1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



231 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



J±. X. ROOT, 

 EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, 



MEDINA, OHIO. 



TEWHS: $1.00 PER YEAR, POST-PAID. 



nvriEiDinxr^, jtjjste i_ ist'9- 



For even Christ pleased not himself.— Rom. 15:3. 



The cold blast smoker business is getting- to be 

 quite an item. About a dozen hands are employed 

 on them, and the sales arc now something- over a 

 thousand per month. 



— mt i>»-^— — 



Our article on transferring should by good rights 

 have been in the April No., but as the season is so 

 backward, the directions will be in very good time 

 for most of the northern states. 



The Los Angeles Weekly Star talks about us as 

 follows : 



Gleanings (May No.) contains a cut of "blasted 

 hopes," which might serve as a portrayal of blasted 

 hopes on the coast this season, but the face is hard- 

 ly long enough to correctly represent a California 

 bee-keeper this season. The face should look as if 

 a 64 pounder were hanging to the chin to draw it 

 out as long as an old fashioned bee-gum. Brother 

 Root, if you did not intend it for us, it fits so well 

 that we will accept it "as others see us." 



I wish to pay for all inventions sent me, of which 

 I make use, but I have bought so many which I have 

 never used, that I hope you will excuse me if I am a 

 little slow hereafter, in deciding what I can pay for. 

 I will pay friends Clark and Corry, $25.00 each, for 

 the features in their smokers, of which I have made 

 use, if they will accept it. Were not the profits very 

 close at the prices for which they are sold, I suppose 

 I should do more. 



I am very happy to hear that both Mitchell and 

 Mrs. Cotton seem to be doing something to straight- 

 en up their bad work. Whenever they make a sat- 

 isfactory arrangement with those they owe, and do 

 a fair and square business, I will, with pleasure, 

 give one or both, a good advertisement free, for one 

 year. The only candidate we have for the Humbug 

 and Swindle Department is a "Crystal Honey" man 

 hailing from 218 Fulton St., N. Y. It is the same 

 slippery elm, "ambrosial" dodge I have two or three 

 times shown up. Their receipt will not make honey 

 or anything like it. 



I clip the following from an article in the Santa 

 Barbara Press, in regard to Mr. J. Archer, one of 

 our contributors. 



Last year he experimented with one colony of 

 Italian bees, working exclusively for increase in the 

 number of bees ; from this colony he obtained 



There are a few who will have it that it was grape 

 sugar which caused the losses in bees during the 

 past winter and spring. How about those who lost 

 so heavily where no grape sugar was ever used ? 



We can make sections of beautiful white bass- 

 wocd, ready to nail, without any dove-tailing, plan- 

 ed on one side and both edges, Simplicity size, for 

 $5.00 per thousand. Doohttle's size (the so called 

 prize box, 534 wide, by 6'i high), $6.00 per thousand. 

 These prices are for lots of not less than 500. 



thirty-six swarms, and from the original stock and 

 the increase, he obtained 1576 pounds of extracted 

 honey. Thirty of these swarms were sold at $8.00 a 

 swarm, and the honey at 6c. per lb., making $1534.56 

 from the proceeds of one original swarm of bees. 



The feat seems to me hardly possible, and I am in- 

 clined to think the newspaper reporters got the 

 story a little mixed, as they often do. In the cli- 

 mate of California, with plenty of empty combs, 

 and by purchasing queens for the swarms, it might, 

 perhaps, be done, but this would hardly be fairly 

 the proceeds from a single colony. I have given 

 the statement, because it will probably go the 

 rounds of the papers. 



I have never had a complaint, so far as I know, of 

 the Clark cold blast smoker's going out, but have 

 had several of the Simplicity form, which is prefer- 

 red by far the larger part of our customers. The 

 difficulty proved to be that the tube on the end of 

 the cone, was so small, that the blast tube too near- 

 ly tilled some of them, thus choking the draft. To 

 all having such troubles, we will send a new cone, 

 free of charge, with a larger tube in it. To show 

 you how to start them, we now fill each smoker with 

 rotten elm wood, and all you have to do, is to hold a 

 lighted match before the draft hole, while you work 

 the bellows, and in a twinkling your smoker will be 

 roaring like a drum stove. These are the only 

 smokers that I know of, that can be set in full blast 

 instantly, by simply lighting a match. 



m m m 



A bran new book, on a subject I am interested in, 

 if a good one, gives me about as much keen enjoy- 

 ment, as anything I can think of, and when L. C. 

 Root's new Quinbt/s Ber-Kecping was put into my 

 hands yesterday, I felt as if I could not go on with 

 my work, until I had seen every page. It has 

 beautiful paper, beautiful print, and is full of pict- 

 ures ; pen pictures, too, of the author's own experi- 

 ence with bees, hives, and honey. Somehow, I can 

 not help regretting that friend Root advises a hive 

 with the frame standing on the bottom board. If I 

 am correct, he himself admits that there are but 

 few bee-keepers who can be persuaded to use them. 

 Truly, it takes all sorts of people to make a world. 

 As the book has been entirely rewritten, those who 

 have Quinby's former editions will need this all the 

 same. I think it should be found in every bee-keep- 

 er's library. We can mail them for $1.50. 

 -^ ■• ■ » 



In Nellis' price list of supplies, which, by the way, 

 I think it will pay you all to have, if you have got 

 room left in your heads for so much bee literature, 

 I notice he has made a little addition to my cup of 

 melted wax over a lamp, as given in our price list, 

 for fastening in fdn. The addition is a simple little 

 strip of wood, say one of the section pieces, pressed 

 into the cup so as to come just a little below the 

 surface of the wax. Now dip your strip of fdn., in 

 the melted wax until it touches this strip, and it is 

 just right to press against the top bar of the section. 

 To make it hold the fdn. still more firmly, use 2 

 parts rosin and one part melted wax, in your cup, 

 and you may throw a section on the floor without 

 loosening the fdn. By this plan, one girl will put in 

 starters as fast as 3 or 4 can put the boxes together. 

 Have your cup set in a hole in the table, and the 

 lamp under the table, and you can do them like 

 "smoke." We now put all of ours together in this 

 manner. No top pieces are split, and you do not 

 need a saw cut in it, unless you choose. 



