lrtV»U 



L.LEA.N1N(..:S IN 15EK CI LTL'UK. 



(,77 



j)laiit is \('ry luiu-li lai'ii:i'f: besides it tliflVrs in 

 otlifr ways. As ihey so strikingly fcseiiible 

 each otlier they are often confused. Whih' the 

 spidor-plant bears transplanting as well as a 

 tomato, the Rocky Mountain bee-plant is very 

 touchy, and it must 1)0 handled in transplant- 

 ing with the greatest care, or it droops and 

 dies at once. I have before noticed the sensi- 

 tive peculiarity you bring out so vividly. It 

 .seems to be one of the high-toned plants. I'rof. 

 Cook has already tested it as a honey-plant by 

 the acre: but it does not take as kindly to our 

 soil and locality as it does with you. We shall 

 be glad of any information as to the quality 

 and quantity of honey it produces in its native 

 wild. Some of tln^ seed-catalogues have been 

 giving it an und<>served boom, under another 

 name. 



ASAFirriDA TO STOP iiOHHi:i! ui;i-:s. 



I have used it two or three seasons, and tind it 

 good, that is, on colonies that rob through a poor 

 honey-t1ow. They go in and out without being 

 detected. I had one colony that was going it 

 strong this season: but after a o-cent cake of 

 asafetida 'liad been on their bottom-board 1;.' 

 hours they were challenged as soon as they en- 

 tered a hive: and as they could not give the 

 Ijassword they were soon ejected or killed. 

 Their perfumery gave them away. 



SAMt'i<:i, Heath. 



Tidal, Pa., Aug. :.'3. 18<.)0. 



I am not surjirised at the result of your ex- 

 periment, friend H. Asafetida has so pro- 

 nounced an odor that it enabled the bees to tell 

 their friends from their enemies without trying 

 very hard. 



IIOXEV FItO.M TlIK f'OTTOX-PI-A\T. 



I have been out jx-ddling hon(>y to-day. T sold 

 $27.00 worth at 11 cts. I send yoii a small sample 

 of it. The sample is cotton honey: that is. it is 

 from that source. In examining your A H C 

 in regard to honey-plants you say notliing about 

 honey from cotton. My bees made:.' lbs. per day 

 for two weeks from cotton. I could give you an 

 idea as to all of our honey-plants, but probably 

 with no interest to you. I shall get about rib 

 lbs. of surplus, on an averag?. from mv bees. 



.1. F. TioKi,. 



Ehnont, Texas, A\ig. 15, ISW. 



The sample of honey received compares favor- 

 ably with clover honey, both in flavor and color, 

 and is much above the averag(> (piality of 

 southern honey. 



TOMATO .H'lfK K(>I{ l'l!()I'( »IJS. 



There is one thing I have just discovered that 

 I never knew before, and that by accident. I 

 had been taking off honey, and had my hands 

 well stuck up with piopolis. As I had some 

 tomatoes that needed lixing up I got some of 

 the juice of the \ini'S on my hands. When I 

 came t(t wash, and rub soap on my haufls. the 

 propolis came off in a hui'i'v. If I had knosMi 

 that years ago it wouki have savi'd me mucii 

 trouble. 



.JAI'ANIOSK HlfKWIIICAT FOR IIONKV f'OMI'A ItKI ) 

 WITH fOMAfON. 



I wish t(j wi'iti' a woi-d about buckwheat, as 

 this is a buckwheat section, i^ast year there 

 was some of the .lapanese buci<wlieat sown for 

 the lirst tiTue neai' here. To-day I thouglit 



I would examine and see liow the bees were 

 working. 1 looked at a iiiece that had Japanese 

 and the common buckwheat, both sown in the 

 lot side by side. The day was good, and tlie 

 l)nckwheat was fresh and'nice. I think by the 

 looks that there wer." ten beeson the common to 

 one on the .lapanese. How is it in yoursection? 



i'.F,N Kuan- K I.I X. 

 Franklinton. N. V.. .\ug. :.'.'). ISiK). 



Friend F., your valuable fact reminds me 

 that, when a boy. we discoved that tomato- 

 juice would remove butternut stains and gum- 

 my matter fi'om the hands. There must be a 

 l)eculiar acid about the tomato that makes it a 

 solvent for certain gums. — Your reijort in re- 

 gard to buckwheat is only accidental. 



WON T II.WE TO KIOEI). 



A didutli that lasted for seven weeks ended 

 .Inly r.'Otli here: since then we have had plenty 

 of I'ain. and the vegetation and flowers have re- 

 tiu'ued like spring. Bees here have been doing 

 nicely since the drouth. Tli(>y have filled their 

 Inood-chambers to running o\('r. and thesnpi'i's 

 have cauglit lots of it. I tool< off the supers that 

 were full atiout a month ago, and supposed the 

 season to be over as usual: but the bees refused to 

 stop storing, and went up under the covers: and 

 before I found them at it th(>y had built several 

 pounds of honey in some of the hives. I i)ut the 

 T supers on. and the bees seem to be hajipy. 

 The honey this year is mixed with honey-dew, 

 but the bees winti'r nicely on it here, and it will 

 save feeding — a thing I have had to do for sev- 

 eral years. S. S. L.\wixg. 



HendeiS)n. Mo., Aug. 28. 1890. 



Friend L., you also point a good moral. Keep 

 ail eye on your bees, and see what they are 

 about: even if they haven't done a thing for 

 weeks, they need watching all the same. 



THE HOT W.VVE IX CAIJFOKXIA. 



In my last statistical I'eport. dated .Inly:.'."), 

 I stated that the prospect for an average crop 

 was excelhuit. The hot wave had then just 

 reached us, but I did not at the time suspect its 

 tiltimate effect. A few days after, the honey- 

 flow stopped: and although the alfalfa has 

 been in bloom during the whole of August, not 

 a ])ouiid has been stored since the lirst week of 

 this numth. The bees seem to be getting bare- 

 ly enough for tlu>ir own use. My scales have 

 lost a trifle in weight. The croj) will, tlu-re- 

 fore, be considtM'ably shorter than expected. 

 Much of the honey is dark, presumably from 

 buckwheat-brush, gathered between the lirst 

 and s(>cond blooming of the alfalfa. 



Wm. M ith-Kasmissex. 



Indep:'ndence. C;il.. Aug. ".".i. 



irALlAXS lTL!,lX(i rilKOfOH WIIEUE MLACKS 

 ST.VIiVi:. 



]Many ueigli'mrs in the Osagi' River region 

 lust nearly half their swarms (blacks) from 

 starvation and moths flnring the July and .\u- 

 gu-*t drouth. Now that smartweed (or lady- 

 tingei') and Spanish ne(>dh' are coming into 

 lilooni. the surs'iving swarms are doing well. 

 The swarms lo-;t were in old-fashioned liox 

 hives, without frames. The few swarms I hav(^ 

 (Italians) in Siin|)licity hives, pulled through 

 the drouth nicely on a local siipnly of late- 

 blooming sumac and buckiiush. Tney are just 

 now making must of tlieir lutiiey from .lapan- 

 ese buckw heal bloDiii. LfCTi's lioss. 



Connelv. Mo.. .Se|)t. 1. 



