1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



41o 



JUST BEFOEE GOING TO PRESS. 



LThe contents of this department are supposed to 

 be given in an informal way, just before the last 

 form is placed in the press. You can imagine my- 

 self, hut in one hand (said hat being covered with 

 sawdust, honey, bees wax, printers ink, etc.), and 

 the other hand on the door knob, just ready to bid 

 you good day until next month, giving you a sum- 

 mary of the last items of interest in the way of new 

 discoveries, etc. The press man will probably cut 

 my talk suddenly short, by telling me he cannot 

 possibly squeeze in another single word, saying noth- 

 ing about line or lines.] 



fjjIIE following is from the Cleveland 

 _ , Evening Nt ids, of Sept, 29th: 



ANOTHER CAPTURE. 



CAPTAIN HENRY AND ASSISTANTS LAY HOLD OP AN- 

 OTHER DISHONEST POSTAL CLERK— JOSEPH E. 

 WARNER THEUNFORTUNATE. 



For a long time there have been complaints about 

 letters containing money being rifled in the mails 

 passing over several roads from this city. Months 

 ago Captain C. E. Henry, of the Postal Detective 

 Service and assistants took hold of this matter, and 

 after a great deal of labor and trouble succeeded in 

 locating the losses in the Grafton post office. Sev- 

 eral tests were put in operation there, and after 

 much waiting and meditation suspicions were fixed 

 upon Joseph F. Warner, a clerk in that office. To 

 test the young man eight letters were deposited in 

 the mails Sunday which would pass through Grafton 

 during that day and evening and early Monday 

 morning. Soon after these letters had been handled 

 they were called for by Captain Henry, when it was 

 discovered they had been opened and the money 

 placed in each one taken. As Warner was the only 

 one who had had a chance to handle them he was 

 cornered and accused. At first he denied any 

 knowledge of the transaction but soon confessed. 

 He says he had taken about $75. and began opera- 

 tions in June last. 



Monday forenoon Captain Henry arrived in the 

 city with Warner, who was taken before United 

 States Commissioner White, when he waived an ex- 

 amination and was bound over in the sum of f 1,000. 



Warner is a single man and about twenty-three 

 years old. He has been employed in the Grafton 

 office for about one year, and says he has been 

 boarding himself on $1.25 per week. He has earned 

 $1 per day by working in the post office and a Graf- 

 ton flouring mill. 



Two of the heaviest losers are A. I. Root, of Medi- 

 na, Ohio, a Pee dealer, and J. R. Holcomb, of Mallet 

 Creek Telephone Manufactory. Sunday's letters 

 were addressed to these gentlemen. 



Warner has written a letter to Mr. Root, of which 

 the following is a copy: 



Grafton, <>., September 28th, 1879. 

 A. I. Root; 



I h <tr Sir: —I must write to you and confess to you 

 that I have done wrong anil ask your forgiveness. I 



will try and do all 1 can to mend the wrong I have 

 done to you. 1 am willing to pay you all I have ta- 

 ken from you; I was placed under such temptation 

 that I let the evil one rule over me, but it is too 

 late. 1 can not recall what I have done, if I could, 

 1 would with all my heart. In an evil moment I was 

 tempted to take your property that belonged to you, 

 but God knows, i repent with all my heart. I plead 

 you to come and sec me, and deal leniently if you 

 can. I am ready to make amends in any way you 



want me to, and I want to lead a Christian life. I 

 will do anything for you you may ask me to; only 

 spare me the disgrace of undergoing the punish- 

 ment of the law. 1 beg and entreat you to save me; 

 you have me in your power; do with me what you 

 think best and 1 will bear it patiently and I will pay 

 you all 1 have taken from you, and I beg of you to 

 come and see me in Cleveland. With this I remain 

 at your hands, Joseph F. Warner. 



ALKJHTING BUSHES. 



ONE of the minor points, on which information 

 ) should be furnished in a bee-keepers' hand- 

 book, is what trees or shrubs to plant for 

 swarms to alight on, when an apiary is started on a 

 plot of ground which is clear or nearly so. What 

 sort of a plan would it be for the class to send up 

 their experience and have it boiled down for the 

 ABC? 



Lofty trees, which bees have a liking for, are a 

 serious nuisance. One very tall and particularly 

 prangly and inaccessible apple tree has been a de- 

 cided "thorn in the flesh" to the writer. On the 

 other hand, the incipient bee-man may indulge in 

 needless fears about tall trees that are never likely 

 to do him any harm. My father, when locating his 

 first bees, twenty odd years ago, thought ruefully of 

 his row of tall maples so near where it seemed 

 necessary to set his hives. Yet, of all the multitude 

 of swarms that have issued since, only two or three 

 have ever chosen the maple trees. The apiary has 

 been in three or four different spats since it was 

 begun, so many years ago; and, as there is the 

 usual variety of trees and shrubs scattered about 

 the premises, my chance to observe the preference 

 of bees in lighting has been a very favorable one. 

 At present, one would say that a certain row of 

 young chestnut trees was the best alighting ground. 

 In point of fact, almost every swarm that moves off 

 in that direction passes over them and chooses 

 something beyond. Just one swarm, if I mistake 

 not, is all that has yet settled upon them. On the 

 opposite side of the apiary, still nearer to the hives 

 than the chestnuts are, stand some little plum trees 

 and a snowball bush. On these, the bees light free- 

 ly, very rarely going over them to anything beyond. 

 The snowball especially is a surprising bee catcher. 

 There used to be two of these bushes. Both bore 

 the same character. During all the years that the 

 hives have stood near them they have caught a large 

 percentage of all the swarms issuing. To keep 

 swarms from going to distant and difficult trees, the 

 snowball would seem to be preeminently the bush 

 to plant, if it was only healthy and easily raised. It 

 was a healthy shrub twenty years ago, but, of late, 

 aphides infest it so that young slips make but little 

 growth, and old bushes barely hold their own from 

 year to year. Of the trees that are readily obtained 

 and easily grown, perhaps the old-fashioned sour 

 cherry is the most suitable for the purpose. Can 

 any one name; a plant which is equally or more ac- 

 ceptable to the bees which has the additional ad- 

 vantage of not growing quite so tall as the cherry? 

 The most remarkable example of avoidance seems 

 to be the way the bees treat the lilac bushes. We 

 have plenty of big ones, favorably located, but, 

 with rarely if ever an exception, ' swarms avoid 

 them utterly. I should be pleased to learn whether 

 this is the case elsewhere. 



The location of the different trees in the five 

 classes given below is not made as a finality, but 

 •• ju>t to start the thing." Bees are so "puris," and 

 circumstances are so queer, that it would be strange 

 if experiences elsewhere should not differ point 

 blank concerning some of these trees. Many other 



