1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



387 



of years, 9000 lb. of honey annually, which, at S51J4C 

 per lb., would bring him in a yearly income of 

 $1912,50. Although the average yield per colony for 

 the next 7 years to come may be increased, yet the 

 price during that time is likely to be much lower; 

 as the high prices caused by the war are passed, 

 and, unless we have some unforeseen event, to 

 raise the price of honey, it will probably never bring 

 28c per lb. again. Still, with a much lower price for 

 honey than that averaged for the last T years, bee 

 keeping ranks favorably with almost any pursuit. 

 Borodino, N. Y. G. M. Dooi.ittle. 



OUR OWN APIARY AND HONKV FARM. 



A UG. 29th.— I wrote to friend Simpson, 



Jrg^ and asked him how he raised the 



' plants of the Simpson honey plant, 



which he sent me in May. Here is his reply: 



Part of the seed was sowed in the fall, and part in 

 the spring. That sowed in the spring grew the best 

 on account of the ground's being mellow. About 

 ten per cent of the seed grows. The plant will not 

 bloom to amount to anything, the first year. 



The honey crop is a failure since July loth. 

 J as. A. Simpson. 



Alexis, 111., Aug. 26th, 1879. 



Well, if they do not hloom to amount to 

 anything the first season, I would really like 

 to know what we may expect next year. If 

 only ten per cent of the seed grows, I think 

 we would better put it in pretty thickly. 



DO NOT INTRODUCE THE ACCOMPANYING 

 BEES, WHEN YOU INTRODUCE A QUEEN. 



Sept. Qih. — O dear, O dear ! I have just 

 lost one of our very nicest imported queens. 

 I killed her by one of my own blunders. 

 Did you ever do such a thing, my friend, 

 and do you know exactly how a body feels ? 



A strong colony had been deprived of all 

 its queen cells on the 10th day, on purpose 

 to make room for her, and I was going to 

 show a visitor how easy a thing it is to just 

 let such valuable "insex" right out. I let 

 her right out, and the bees gathered round 

 her, fed her, and the introduction was a suc- 

 cess beyond doubt. As I was about to close 

 the hive, I noticed the bees left in the cage ; 

 and, as there were quite a number of them, 

 I thought it would be a humane act to intro- 

 duce them, too, so I shook them out on the 

 top of the frames. Robbers had been buzz- 

 ing about, and I might have known these 

 would be recognized as intruders, but, even 

 when they began to tumble them out at the 

 entrance doubled up in that well known 

 crippled state that denotes being stung, I 

 did not think of their serving the queen in 

 the same way. However, when I saw that 

 they were bent on killing every worker I had 

 let out, it occurred to me, that they might 

 possibly include her in the royal edict, as 

 they were going to do with queen Esther of 

 old, and I hastened to lift out the frame she 

 was on. There she was on the bottom board, 

 stung, probably the last one to die. If this 

 experience will help you to avoid similar 

 mishaps, I will try not to mourn her loss any 

 more. 



jioral— Put the accompanying worker 

 bees in some other hive. 



10th. — I have come to this conclusion in 

 regard to a honey farm : If you want honey, 

 you must have good, rich soil, just as surely 



as you must have good, rich soil for your 

 peaches, strawberries, or any thing else, if 

 you are going to have nice trait, and plenty 

 of it. To this end, I have been having an 

 attack of not only bees on the brain, but 

 t stable manure, underdraining tile, deep 

 plowing, superphosphate, irrigation, &c, 

 and it has borne fruit in the shape of a good 

 deal of hard work on our 18 acre farm. It is 

 our dull season now, and I have been setting 

 the boys at work out of doors, to keep them 

 busy, and I am well convinced that I cannot 

 afford to raise spindling crops, and hire hands 

 to gather them, on land that cost me $200. 

 per acre, as mine did. I have calculated to 

 have the seeds pay the expense of cultivation, 

 and thus leave the honey clear profit, but I 

 have lost the honey, and seeds too, from quite 

 a part of my ground, by having patches here 

 and there, on upland as well as low land, 

 where the water has stood during wet spells ; 

 and this, too, on some of the very richest 

 ground I have. Perhaps you farmers can 

 stand this sort of thing, but I don't believe 

 I can, any more than 1 could stand box bee 

 hives, as so many of the farmers do. The 

 worst places have been already underdrained, 

 and I helped to do it, too ; and, to see how it 

 works, I have planted seven top turnips right 

 where used to be the bottoms of mud holes, 

 and I tell you it just makes me happy to see 

 them grow. Won't we have some banks of 

 yellow blossoms next spring V This turnip 

 is a wonderful thing to grow late in the fall, 

 j and, from my experience, I am inclined to 

 think it is better to sow it in Oct, than in 

 any other month in the year, for, when sown 

 so late, it entirely escapes the pest of the 

 whole turnip family, the little black flea. 

 Boys, if any of you have a mud hole, or a 

 swamp, on your land, just try it, and see 

 what a garden you can make of it. 



At the south end of our land, down in the 

 woods by the pond, the creek wanders here 

 and there, until it spoils about an acre of 

 ground. Well, we have just cut a straight 

 channel right across the ground, and into 

 this channel we carry our underdraining tile. 

 Along the sides we have planted peach trees, 

 , raspberries, and strawberries, on the plan 

 ! given in Ten Acres Enough. As there is 

 ! always water in the channel, we can get up 

 a shower, with the fountain pump, anywhere 

 along the banks, and reaching for some dis- 

 tance back, at any time when the clouds are 

 backward, and with very little trouble. 

 With this patch of ground, which has a nice 

 southern slope, protected by the woods on 

 nearly all sides, 1 propose to see what can be 

 done with underdraining, deep plowing, 

 manuring, and irrigation, toward making 

 honey plants "climb." Right by my type 

 writer, is a paper of seeds of the beet used 

 for making sugar. A few of these are to be 

 planted to-day, and, if I can make them 

 giow large enough yet this fall, in my garden 

 down by the pond, to see if the bees will 

 carry away beet juice as they do grape 

 sugar,— well, we shall see; yes, we shall see. 



OUT DOOR FEEDING WITH A BARREL 

 FEEDER. 



To keep brood rearing going on briskly, 

 we are still feeding grape sugar every after- 

 noon, and, as it takes about 50 lb. a day, to 



