1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



101 



A large century plant flower, turned upside down, 

 and jarred over a large dish or pan, will give a pint 

 of honey each morning, for many days. A very 

 large plant will have from 6 to 18 such hunches of 

 bloom. Indians collect honey from it to eat. The 

 berry or fruiting yucca has several dozen (lowers as 

 large as an egg, and each flower h is at least a tea- 

 spoon full of honey. The fruit is 2 to 3 in. in diam- 

 eter, 6 to 9 in. lonir. and good to eat. 



If my bees do well, I w ill want everything in the 

 apiary line. ,)as. K. Metcalfe. 



Silver City, New Mexico, Jan. IS, 1879. 



Six or seven pints of honey ;i day. from a 

 single plant, looks, to ns Northerners, like a 

 pretty big story, friend M., and yon must 

 not be surprised if you see a lot of us Yan- 

 kees traveling off down there, about the time 

 this gets into print. Has anybody else no- 

 ticed this wonderful honey yielding property 

 of the century plant. 



TIN CANS AND PAILS FOR EXTHACTED KONEY. 



For several years past, I have sold more or less 

 extracted honey in pails, with an annually increas- 

 ing custom. 1 keep on hand a supply of pails vary- 

 ing in size, from one quart to 5 gallons. My princi- 

 pal business point is Jackson, and I seldom go there 

 without meeting one or more customers in want of 

 honey. 



They give me their orders, stating the amount 

 and kind (clover, basswood. or fall honey) wanted, 

 which I deliver the next time 1 go to town, leaving 

 the pail with the customer until it i* emptied. To 

 save keeping an account and a possible loss of pails, 

 they should be sold with the honey when delivered, 

 and then, unless the buyer wishes to keep the pail, 

 it should be bought back when returned or called 

 for. J. H. Townley. 



Tompkins, Mich., Dec. 28, 1878. 



SALTING BEES. 

 I do not think bees require much salt. I have 

 given them salt in different ways, but they like best 

 to sip it, after a rain, from the ground where stock 

 have been frequently salted, which shows that they 

 like it in the most diluted form. 



WATERING BEES. 



There is too little attention paid to this. I set out 

 pans and little troughs, but never enough. Last 

 year I had 15 feet of trough, with corn cobs set in 

 it in the shape of an X. It would do any bee-keeper 

 good to see them get all they want, with no danger 

 of getting drowned. Then you can sprinkle on a 

 little fine salt, just to suit their fancv. 



West Point, la., Jan 15. 1879. J. I". Jakkett. 



BEES GETTING LOST ON SNOW. 



Bees may be kept from getting lost on the snow 

 (as E. A. Gastman complains), by spreading a little 

 straw in front of the hive, say for 3 or 4 ft. I have 

 tried this plan this winter, arid am satisfied that I 

 saved a good many bees. 



GLUCOSE AND GRAPH SUGAR. 



You say "I have never sold any glucose." Did you 

 not advertise it? You inserted the Davenport Co.'s 

 advertisement, and stated below, "We can furnish 



the above, at an advance of etc." If you have 



not sold any, was it your fault?" 



SECTION BOXES. 



In the Jan. No., of 1878, you say that a glassed 

 Betsinger box weighed (with light glass) eleven 

 ounces, and that it did not average over 2 lbs. when 

 tilled. Let's look into the matter a little closer. I 

 took a 5 1 4-\ii , i box, received from Doolittle, and 

 glassed it with glass that I took indiscriminately, 

 and weighed it ; it weighed !i' v oz. You say 16 sq. 

 in. (where the sections are 1 15-16 inches wide, and 

 separators used) weigh 1 pound. 



A B-tsinsrer box 5 1 1 \ii 1 t inches outside, 5x54 in- 

 side, contains about :!'i' 2 sq. in., which, according to 

 your estimate (16 sq. in. to the lb.), would weigh 

 nearly 1', lbs., instead of lib. 5oz., as vim state. 

 This would give the weight of the Betsinger box as 

 follows: 1 ! , lbs. plus 9J4 oz., which equals :.' lbs. 5> t 

 oz. There la certainly a "big" mistake somewhere. 

 It is rav impression that the Betsinger sections, 

 when filled, will average 2?4 lbs. glassed. 



WIRED FOUNDATION. 



In Feb. No. of the .4. B. J"., page 71, T. F. Bingham 

 says: "The pressing in of the honey, or the raising 

 of'the cell on the other side, invariably produce the 

 original and time honored base." Now, will Mr. 

 Bingham tell me. which? also whether the draw- 

 ing out of the cells, or the pressing in of the honey, 

 will bend the wire in the bases of the cells, so as to 

 adapt it to the "time honored" shape of the cell? or, 

 in other words, I will state, as my humble opinion, 

 that bees are not capable of bending a straight wire 

 to the form of the base of a cell, and that the only 

 way the bees tan manage is to leave such cells as 

 contain wire, Hat at the base, or else fill in with their 

 own wax until the cell is of proper shape. 



T. F. C. VanAllEN. 



Adams' Station, N. Y., Feb. 5, 1ST!). 



Thanks, friend Y .: the plan of spreading 

 straw lias been given before, and, I believe, 

 answers a good purpose where the bees are 

 healthy, but when affected with dysentery, 

 they seem to take no pains to alight on the, 

 straw. I did advise trying glucose, before 

 so much was said about adulteration, and I 

 even ordered a keg of it to experiment with ; 

 but, for some reason, Mr.- Best never filled 

 the order. After I was accused of feeding 

 it, I was glad he did not, and that I had nev- 

 er bought or sold a pound of it. The figures 

 I gave with the Betsinger box were from a 

 sample section that Mr. Doolittle brought 

 me, and the empty glassed section was one 

 from a hive bought of him. The glass was 

 rather thin, but the ends of the section were 

 of elm, that they might hold nails better, 

 and elm is rather heavy wood. Sections 

 tilled with honey often vary as much as ± lb. 

 in -1 lbs. 



Are you not a little hard on Mr. Bingham? 

 The bees certainly make the flat bottomed 

 cells concave, but on watching them closely, 

 they seem to do it by scraping the wax away. 

 and crowding and burnishing it witli their 

 mandibles; where the wires pass, of course, 

 they do no such thing. 



CARDS TO PUT ON SHIPPING CASES OF HONEY. 



I enclose you one of the cards which I tack on the 

 cover of each case of honey when shipped. 



SMASHED ! 



This Fine Honey will be "Smashed" and Spoiled 

 unless handled carefully. This Side Up. 83^"* Will 

 you please HANDLK with CAKE ? 



Of course, you will easily see that it is not original, 

 as the idea and almost the words are copied from 

 your "killed" card; but it answers very well. I put 

 the address on a wmaU card right under this one, so 

 they have to read the large one first. If you think it 

 will pay to print some large cards, something like 

 this, in black on red or buff cards, I will take a few. 



Danville, P. Q., Dec. 24, '78. Geo. O. Goodhue. 



Thank you, friend G.; I will try to have 

 some cards in readiness, before another sea- 

 son. 



NEW ZEALAND. 



As I am just about starting an apiary, on a 

 large scale, and am desirous of securing the latest 

 improvements, I have taken the liberty of writing 

 to you to ask you to send me a price-list or cata- 

 logue. 



I should like a machine for making foundation 

 comb, and the best kind of honey extractor or sling- 

 c\\ and any other late improvements; also the best 

 in ink on working with movable frame hives. 



i believe, if there was an agency established out 

 here for the sale of these things, that a large trade 

 might be done, as, at present, there are none of 

 the latest improvements used and they cannot be 

 got, out here. 



I believe Xew Zealand to be one of the finest coun- 

 tries in the world, for bee-keeping. I have kept a 



