378 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



your lips and tongue. Perhaps a better 

 way would be to put water with the honey 

 before it is added to the vinegar, to avoid 

 having it too strong. 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS, 



A PASTE FOR STICKING HONEY-LABELiS ON TIN. 



In Gleanings for April 15 1 noticed an inquiry 

 for a paste to stick Jabels on tin. I find the follow- 

 ing very satisfactory: Flour, 1 lb.; gum arabic, 2|?4 

 oz.; sugar lead, powdered, lYi oz.; alum. Hi oz.; 

 water, 2 qts. The gum, sugar lead, and alum, are 

 dissolved in the water, then proceed as when mak- 

 ing ordinary flour paste. Scratching the tin with 

 sandpaper, or washing wiih diluted muriatic acid, 

 is also helpful. One of our anaateui' photographers 

 likes this paste very much. J. F. Barton. 



Chicago, Jll., April 21, 1?90. 



And here are a couple more lette s on the 

 same subject : 



You inquire how to make labels stick to tin pails. 

 I have put on a great many this winler. The best 

 way I find is to use common flour paste, well cook- 

 ed, then rub the label hard with a dry cloth after it 

 is on the pail; rub it down smooth, let it dry, and it 

 will stay as long as the pail lasts, unless you wash 

 it off. Mucilage will not stick well. 



Jackson, Mich., Apr. 4. W. D. Soper. 



To make labels stick to new tin with ordinary 

 paste, rub a sliced onion over the tin. 



livaniville, Ind., Apr. IT. L. A. Wii.kes. 



spraying of fruit-trees and killing of bees. 



I write you for information in regard to the 

 spraying of fruit-trees with poison. There are per- 

 sons, malicious and ignoraiit, who will not yield to 

 any proofs, but persist in spraying their trees 

 while the blossoms are on, and poisoning the bees. 

 One man in this neighborhood had his bees mined 

 for this season, and mine are dying oft' daily from 

 the effects of poison. What I wish to ask is, wheth- 

 er there is any remedy through the law by which 

 such persons can be made to quit it. 



Millbury, O., May 2. Geo. W. Chapman. 



Friend C, if your neighbors poison your 

 bees they render themselves liable, in the 

 same way they would if they poisoned your 

 chickens or larger animals ; and if it can be 

 shown that there is no necessity for spray- 

 ing the trees while they are in blossom, we 

 shall have a pretty clear case against them. 

 The professors in our agricultural colleges 

 and experiment stations will back us up in 

 the matter, and perhaps the Bee-keepers' 

 Union may decide to take hold of it, if it 

 comes to litigation. I would, however, have 

 a. friendly talk with your neighbors in re- 

 gard to it, and show "them what Prof. Cook 

 has written on the subject. 



decoy hives not allowed by law in co.v- 



necticut. 

 There is a law in this State that mukes the setting- 

 out of a bee-hive in the woods, or anywhere else, 

 for the purpose of catching runaway bees, a misde- 

 meanor, punishable by fine or imprisonment. Now, 

 what we should like to know is, can it pns?ibly work 



any injury to my neighbor who keeps bees? Does it 

 in any way entice them to abscond? We claim not. 

 But we claim, rather, it is a humane act; for why 

 is it not better for the little fellows to have a de- 

 cent place to set up housekeeping in than to have 

 them waste their time and strength in cleaning out 

 some old hollow tree? Now, I regard my neighbor's 

 rights as sacred as my own, and more so. What we 

 should like to know is, whether it can work him 

 any harm to set out hives as I have stated. I hope 

 you will not cast this aside without a reply. I think 

 the law a foolish one, conceived in spite. 

 Middlebury, Conn., April 28. R. B. Wheaton. 



Eriend W., I was aware that such a law 

 had been passed ; but I pronounced it at the 

 outset a foolish, unnecessary law, and I ob- 

 jected to it at the time it was brought up at 

 one of our conventions. The enactment of 

 such laws, where no law is needed, is one 

 great reason why we have so many laws 

 that are a dead letter. If I wanted to set 

 out decoy hives in the woods or anywhere 

 else. I would do so, and no one, surely, 

 would make any complaint unless it would 

 be some foolish fellow who has got cranky 

 on the subject. 



four -banded ITALIAN BEES. 



I Fend a sample of my "so called four banded 

 bees." Will you please be kind enough to examine 

 them carefully and tell the readers of Gleanings 

 whether or not they have four or five yellow bands? 



Frenchville, W. Va., Apr. 30. L. L. Hearn. 



Friend H., the Italian bees you send us in 

 a Peet cage, mentioned above, when placed 

 on a window, show distinctly four yellow 

 bands. The fourth band is not the downy 

 fuzz so often called a yellow band, but the 

 horny scale of the body itself is, a greater 

 part of it, yellow, just like the second and 

 third bands in ordinary Italians. I do not 

 know that I have ever before seen bees so 

 distinctly maiked with this yellow band. 

 Some of them may also show the fifth band, 

 but it is not as clear and unmistakable as 

 the fourth. Perhaps I should say to our 

 readers that I do not consider these extra 

 yellow bauds as particular evidence of their 

 purity. It is doubtless the result of careful 

 breeding and careful selection, having yel- 

 low bands constantly in view. While these 

 yellow bands distinguish them more plainly 

 than common Italians, from common bees, 

 it does not necessaiily follow that they are 

 better honey-gatherers than ordinary "Ital- 

 ians. The bees are of a good size, very 

 handsome, and quite docile. I let them out 

 of the cage on the window, so as to see the 

 band more clearly, and put them back, tak- 

 ing them by the wings by my fingers, but 

 none of them offered to sting. We should 

 be glad to have friend II. tell us where he 

 got the stock, and how long he has been get- 

 ting the above result. 



IN favor of open-side SECTIONS. 



Seeing, as I do, in Gleanings, occasional and 

 mostly uncomplimentary allusions to open-s'de 

 sections, T feel called upon to say a word in their 

 favor. During the season of 1888 T produced a little 

 over 6000 lbs. of honey in open-side sections, 4 Vx 

 4 4, 7 to the foot, and I was very well pleased with 

 them. They were used in a case that clamped 



