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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



E. W. Howes, M. D., wishes to know why all the 

 bees rub their heads and antennne with their fore 

 legs as they come out of the hive before taking 

 flight. It is to dust their eyes and antennse, or 

 " horns." Their eyes are for light, their antennfe 

 for smell, and both must needs be clean. Hence 

 the bees brush the eyes and dust the antenna' by 

 use of the antenna'cleaners. Dr. Howes can easilj- 

 see that this is true by putting a bee or wasp on the 

 window, and dropping some dust from the road, or 

 fine chalk or flour, on the antennse. He will see 

 the bees use the curious antennas cleaners to clean 

 the antennse, and then the middle legs to clean the 

 cleaners, in case it is a bee, or the jaws to do the 

 same in case It is a wasp. The antennfe-ckaners 

 on the front legs, described and beautifully illus- 

 trated in my book, are wonderful organs. A hollow, 

 bearing a dt licate fringe of hairs, and a duster with 

 very fine membrane, together grasp and draw over 

 the leg. A more beautiful and tffective organ it is 

 hard to find. A.J.Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich. 



town, D. C, is a signboard over fifty years old. 

 The old board seems never to have been painted. 

 The bridge regulations are painted in large black 

 letters. The face of this board (4 x 6) is so worn 

 away by the action of the weather that the words 

 seem to have been carved in relief, and a blind man 

 could read by the sense of touch those raised let- 

 ters which the black paint has preserved. The face 

 of the board has left them at least a sixteenth of an 

 inch high. Arthur T. Golbsborouqh. 



Washington, D. C, May 28. 



A BIG TESTIMONIAIi IN FAA'OK OF THE NEW 

 THICK TOP-BAKlS. 



Well, Uncle Amos, the queens are doing well. 

 One of them has proved to be an extra layer, but 

 the other has had no chance on account of the large 

 flow ot basswood nectar, which is at this writing in 

 full blast. It blossomed so the bees worked on 

 some trees July 13, and it is coming in so fast that 

 they do not stop to build comb in the sections, but 

 cram the brood-combs full in some colonies, which 

 is the case with one that T introduced one of the 

 queens to July 13. 



Well, I am one, perhaps, of the many who are 

 trjing the heavy top-bars, and the exact spacing I 

 do by the use of the furniture-nails. I have 29 

 stocks so arranged, and am experimenting on 3 oth- 

 er styles and widihs of top bars on 18 different 

 stocks, and so far 1 am well pleased with heavy top- 

 bars spaced i%, or, rather, a space between frames 

 i^B of an inch. I have just looked them over, and I 

 do not find any signs of burr-combs except on two 

 hives, and there is only a little on them. On some 

 of my Simplicity hives with thin top-bars they have 

 got the zinc honey-board plastered nearly full, and 

 I tore it off and scraped off a quart of burr-combs. 

 I like the slatted wood break-joint honey-board bet- 

 ter than the zinc ones, but I am grtatly in hopes 

 that, with my new hive, I shall be able to discard 

 them altogether. The heavy top bar that I speak 

 of is 1% thick and % wide, and is used with my new 

 chaff hive, which suits me better than any other 

 hive 1 ever saw. Frkd C. Smith. 



Thanks for your valrable testimony. Our 

 experience with the heavy bars has been so 

 far exceedingly satisfactory. Did you no- 

 tice, friend tS., whether the colonies with 

 thick top-bars stored less honey than the 

 colonies with thin bars V 



why hives SHOULD BE PAINTED; A GOOD ILLUS- 

 TRATION. 



I have been waiting for some one to haul one of 

 your contributors over the coals for asserting that 

 paint does not protect wood (hives) from decay. 

 You let him down easily by not noticing it editori- 

 ally. Now, paint does protect wood by exclud- 

 ing moisture; and when white lead is used, the sur- 

 face is hardened against the wearing effect of wind 

 and rain. Over the old aqueduct bridge in George- 



WHAT SORT OF PUMP IS BEST, FROM A SANITARY 

 POINT OF VIEW ? 



Is a bucket pump, with buckets on that will hold 

 a pint or more, better for the water in a cstern 

 than the common chain pump with rubber buckets? 

 The claim made for the former is, that the buck- 

 ets carry air to the bottom of the cistern, and purify 

 the water. E. E. Lawson. 



Stanberry, Mo.. Aug. 7. 



Friend L., I do not think the kind of 

 pump you describe has much, if any, advan- 

 tage over the chain pump. The theory that 

 carrying the air under the water makes the 

 water more wholesome, came from the 

 vender of a certain kind of pump ; but I 

 hardly believe it is supported by true science. 

 Very "likely the water of the cistern will be 

 better where there is considerable agitation, 

 as this will disturb the settlings and tend to 

 keep them pumped out. We have had very 

 fine cistern water during the past summer, 

 that has been used all through the factory, 

 in preference to any of the well-water, for 

 drinking purposes. But this cistern water 

 is drawn through a tin-lined lead pipe, the 

 pipe being tinned both inside and outside ; 

 but in order to prevent settlings from get- 

 ting in. the end of the pipe is turned up so 

 as to take Avater a couple of feet above the 

 bottom of the cistern. The cistern has, 

 however, a chain pump also, out of doors. 

 The chain pump goes lower down than the 

 other, and is used often enough to keep the 

 water agitated and " aerated,'' as the patent- 

 pump man would term it. 



A GOOD REPORT FOK THE NOVICE EXTRACTOR. 



Seeing a notice in Gleanings, August 1, of the 

 work done by T. H. Mills, of Cameron, Tex., with a 

 Stanley extractor, I will state what I did for F. 

 McNay, of Mauston, on August 10, 1889. With a Nov- 

 ice extractor I extracted 60 gallons of honey, hived 

 eight swarms of bees, and did it all alone, anJ went 

 seven miles to town before sundown. 



Mauston, Wis., Aug. 6. E. W. Prosser. 



Uretty well, friend P., only we should pre- 

 fer to have the amount of honey stated in 

 pounds rather than in gallons. If it is good 

 thick honey, however, we can safely esti- 

 mate 11 lbs. to the gallon. I wonder if you 

 didn't leave things scattered around some 

 that night. 



THAT FKAC.^S IN OUR OWN APIARY; DOES IT PAY 

 TO KEEP CROSS BEES ? 



Reading Gleanings for July 1, about a fracas 

 with cross bees, in Our Own Apiary, raises the ques- 

 tion with me as to whether it pays to keep black or 

 hybrid bees at so great an expense of time, labor, 

 and suffering from stings, though we have the 

 courage to battle with them and the good fortune 

 to survive their frequent attacks. As for me, I have 



