432 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



HONEY PLANTS NOT INJURED BY FROST. 



Oct. 25th.— We have had a pretty severe 

 frost, and its effect on the honey plants is 

 as follows: Mignonnette is not injured at 

 all, but the bees were just as busy on it 

 after the sun came out, as they were the 

 day before. The spider plant does not seem 

 to be perceptibly injured, but it has yielded 

 no honey since the frost ; as it keeps on 

 blossoming, I presume it will yield honey 

 again when the nights are warm enough. 

 Seven top turnip seems to look all the better 

 for the frost, except where the plants are 

 just up some of them seem to be injured. 

 Eape stands frost as well as the turnip. 

 Borage is affected little, if any. The bal- 

 sams and touch-me-not are "dead as a door 

 nail." Simpson honey plants are not in- 

 jured at all, and when a plant can be found 

 yet in bloom, the cups are full of honey as 

 before the frost, and it can be kept back, so 

 as to bloom very late. The Simpson, so far, 

 all things considered, stands ahead of all 

 others, with us; but I have had reports 

 from localities, where bees are never seen 

 on it, nothing but flies and wasps. 



Three other plants Erysium. Cacalia, and 

 Phacelia. reared from seeds obtained from 

 Nellis, seem to promise well, but give no 

 such yields as the spider plant and Simpson. 



THE CHEAP CANDY FOR BROOD REARING. 



A colony fed on the new grape-sugar can- 

 dy has hatched out quite a colony of bees 

 all right, and I cannot see but that sugar 

 and hour diet produces just as fine and 

 healthy bees as the natural honey and pol- 

 len. How many lbs. of candy will it take 

 to make a lb. of bees? Who will tell? 



m i * i * ■ 



SPEAK GENTLY. 



fjHERE is an excellent moral in the fol- 

 lowing, which I think you will see, if 

 -*• ' you read it through. 



I. sent you an order, Aug. 15th, 1879, containing 

 $6.56; for the small circular saw mandrel, $5.00; 

 Simonds 6in. saw, $1.15; setting and sharpening, 30c; 

 and 5 inch file for the same, 20c. 



I think it is unkind in you to delay filling the or- 

 der, not even letting me know that you received it. 

 I suppose you will blame your clerks, but that 

 doesn't make me good; I have been daily expecting 

 it at the express office, but not even a letter comes. 

 I forgot in the order to state that I wanted a rip saw. 



Reese Powell. 



Mineral Point, Wis., Sept, 24, 1879. 



Now, although I scold the clerks "often 

 and well" as many of them will tell you, 

 when any body else finds fault with them it 

 touches me perhaps more than if they found 

 fault with myself ; and so I directed the fol- 

 lowing to be written our customer: 



"Are you not a little unkind, friend P., in 

 being so positive that either myself or clerks 

 must be at fault V 



No such order as you describe has ever 

 come to us, but so positive are you that we 

 have received it, that you do not even state 

 whether it was a P. O. order, registered let- 

 ter, or check which you sent, and thus en- 

 able us to recover it. You surely did not 

 put such an amount of currency in an un- 



registered letter, did you ? See Oct. No. of 

 Gleanings. The goods are ready to ship 

 at a moment's notice, when you tell us how 

 to recover the money." 

 And here is the reply : 



Yours of the 1st inst. is at hand, and contents 

 noted. I am sorry for speaking so about s r ou and 

 your clerks. I thought (without doubt) you had re- 

 ceived the order and money, and it was delayed with 

 you on account of being busy. I was angry because 

 you did not send me a postal that you had received 

 the money, which you did not do for the reason that 

 you had not received the money. 



It was sent in a letter, not registered, as you re- 

 commend in your catalogue. I am very sorry for it 

 now. I did not have 10c. to have it registered. I 

 had hard work to have money enough to fill the or- 

 der, as I am nothing but a boy, 13 years of age. The 

 money I had was what I had saved by selling honey 

 from a few swarms. 



Is there any way of recovering the money and 

 letter. Reese Powell. 



Oct, 13, 1879. 



As I read the above, I thought, 

 "Why, bless your heart, my young friend, 

 I never dreamed from your letter that it was 

 only a boy I was dealing with, or I should 

 not have censured you as I did. I beg your 

 pardon, and hereafter when I think any of 

 our correspondents are inconsiderate, I will 

 try to remember that perhaps he is only a 

 boy, 13 years old, and not be too severe. I 

 wonder what that other boy that I saw be- 

 hind the iron bars would say, had I told him 

 this story. It is really too bad, friend P. , and 

 you shall have the saws and arbor this min- 

 ute ; and you may pay me 1 of the price 

 whenever you get it, even if it is not until 

 you get another crop of honey. I was a boy 

 13 years old myself once." 

 I know of no way of recovering the letter. 



SUCCESSFUL SHIPMENT OF IMPORTED QUEENS. 



On the 6th of Oct., we received from Italy 52 

 queens, and 50 of them were alive. Only one was 

 lost in introducing. The shipper, at present, does 

 not wish his name given. As we go to press, we 

 have just received notice of 31 on the way, so that 

 we shall probably be able to fill orders, this fall, and 

 I hope next spring. 



An item headed "Managing Bees by Electricity" 

 is now going the rounds of the newspapers. The 

 whole thing is a simple absurdity, and the writer 

 seems devoid of any knowledge of either electricity 

 or bees. No body wants his bees stupefied, even if 

 electricity would do it, and yet allow them to come 

 to life again. A good shock of electricity might do 

 good to the man who first drags such falsehoods in- 

 to print; if he shouldn't "revive" he certainly 

 would never tell any more. 



OBITUARY. 



Our friend, Wm. H. Kirk, whose communications 

 have appeared all through our back volumes, has 

 departed this life, after a short sickness of but a 

 week, as we learn from the Bee Keeper's Exchange. 

 His memory will long be treasured fondly, by more 

 than one of the readers of Gleanings. 



