1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



671 



slowly cmcrcccd troiii the cellar, and finally en- 

 tered the shop, or honey-room, partitioned off 

 fi'oni one end of tlie burn. I discovered here 

 that 'Mv. Elwood uses tiie scction-holdei' that 

 we use on the Dovetailed lii\'e. \V]iei\ we first 

 introduced it I N\'as not aware tluit such exten- 

 sive hee-keepers were already using it and liked 

 it. although I knew that the idea was by no 

 means new. The fact that such a man as El- 

 wood uses them, in pr<'fei'enc(^ to even the T 

 super, confirms me in the lielief that they must be 

 ■one of the liest comb-honey arrangements made. 



I noticed in this honey-room that friend El- 

 wood uses a four-piece section with flat-f)ot- 

 tom foundation. The sections are i)ut together 

 with a machine of his own invention, and they 

 are glued solid together. I tried to break sev- 

 eral of the sections when so put together. They 

 certainly were very secure, and no ordinary 

 amount of hauling, even over rough roads, 

 would jar them out of true. 



"There." said Mr. Elwood. pointing to a few 

 ■crates of hoiu'y. in one corner of the room. ■" is 

 all the irhitc honey I have obtained this year." 



" That will not be ycuir entire crop?" I said. 



•'Oh, nol" He replied, he would get ijcr]i<ti)s 

 r.'.i lbs. per colony of mixed and buckwheat hon- 

 i'v. The liasswood has been almost a failiuc 

 with him during the past season, and the clover 

 was but little if any lietter. It was tli" worst 

 season he had experienced in numy years. 



" What is your average per colony?" I asked. 



•' If we get .50 lbs. we are satisfied," he said. 



Let us see— 50 lbs. multiplied by 1300— (io.OOO 

 lbs. It seejns as though he ought to l)e "satis- 

 liiHl." If Oapt. Iletherington (and I presume 

 he does) obtains in a fair year a proportionate 

 iimount. his crcj) would make the "eyes" of 

 some of us bee-keepers stick out pretty promi- 

 nently. 



lIYHIill) ISKES AM) BTH'KWIIE.\T HONEY. 



Speaking of liuckwlu'at honey above reminds 

 me of the fact that Mr. Elwood kee])S hybrid 

 bees almost exclusively. He rather prefers 

 them because they are a little Ijetter for work- 

 ing on buckwheat. Through my trij) in York' 

 State on the bicycle. I beli(>ve I dii not exagger- 

 ate wln^n I say that I must have seen thousands 

 of acres of buckwheat. The farmers, instead 

 i)f conlining theii' crops to the proceeds of a sin- 

 gle acre, rais(^ it by the ten-acre fields: and 1 

 t)elieve it is usually a paying crop. I was 

 pleased to notice, also, that the Japanese buck- 

 wheat was being introduced very largely. The 

 i)ees work on it just as industi-iously as they do 

 upon any kind of buckwheat. Several fields 

 that ^Ir. Elwood and I passed were fragrant 

 with the aroma. In fact. I passed on the bicycle 

 so many buckwheat-fields that the odor became 

 sickening to me. as I do not like buckwheat 

 honey. Hut the peojile in York Stat(\ I am 

 glad to know, are not like me. At most of the 

 hotels where I stopped, they had this black- 

 looking honey on the table. By tnaking in- 

 quiries I learned that some of their guests pre- 

 ferred it. They like that rich dark-looking 

 honey of their fathers. I personally came 

 across a great many jx-ople w ho prefer buck- 

 wheat to any other they had ever eaten: but I 

 <im afraid I should have to go a good way in 

 Ohio before I could liud one who had this pref- 

 erence. 



iSIr. Elwood's hybrid bees I found wel■(^ cross. 

 Let me relate a little incident. 



I told .Mr. Elwood I should like to make some 

 detail photographs of one of his hives. We ac- 

 corilingly |)roceeded to the yard. He i)ointed to 

 one that showed well, and was al)()Ut what he 

 used in all his apiaries. " I will jtist change 

 this coN'cr." said he. removing one from another 

 hive, "and [jut it on the (me yon are about to 

 photograph." As he did so he happened to let 



it drop on the hive to be " ivodaked."— enough 

 so as to stir up the sentinels. Neither of us had 

 a veil on. I stood at a respectable distance, say 

 six or eight feet, in front of the hive, Mr. El- 

 wood a little in the rear. .M\' Kodak was all 

 primed and ready. Just then those pesky hy- 

 brids began to pour out like a hailstorm. I 

 wanted to run. Sting — it seemed as if I could 

 not (Mulure to take (>ven a snap shot at tho.so 

 fellows — or. rather, at their hive. The first one 

 planted a sting right on my nose. and. of course, 

 the rest of them saw fit to visit the same vicin- 

 ity, attracted by the poison. Now. you know I 

 could not stand that. My ever ready veil was 

 in my hind pocket. My eyes were sutt'iised 

 w ith "tears, and I hastily laid the Kodak on th(^ 

 ground, wliipped out the veil, and drew it over 

 my head in some fashi(jn or other. Somehow 

 or other I felt like running. How it would look 

 for me, I thought, on the editorial staff of 

 (Ji.EANiNGS. to i)ick nil my things and run in 

 w ild haste out of the yard." The veil was pull- 

 ed over, but those scamps did not stop to buzz 

 in front, but with provoking delilieration crawl- 

 ed up under and made things worse. I pulled 

 out the Kodak, and said, " Now or never:" and 

 w bile the tears were streaming from my eyes 

 with pain. I managed to be able to see enough 

 from one eye to get a vii'W of the hive. This 

 time I did liot wait. ]^\\t touched the button, 

 and the shot was taken. .As I did so I looked 

 up to se(^ where my friend Mr. Elwood was. 

 Presently I espied somebody running, and his 

 arms were revolving about his head in a char- 

 acteristic fashion. Now. Mr. Elwood is slightly 

 i)aldheaded. and his hat was goiu'. As I saw 

 him rub sting after sting out 1 did not blame 

 liim for retreating. I understand from his men 

 that he can stand as many stings without 

 wincing as anybody else: but it did tickle them 

 to see tluMr big boss run from the bees. One of 

 Mr. Elwood's little boys was heard to cry out 

 lustily alx)ut this time, for he was out in the 

 yard bareheaded and barelegged. His father 

 directed him to his mother, and then called 

 out: " You didiTt catch me in that picture, did 

 vou?'" 



"As you were running, I presume I did." I 

 r<'pli<'<:l: at least, I was mean enough to say I 

 hoped so. I took time now to rub the stings 

 out of my nose, and mentally reflected how it 

 would look togoaroiHid among the bee-keepers, 

 the representative of Gleaxin(;s. with a nose 

 somewhat immoderate in size. Itilid not swell, 

 however, and after a couple of hours I felt no 

 ill effects. As we started to leave that morning 

 for anotlier ride among bee-keepers witli Mr. 

 Elwood. this little boy who had been stung 

 canu' out to greet us with a good-by. His face 

 was considerably swollen, and it looked as if he 

 had been stiuig" by a bee. My catneia was at- 

 tached fast to the bicycle, or I would have been 

 cruel enough to have taken his picture. Mr. 

 Elwootl. although stung much worse than I, 

 seemed to show no ill effects. 



In order that we might visit together, the bi- 

 cycle was tied on to the wagon, and we started 

 for the lunne of Mr. Julius Hoffnuin. by way of 

 the Vail I)eusens, the people w ho make that 

 beautiful flat-bottom foundation. We went 

 over some terribly bad hills— hills that I should 

 not care particularly to have gone over w ith a 

 bicvcle: and I was glad there were some good 

 iiorses ahead of me that were used to that sort 

 of business. More beautiful scenery was pre- 

 sented to me. and ere long we were overlooking 



the flal-hollom valley which has 1 n before 



desciiheil by our friend Rambler. 



AT sriiOt'T HHOOK, N. V. 



In a few moments more we were having a 

 cordial handshaking with the Van Deusens. 

 We laughed and talked about Ramblei' and his 



