fix up to correspond 

 with the "cattle." 



BEES THAT BUILD ILL-SHAPEN 

 COMBS. ETC. 



PEDDLING HONEY WITH AN OX TEAM. 



The next morning, our friend, desiring us to see 

 bis farm and sugar-orchard, attached the oxen to 

 the family wagon, and himself, the Rambler, and 

 two ladies, enjoyed a delightful ride. What beauti- 

 ful scenery! what a docile team! what invigorat- 

 ing air, and wh-vt smiling faces! The Rambler for- 

 got all about the spine of his leg being affected, 

 and laughed with the rest. Neighbor C. must be 

 visited; and as we approached we saw him shading 

 his eyes; then he called his wife to help him gaze, 

 and they mutually made up their minds that a 

 menagerie was coming to their mountain home. 

 With a stentorian " Whoa, haw buck! " our friend 

 landed us safely on the doorsteps. We found here 

 one of those splendid Vermont barns. As the slope 

 of the side hill was several miles, there was ample 

 room for a grand work. The entrance was at the 

 gable end; below were capacious bays, and a dou- 

 ble tier of cow-stables; and behind them a capa- 



WHY DO THEY DO IT? AND SOME OTHER MATTERS. 



Having a few hours of leisure lately, I looked 

 over Gleanings for 1889, and in doing so I ran 

 across an item or two which I wish to notice a little. 

 On page 133 is a short item about comb-building, in 

 which the writer, Mr. J. A. Golden, tells of a colo- 

 ny which built "nice, beautiful, thinly drawn 

 comb " in the middle sections of a super, while the 

 outside section^ "contained some of the heaviest 

 and most ill-shaped comb" he ever saw, and he 

 wanted to know why this was so. In your foot- 

 notes, Mr. Editor, I notice that you think that the 

 only solution to the mystery is, that the weather 

 was cool when the latter combs were built, while 

 the former were built In warmer weather, as well 

 as their being immediately over the cluster where 

 they would naturally receive more heat. Now, as 

 far as my knowledge goes, bees do not attempt to 

 work wax unless the temperature is right for the 

 successful working of the same, and bees are capa- 

 ble of making a right temperature just when and 

 where they please, as I have often proved with my 

 self-registering thermometer. A small cluster of 

 bees can easily keep a temperature of from 93 to 95 

 degrees during a cold frosty night, as many nights' 

 experiments testify, and that is plenty warm 

 enough for wax-working. From past experence I 

 should account for the " my-tery," as presented by 

 Mr. Golden, in its being in the loss of the queen in 

 that particular hive, and especially as none of his 

 other colonies were noticed building such peculiar 

 comb. If " cold ' had been the cause of the trouble, 

 all of the colonies would have built thick irregular 

 combs as well; but as it was this particular colony 

 that did so, we must look for the trouble at this 

 point. 



