452 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



and this I filled up with a dummy. So you see I 

 was in a measure forced into it; but I have found 

 my present arrangement so very convenient that, 

 if I were commencing- every thing anew, I would 

 make an eight-frame hive IS's inches wide, and put 

 in a dummy f thick. One special advantage is, that 

 by taking out this dummy I can move the frames 

 along and handle any one I wish, without setting 

 a frame on the ground to let me get at the rest. 

 But I should not want a closed-end frame— at least, 

 I think I shouldn't. I think we want a spacer that, 

 when a frame is lifted a quarter of an inch, it will 

 leave the f rame j ust as free as i f there were no spacer 

 in the hive. I don't like Phelps' staples, but I do 

 like his hemispherical-headed brass furniture-nails 

 better than any thing else I have seen. They must 

 work smoothly. There can't be any catching about 

 them. They are easily put on any frame, even 

 without shaking off the bees. They are the least 

 likely to dull an uncapping-knife. I don't know 

 just how much should be conceded to the uncap- 

 ping-knife. Comb-honey men need not consider it, 

 neither need extracting men, if they do not extract 

 from brood-frames, and I think brood-frames are 

 extracted less and less. 



Now, if you don't find something better, get some 

 of the right size of these furniture-nails, tell us 

 how you will sell them, together with a push-stick 

 made just right to push them in, and a good many 

 of us may want to give the Phelps plan a fair trial. 



Marengo, 111., Mar. 31. c. C. Miller. 



Friend M., don't lay the present fixed-dis- 

 tance bubble to me. If it should burst per- 

 haps I shouldn't want to father it. Yes, 

 doctor, there was a time when I wore 

 short pants, when there was an old Qulnby 

 closed-end hive in one corner of the apiary. 

 I was afraid of bees in those days, and, of 

 course, had no practical knowledge of the 

 terrors of fixed distances as found in Quin- 

 by frames. But things are changing a little 

 bit now. As I have before said, out-apiaries 

 have necessitated some sort of frame that 

 is better for moving bees ; and it is very 

 natural to look to fixed distances to help us 

 out. Another consideration comes in ; and 

 that is, there are very few bee-keepers who 

 space their frames properly. Farmer bee- 

 keepers almost never have them spaced 

 right. Day before yesterday an old bee- 

 keeper brought in four colonies. When he 

 arrived here the bees were escaping from 

 under the cover. I said, ''Have you got 

 the frames properly fastened, so they will 

 not shake about? '' " Oh, ya ; dey all fas'nd 

 tide." Our apiarist took the hives and put 

 them in position. Next day I asked him 

 whether the frames had been properly stuck 

 up. He smiled a little, and said the combs 

 were spaced sometimes an inch apart, and 

 sometimes an inch and a half, and from 

 that down to a quarter of an inch. The 

 spaces between the combs were almost sol- 

 idly bridged with brace-combs. Yes, " dey 

 yas all fas'nd tide," and our friend from 

 Holland was right. Now, if this bee-keeper 

 had some sort of a spacing-device to his 

 frames, he probably would have put the 

 combs the right distance apart. I have 

 found, in buying up bees, that farmers and 

 small bee-keepers scarcely ever have their 

 frames properly spaced, and, as a conse- 

 quence, they never move the frames, and 



for a very good reason. Such combs are 

 fixed in a way that practical bee-keepers do 

 not want them. Another consideration. ea;aci 

 spacing helps materially to diminish burr- 

 combs, and, as you say, spacers will proba- 

 bly save considerable time.— In regard to 

 those furniture nails, friend M., we have so 

 many irons in the fire now that we will not 

 dare to advertise them. As they are some- 

 thing that can be obtained at almost any 

 furniture store, any one who desires to try 

 them can obtain them readily. If there 

 should be a demand for them, of course we 

 will furnish them. Erxest. 



FLORIDA. 



AN INTERESTING LETTER FROM AN A B C SCHOL- 

 AR; GARDENS AND BEES. 



Editor GJea?i(j!(/s;— Tourists, visitors, invalids, and 

 winter residents, have about all shaken the dust of 

 Florida from their feet; and those of us who don't 

 want to, or can't get away, are left to enjoy this 

 most beautiful of all Florida seasons— the summer. 

 Those who h:tve seen the State in winter only, can 

 have little idea of the fresh and becoming dress 

 Nature puts on when the rainy season comes; and 

 instead of dormant trees, dried and yellow grasses, 

 and bare, white sand, we have every grass root, and 

 weed and shrub and tree in full leaf and flower. 

 We are told that the past winter and spring has 

 been "exceptional," from a weather point of view; 

 but as that is what we immigrants invariably hear 

 regarding every uupleasant occurrence in weather 

 or business, we have almost come to consider the 

 exception the rule, and pronounce Florida climate 

 rather uncertain. 



We have greater changes of temperature, and 

 more of them, than is generally supposed. For in- 

 stance, on the 14th and 15th of last March the mer- 

 cury dropped from 90 to 24° in the course of 36 

 hours. This uas "exceptional;" but it is not at all 

 uncommon for the tail of one of your northwestern 

 blizzards to switch across our peninsula, driving 

 the mercury very near the frost-point. Then the 

 wet and dry seasons do not always come as per 

 schedule. Tn 1889 the rainfall, accurately measured 

 in Orlando by Dr. Thos. Baker, was a trifle over 5 

 ft. This year the total, up to May 1, is less than 4 

 inches. 



Orange-groves should bloom in February instead 

 of April, as this year. This tardiness proved fortu- 

 nate, as, on account of the dormant condition of the 

 trees, the frost of March 15 did little damage to 

 bearing groves, except where they had been forced 

 ahead by the use of fertilizers and irrigation. 1 am 

 not an orange-grower, but I have a few set trees 

 about my home, which came to grief in this way. 

 When the frost came they were a perfect mass of 

 bloom and tender foliage, and by noon of the next 

 day they were the sickest-looking trees imaginable. 

 But our best-remembered lessons are taught by ex- 

 perience; and now I think It will be some years, at 

 least, before we try to turn another dry winter of 

 discontent into a glorious summer by using phos- 

 phate and artificial rain. The vegetable-gardeners 

 lost heavily, as that night made almost a clean 

 sweep of tomatoes, potatoes, beans, peas, egg-plant, 

 squashes, corn, etc., and the season was too far ad- 

 vanced to plant again with much chance for a crop. 



