THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



73 



Very insignilicant this record of live clover 

 seed comiug up looks : yot to my enthusiasm 

 at the time, their birth into this world seemed 

 quite worthy of paternal notice and record. 



"March Itith. Three inches of snow. Thsr- 

 monietor 29° 37" 27° Devised the swiveled sin- 

 gle comb-holder." 



This was a well developed humbug. After 

 a short trial it went to the lumber-room, and 

 has staid there ever since. It's special pur- 

 pose was for putting the combs on one after 

 the other, while hunting a difficult queen, 

 also to release both hands while cutting out 

 or inserting a queen-cell. It would be a 

 great help, I thought — and it did help me to 

 a great secret, which I will share with the 

 rest of you, without charging a cent extra, 

 and that is that the human hands are the 

 best single comb-holder in most cases. The 

 thing was too movable, too airy, and made 

 the bees too anxious to go some place — 

 march off in caravans by way of the top-bar 

 projections, or spindle down from the bottom 

 bar and transfer themselves to the tin apron 

 below, etc. 



"March 20th. Made fuel-box— wooden sides, 

 with tin bottom, and metal legs." 



I still use this identical box ; but the 

 "patent" feature of it was a humbug. It 

 stood on metal legs two inches high, and had 

 a tin bottom in order that I might bring it 

 it in when I came from the apiary, and set it 

 on the back part of the kitchen stove. Thus 

 I thought to always have my fuel dry, and in 

 prime condition. I found to my surprise 

 that a box full of rotten wood set on the 

 stove that way will not dry out worth a cent ; 

 and yet it will take fire sometimes. Thus 

 my bright dream went up in very material 

 smoke. Gather your rotten wood ten bushels 

 at a time, and have it already dry in a bin 

 suited to the purpose— that's the way to do it. 



'■ March 22nd. Warm and bright— first spring- 

 like day for some time. Set out the North Caro- 

 lina lindens. Overhauled eleven colonies of 

 bees, mostly in good ordei, but some have to be 

 closed up on fewer frames on account of weak- 

 ness." 



These lindens were sent me as August- 

 l^loomers by comrade H. A. Davis. The ex- 

 pectation was that they would bloom still 

 later in northern Ohio tlian in North Caro- 

 lina. Several of them proved identical with 

 northern basswoods — and bloom a little ear- 

 lier. There is one, however, that is evidently 

 a different variety, and therefore I suspect 

 it of representing the August-bloomers ; but 

 so far it refuses to bloom at all. .Just a few 

 buds come out year by year, and drop off 



without opening. As the country becomes 

 more and more cleared up, more attention 

 is given to planting trees by the roadsides. 

 If we could get the roadsides generally 

 planted with August-blooming lindens it 

 might help quite a little bit. 



"March 25th. Thermometer 19° 40° 25 ". 

 Devisetl a method of clustering swarms by taking 

 a comb from the old hive, and holding it up upon 

 a staff." 



I think I tried this idea just once, in a very 

 insufficient way, and then dropped it from 

 that day to this. I think I once held up 

 with my hands such a comb, in the midst of 

 those bees I could reach : and finding I could 

 scarce get a bee to light on it at all, I rushed 

 at once to the opposite conclusion that they 

 naturally hated the smell of the old hive they 

 had just fled from, and would light anywhere 

 else in preference. Possibly if I had had 

 wit enough to try a comb from an alien hive, 

 using a good long staff, and presenting it 

 just before natural clustering had begun, the 

 plan might have scored a success. We can 

 point a moral from it as it is. How much of 

 all that pertains to life we decide on half- 

 way evidence I 



To change the subject abruply, some of 

 the figures went astray in my February arti- 

 cle. The handle of the smaller hive-shovel 

 was not four inches long, but fourteen ; and 

 the width of tinker's treasury was not thirty 

 inches, but thirteen ; so 1.5x13 is the size of 

 the latter instrument, horizontally. 



" March 30th. Bright day after a cold night. 

 Saw bees at work on poplar catkins. Saw a bee 

 at hive with loads." 



May we never get so old in heart that we 

 can no longer feel a glow of renewed life, 

 and a dash of youthful enthusiasm when at 

 length, after so many delays and feints 

 spring really opens, and the bees come wad- 

 dling in with their first pollen loads— when 

 the poplars and willows put out their soft 

 and queer infloresence. It's a good plan for 

 the old and the young, the wise and the 

 simple, to be all at one once in awhile ; and 

 what better time is there than when God 

 breaks the seal of a new life-year ? And so 

 it has come about in regard to these first 

 queer attempts at flowers. Men of science 

 call them catkins (little cats) and the chil- 

 dren call them pussies. And may God ac- 

 acquaiut us with his secret— youth renewed, 

 and ever renewed, like the life of an undying 

 tree. 



RiOHABDs, Ohio, 



March 1st, 1892. 



