18S0 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



69 



any harm in this way. It may be that some 

 of the new comers do not know how to get 

 their bees started on flour or meal. 



HOW TO START BEES TO WORKING ON TIIE 

 MEAL. 



Any day when the bees are flying, before 

 they get natural pollen, make a" small heap 

 of meal in some sunny spot, out of the wind. 

 To get their attention, start them on a piece 

 of honey comb or candy, and when they get 

 to working on it briskly, set it, bees and all, 

 on the top of the heap of meal. The heap 

 may be corn meal, middlings, wheat or rye 

 flour, buckwheat Hour, or almost anything 

 in the shape of ground grain. The bees will 

 soon forget the honey, and begin hovering 

 over the meal, and, every pleasant day after 

 that, they will carry meal to your perfect 

 satisfaction, if you keep it in readiness for 

 them. I have never yet found any bees, 

 which I could not teach, in a couple of 

 hours, to carry it. Have the meal in some 

 large, shallow boxes, so you can easily pro- 

 tect it from the rains that are apt to come 

 up suddenly, at this time of the year. Bees 

 of all ages work on it. and use it, and it 

 saves their stores quite materially. As it 

 Avill start brood rearing largely, be sure that 

 the cluster is well protected against any sud- 

 den freeze that may come. 



THE SIMPSON AND THE SPIDER PLANT. 



RAISING PLANTS FOR SPRING PLANTING. 



fHE amount of correspondence in regard 

 to these, and the call for seeds, indicate 

 - that they will have a thorough trial, by 

 a great number of individuals, and in very 

 diverse localities. I am really afraid some 

 of the friends are going into it too largely ; 

 or rather. I am afraid they have not the nec- 

 essary skill and knowledge, and will have 

 "bad luck." There is no harm at all in buy- 

 ing a 5c package and seeing what you can 

 do, but I would not advise you to try to 

 raise plants for sale, unless you are used to 

 the business of plant raising. I copy the 

 following from a seed catalogue giving the 

 prices on cabbage and tomato plants, and I 

 think our honey plants should be furnished 

 at about the same figures: 



Greenhouse and hot-bed garden plants as usually 

 grown, have luit few roots, are Tender, spindling, and 

 unused to outdoor weather. The shock of trans- 

 planting either kills or puts them back for days and 

 weeks, so that seed sown in the open air often sur- 

 passes them, both in earliness and yield. Mine are 

 transplanted from one to three times, making them 

 very stout, with an abundance of roots, which are 

 ihe'lite of the plant. Before shipping, all pltntsare 

 carefully hardened off to endure the ordinary out- 

 door weather without injury. 



PRICE LIST. 



Plants "By Mail" are sent post-paid, at prices 



quoted. " P>y Express" are sent at buyer's expense. 



By Matt. By Ex lives*. 



i >()/.. 100. 

 % .16 .75 

 .25 1.60 



100. 1000. 



.50 4.00 



1.25 7.50 



Early Cabbage. 



Tomato. 

 *In cans, by express only, 



tiOo. perdoz. 4-00 30.00 



•Tomato plants "in cans" are shipped and trans- 

 planted to the Held without disturbing the roots in 

 the least. They will not stop growing a day, and 

 will produce ripe fruit two or three weeks earlier 

 than ordinary plants. Our first ripe tomatoes were 

 picked July Uth, of Canada Victors. 



There, if T could furnish such plants as 

 described above, at the prices given. I 

 should like very much to sell them ; but I 

 am afraid I shall not be able to do it. The 

 tin can idea. T have tried, and know that it 

 is an excellent one; but I presume some lit- 

 tle wooden boxes, such as could be made by 

 dividing a section box into 4 apartments, 

 would answer as well as tin cans. Three of 

 these would hold a dozen plants, in very 

 convenient shape to ship bv express. Last 

 fall. I sent to three different dealers for some 

 potted strawberry plants. One lot came in 

 a soap box ; another in a box made purpose- 

 ly to hold a certain quantity, and was quite 

 an improvement over the first; the third 

 came from an establishment in Michigan, 

 and were put into a new. tasty, little basket, 

 and every leaf was perfect, and of such a 

 bright, thrifty look, that almost every one 

 uttered an exclamation of praise, the min- 

 ute their eve caught a view of the package. 

 As I held the basket up and turned it 

 around. I actually felt it was almost 

 worth the fiftv cents fall I paid the man), to 

 have just that look at it. I do so like to see 

 goods put up nicely. I planted those West- 

 ern-Chief strawberries on the best place in 

 my creek-bottom garden, and they kept 

 growing without the wilting of a leaf. They 

 were so pretty, it was just fun to take care 

 of them. They are pretty even now in the 

 middle of January, whenever I lift up the 

 mulching that covers them. Well, the mor- 

 al of all this is. we want to take care of the 

 honey plants in just this way, if we are to 

 get large yields of honey. 



^ m ^ 



EIGHT OR TEN FRAME HIVES. 



; F you were to us q the g-enmne L. hive, and were 

 not going to use any division board, either in 

 summer or winter, or use the extractor,— in fact, 

 if you were not going to disturb the brood chamber 

 verr much anyway, and, for surplus comb-honey put 

 section boxes on the top of the frames, would you 

 prefer 8 or 10 L. frames in the brood chamber? I 

 was thinking which would be better, to use 8 frame 

 hives instead of 10 frame, or to remove the two out- 

 side, L. frames, and In their pl*ce put 2 chaff division 

 boards. Let me know your opinion. 

 Lansings - le, N. Y., Jan. 18, '80 D. W. Fletcher. 



If I were sure I should not want division 

 boards or surplus sections in the lowpr story 

 at all. I do not know but I should use '8 

 frames only. 1 have often thought of a 

 chaff hive, vrith only 8 frames below. One 

 objection is that a strong colony would be 

 in much greater danger of starving; for 

 these outside frames usually are filled with 

 honey, and form a sort of reserve store, in 

 case the colony should, by any chance, run 

 short unexpectedly. Another objection is 

 that, if 8 frame hives were made single story 

 like the Simplicity, thev could not be used 

 interchangeably with the ordinary 10 frame 

 hives. We have now a lot of 8 frame hives, 

 verv nicely made, that are piled up with the 

 refuse hives, just because they can not be 

 used with the others. I would not invest 

 verv largely, at first, friend F.. in any thing 

 out of the regular, beaten patu. 



