454 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JUNE 



time, and his body was not recovered for three 

 days. We can well imagine their grief. He saved 

 his bees, 180 colonies, by elevating them on a scaf- 

 fold. The levees will hereafter be immensely 

 strengthened, and I hope never to see such an in- 

 undation again. 



My bees escaped the overflow, as the southern 

 half of the city, with a large district adjoining it, 

 was protected by a ridge of land above the water, 

 where my bees were situated. 



The honey-flow now is good. I will commence 

 extracting to-morrow. All the white clover was 

 drowned except that on the high ridges, and that 

 was consumed by the starving cattle. The swamp 

 woodbine, rattan, and wild grapes, persimmon, and 

 many other forest trees, are in bloom. I hope yet 

 to have a good yield of honey. I gave my bees a 

 thorough overhauling, and they are in excellent 

 condition. I have very little trouble with robbers. 

 I use small square pieces of mosquito netting, with 

 cords attached to each corner; and when there is 

 the least evidence of robbing I tie them over the 

 front of the hive. It gives plenty of ventilation to 

 the bees in the hive, and they soon recover from 

 their demoralization; and when the netting is re- 

 moved they are ready to make a good defense of 

 their home. I rarely keep the net on more than 

 half an hom% unless the robbers have entered the 

 hives in great numbers. I have large nets to en- 

 velop the entire hive, when the bees can gain en- 

 trance at the top or sides. The netting is my only 

 resort; and as an ounce of prevention is worth a 

 pound of cure, you can not use it too soon. 



I devote my apiaries to extracted honey, reserv- 

 ing a couple of hives for comb honey for my own 

 family use, as there is no profit in comb honey in 

 this country. 



I leave for Mount Eagle, Tenn , about the 10th of 

 June, where I will devote a few weeks to my apiary 

 there. O. M. Blanton. 



Greenville, Miss., May 26. 



Friend B., when we are tempted to com- 

 plain of too much rain again, we will re- 

 member your sad troubles along the banks 

 of the Mississippi. What a sad, sad story 

 you tell us— a little one only three years old, 

 drowning, because he fell from the piazza 

 of his home! May God be with the poor 

 father and mother. 



BAMBLE NO. 25. 



pie, peanuts, and popcorn to edification, and raised 

 almost f 4.00 for etceteras for the minister's wife, 

 and also for a pair of magnetic insoles for her shoes.^ 



RAMBLER IS INVITED TO A DIME SOCIAL. 



From Fort Plain we rolled gracefully along west- 

 ward on the Central K. it. We had made up our 

 mind to stop at Oriskany and see Mr. W. E. Clark, 

 ex-president of the N. Y. B. K. A.; but we learned 

 that a sea of three miles of mud lay between the 

 station and residence, and all we could do was to 

 look away across the sea and imagine that Bro. 

 Clark was hard at work tacking leather to those 

 best bellows-smokers of his. We reached Rome 

 about noon; didn't see much evidence of apiculture 

 here, but the people seemed to bee very friendly. 

 It was about dinner time, and two fine gentlemen 

 said to me, " Let's go in here and have a dime so- 

 cial." 



We accepted the invitation with alacrity, for at 

 home our church had a real good dime social. 

 We escorted the widow Dibble, and ate pumpkin 



A DIME SOCIAL. 



She, like other females, is troubled with cold feet. 

 It is said, on this account the magnetic-insole trade 

 is heavy among the fair sex. Well, my alacrity 

 came very near ruining me. I am a total abstainer, 

 teetotaler, and " prohib;" and when these fine gen- 

 tlemen whisked me up to a bar, where vile com- 

 pounds are sold, and asked me what I would take 

 for a dime social, I was sorely tempted to say 

 brandy with sugar; but I smote the tempter, and 

 won the victory. Said I, " I'll take pumpkin pie;" 

 and these fine men and the dispenser of drinks just 

 laughed the Rambler to scorn. Said I, " My friends, 

 which is better to take, a piece of pumpkin pie, and 

 go hence with a clear head and untangled feet, or 

 that vile stuff that will roll you in the gutter, or 

 heap abuse upon your family?" 



Their hilarity visibly subsided, and I withdrew in 

 good order, and I hope my little lecture and stand 

 for principle had a good effect. 



Not far from Rome we had a fine visit with an 

 old-time bee-keeper, who has the cognomen of 

 James Moore, aged 83. In war times he had 125 col- 

 onies; but they had all died out; clover had killed 

 out, and the bees could get nothing but weed honey, 

 and they could not winter upon it. There's no 

 earthly use to try to keep bees without a good 

 stand of clover. 



Said I, " Bee-keepers now feed sugar or taffy, if 

 they find poor honey in a hive." 



"Why," said he, "I fed taffy in a bake-tin; also 

 fed maple sugar, nigh on to forty years ago, but 

 weed honey is very deceptive. You can not see 

 much difference between that and clover honey, 

 and can not tell the effect it will have upon the 

 bees; but the taffy was sure cure every time." 



"Bee-keepers are now talking a great deal about 

 automatic hiving arrangements. Did you ever have 

 experience in that line?" 



"Why, bless you, yes. I had the cutest hive for 

 that purpose you can imagine, nigh on to forty 

 years ago. This hive was invented and patented by 

 Sylvester Davis, of Claremont, N. H. It was called 

 the Platform hive, but I called it the Side Issue. 

 You see, we had hot times them days in politics, 

 and every thing was a crisis, or an issue, so I put 

 the hive in line with the times. Here is an old pic- 

 ture of the hive. You observe that four hives were 

 placed side by side. In the spring, if four swarms 

 were wintered, remove every other one and place 



