18S0 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



ft 



good day in basswood. The swarm on the scales 

 gaiued W/% lb. that day. It reached 13% lb. In white 

 clover. 1 took 6000 lb. surplus, all extracted except 

 300 lb., and hud to feed back, in the fail, 1 00 lb. to 

 make them good tor winter. I superseded about 

 half of my queens, and put into the cellar, last fall, 

 108 stocks. 



HOW TO MAKE FULL SHEETS OP FOUNDATION WITH 

 A LITTLE WAX. 



I have one of your 9in. fdn. machines, and it works 

 well. 1 discovered a little simple thing which is of 

 use to me, and may also be to some other one-horse 

 fdn.-maker like myself. To work small lots of wax, 

 or to work all your wax up at the end of the season, 

 pour water into your dipping tank until your wax is 

 high enough, or fill up with water till your wax is all 

 dipped out. C. Kendig. 



Muperville, 111., Jan. 12, 1880. 



THE RED RASPBERRY AS A HONEY PLANT. 



In looking over your price list, I see mentioned in 

 the list of honey plants, "red raspberries, 75c. per 

 doz., or $3.00 per hundred.'' Now, I desire to say to 

 you that I have cultivated raspberries for years, 

 and have it in my power, if I live, to furnish large 

 quantities of the red. 1 would be very glad to send 

 you one, two, live, or ten thousand ot them, as soon 

 as spring opens. Now, if you can manage to find 

 me a market I would be very thankful, and consid- 

 er it a real Godsend to me, as nn.ch as your aid is 

 to those young men whom you have helped somueh. 

 I will ship them in quantities, for $1 U0 per hun- 

 dred, or even less. Will you aid me in this? 



B. Cogswell. 



Silvara, Pa., Jan. 12, 1880. 



As a general thing, I do not believe in giv- 

 ing tree advertisements, but friend C's. of- 

 fer is so extremely liberal, that giving the 

 letter, I think, will be a favor not only to 

 him but also to the friends who want to try 

 the raspberries. 



FROM AN A B C SCHOLAR. 



I am one of your ABC scholars. I believe, after 

 all, 1 am a little too fast in saying that, for I gave 

 one of N. C. Mitchell's agents $5.00 to get my "cj/es 

 opened" in ihe"bee beesine^s," and an individual 

 right to use his patented adjustable hive. I used a 

 few of the hives two years, and got enough of them. 



1 commenced keeping bees in the spring of 1-.77, 

 and have increased and bought until now I have 52 

 colonies. During the winter of '77 and '78, I lost 

 none; but last winter I lost 7 out of 47. I was Ital- 

 ianizing in August, and kept some of my stocks 

 queenless too long, and they got too wenk. Last 

 summer, from the 40 I had left, I increased 15, and 

 got about 200 lb. of honey. 1 have all my hives sit- 

 ting on blocks, only 3 to 6 in. from the ground, and 

 leave tbem on summer stands all winter. My hives 

 are all double walled, and two stories high, except 9. 

 I fill the vacant space in the double hives with fine 

 planings and sawdust, and, in the winter, I put a 

 cushion in the upper story, large enough to fill it up. 



LEAVES VERSUS CHAFF. 



I make cushions out of carpet wrappers (some- 

 thing similar to coffee sacks, only they are larger 

 and cheaper; I get them for 75 c. per doz.), and till 

 them with leaves that I rake together in the woods, 

 in the fall. I think leaves are the lightest, cleanest, 

 cheapest, and best thing I can get for filling cush- 

 ions By the way, there is nothing better for put- 

 ting away sweet potatoes to keep them over winter 

 for seed. I suppose you have noticed that the 

 ground never freezes in the woods, where it is cov- 

 ered a few inches with leaves. 



I have tried oil-cloth (enameled cloth you may call 

 it) for covering over frames, and am done with it. I 

 have opened hives when it was very cold, and found 

 the lower side of the cloth all covered with ice. It 

 is entirely too close; we want something more por- 

 ous. I like your wood mats very much, but think 

 they would be better if you would use flue copper 

 wire (telephone wire) instead of twine. My bees 

 have eaten some of the twine in two all ready. 



John M. GlLMORE. 



Wilmot, Stark Co., O , Jan. 19, 1880. 



I presume leaves will answer just as well 

 as chaff, if you find it handier to get them. 

 It seems to me that copper wire will be more 



expensive, but I may be mistaken. Will it 

 be pliable, so as to allow the mat to lie down 

 flat as the twine does V I have never known 

 the bees to bite off the twine. 



A WORD IN DKFENSE OF FRIEND ALLEY. 



Brother Root:— There is so much said about friend 

 Alley of late, that I feel like saying something in 

 his defense. I have been dealing with him for about 

 10 years, and have had over 25 queens from him, and 

 I cannot recollect that I ever had but one that 

 raised hybrid woikers. In 1S76, I had 15 queens 

 from hi in; 12 of them were dollar queens, sent in 

 Sept.. on credit. The fall was very dry, and forage 

 scarce, and 1 lost about half of them in introducing. 

 I told him of my losses, but did not ask him to le- 

 place them, as it was not kis fault. It was si me 

 time in Nov. before I got the money for him, and a 

 day or two after I mailed it I received a very friend- 

 ly letter from him. stating that he was short of 

 funds, and that he had sold quite a number of queens 

 on credit, and feared a good many were not goinjf to 

 pay him at all, and that, if I would send the $12 he 

 would send me 3 queens as a present the next July, 

 if I would remind hitr. of it. He did send 3. I got 2 

 of them safely introduced, and raised over 30 queens 

 from them, which were all much lighter colored 

 than their mothers, with one exception, and she was 

 about as light. Those that were purely fertilized 

 have raised about as nice bees as I ever saw. 



O' Fallon, Ills., Jan. 17, 1880. C. T. Smith. 



That is good, friend S., and it really looks 

 as if friend Alley had been too liberal. Now 

 that he is in trouble, friend S., do not you 

 think you should send him the pay for those 

 three queens he gave you extra.'' Cannot we 

 all give him a little lift in the same way, 

 since he is trying so hard to tix things all up 

 satisfactorily 't 



THE DECIMAL SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS, MEASURES, ETC. 



I see in your last Gleanings, under "Useful 

 Articles for a Little Money," that you have discarded 

 dozens and gross, and adopted the decimal system, 

 for which 1 give you great credit, and wish there 

 were more such men as you in our world. If there 

 were, we would not have to spend so much valuable 

 time in learning a lot of useli ss arithmetical tables. 

 1 wish our government s would do awa.\ w ii h all such 

 useless tables, and substitute in iheir stead the dec- 

 imal system. I have been advocating through our 

 public newspapers here, a change in weights; thus: 

 l'l Grains make 1 Scruple 

 10 Scruples " 1 Dram 

 10 Drams " 1 Ounce 



10 Ounces " 1 Pound 

 10 Pounds " 1 Stone 

 10 Stones " 1 Hundred 



10 Hundred?, " 1 Ton 

 Now, Mr. Hoot, how nice it would be to retail hon- 

 ey or other articles by such weights! 10 cents per lb. 

 would just be 1 cent per oz., or 12 cents per lb. 

 would be 12 mills per oz., etc. Some may say it 

 would cost too much to have all the weighing scales 

 changed; but they need not all be changed,— only 

 those under one pound You see I would take the 

 present pound for a standard to begin with. 1 might 

 say a great deal more in lavor of this change, but 

 space in such a paper as yours is very valuable. 

 Newry Station, Out., Can., Jan. 15, '80. It. FokreST. 



Thanks, friend F. Although I see the ad- 

 vantage of the system as much or more than 

 I ever did before, I confess to being pretty 

 nearly scared out of it already. The very 

 goods I mentioned are put up in dozens and 

 gross, and the packing boxes for all are 

 made to hold just 1 or 3 dozen as the case 

 may be, and to attempt to pull them all to 

 pieces to fill a little order was inure work 

 than the profits amounted to. Goods we 

 manufacture could be very well put up in 

 tens and hundreds, and perhaps, in this way, 

 the reform m;iy gradually be brought about. 

 In retailing sections of honey, it is such a 

 bother to figure the odd ounces, lam almost 

 always tempted to throw them in. 



