276 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



waited until they were dying, before he 

 went to look at them. I will tell you what 

 to do; get up and give yourself a good sha- 

 king, and then, after this, fix yonr bees with 

 a great plenty of stores for winter, a great 

 deal more than they need in fact, and root 

 out your besetting sin of procrastination, 

 just as the old deacon did (see page 184, 

 April No.,) with his hams. 



Friend Runt : — I have beeu in the ABC class a 

 little over a year, and though I have kept silent on a 

 back seat, T have not been idle, I assure you. How 

 could I be, with Gleanings for a companion? In 

 our Grange we sing, — 



"Have a work that is worthy, thy life to employ; 

 And oh! above all things, on this side the sod. 

 Have peaf*e with thy conscience, and peace with thy 

 God." 



I have often thought that the above expressed 

 your condition of mind or you could never survive 

 the torrents hurled upon you by the growlers and 

 fault-finders. 



THISTLES NOT DANGEROUS WEEDS. 



We have a rank-growing thistle here in western 

 Iowa that blooms profusely until long after frosts. 

 1 do not know whether it is the one under dispute or 

 not; but it is a very harmless weed with us. Dur- 

 ing the war, a number of farms here were not tilled, 

 and the thistle took possession. One farm in par- 

 ticular (my brother-in-law's), lying in the creek val- 

 ley, grew thistles to 8 feet high, and so thick you 

 would walk a mile further round, rather than ven- 

 ture through. They ripened and stood over wiuter, 

 were harrowed down, plowed under, and never 

 gave any more trouble than other weeds. I will 

 send you some thistle blossoms as soon as they 

 come out. They will keep fresh a long time after 

 being cut. 



This winter past was very hard on bees, owing to 

 a scarcity of good honey; but bees are now building 

 up very fast. M. M Fay. 



Council Bluffs, Iowa, May 6, 1880. 



I strive for the condition of mind your 

 beautiful little verse describes, friend F., 

 but I do not always keep it. — Do not be too 

 severe on the ''growlers;" some of them 

 are my very best friends, and I trust they all 

 will prove friends eventually.— The thistles 

 we have here behave about as those you de- 

 scribe. Send a leaf and Mower to Prof. 

 Beal, and we shall then know more about it. 



BRICK CANDY OUTDONE. 



Excuse the assertion, friend Root, from an ABC 

 scholar, but we find a serious objection to laying 

 those bricks on top of frames; it necessarily raises 

 the quilt out of place, which draws it from the edge, 

 lotting the cold air down into the hive. Take the 

 common brood frame, nail a thin board on one side, 

 then pour in your candy; let it harden, and you 

 have feed and division board, all in one; and they 

 will not only eat it, but get so fat on it that they 

 will pull off their coats, and hang them up in the 

 same frame, in the shape of comb, as some of ours 

 have done. 



MAKING GRAPE SUGAR CANDY. 



Friend Maring seems to be in trouble. It is said 

 that an ounce of experience is worth a pound of 

 theory, and sol found it in making the candy. If 

 the grape sugar is barely heated, just liquified and 

 no more, it takes but a short time to harden; but, If 



it becomes very hot, no matter if you do set it away 

 to cool before stirring in the flour and then the 

 sugar, it will be several days before it is hard. By 

 the way, you have stolen my plan of moiling it (in 

 or over hot water). I think you said it must not be 

 scorched, so I put the sugar in a pan, over a pot of 

 boiling water, keeping it stirred so that none of it 

 gets too hot, and it is all right. 



THE SIMPSON AND SPIDER PLANTS. 



How are your spider plants? It appears to be a 

 hard task to get them to "hurry up." I have about 

 one hundred Simpson plants growing, that we found 

 in the timber not far from here. Please state 

 through Gleanings how the spider progresses,— 

 the ups and downs of it— lhat we all may know 

 whether it is "too much sugar for a cent." 



Mollie O. Large. 



Millersville, Christian Co., 111., May 1, 1880. 



I have given both plans you mention, 

 friend Alollie, and the one you seem to pre- 

 fer is the one I gave first. I suggested the 

 brick, because the bees would eat it all up ; 

 whereas, with the whole frame, they left it 

 in the corners. We prevented the cold 

 draft, by the loose chaff I have often told 

 about.— Thanks for the suggestions in re- 

 gard to making the grape sugar candy, you 

 see, this is one of those points in which a 

 woman is right at home, and knows just 

 how to do it.— Our spider plants are now 

 growing finely, but we had quite a time in 

 getting them to grow at first ; they will be 

 ready to plant out in a week. We have 

 nearly an acre of the Simpson's growing 

 finely, and some of them are fully knee high. 

 AVe are going to try to have an acre of the 

 spider plants also. 



THE CALL, FOR QUEENS, AND CUSTOMERS 

 WHO INSIST ON BEING SERVED FIRST. 



We have beeu asking some of our friends 

 to help us supply the demand for dollar 

 queens, and here is what friend II. says: 



If I had them I would ship to you queens but have 

 been, like all the rest I suppose, crowded by the 

 brethren. I had an idea it would be so when the 

 mails were thrown open. Like the old turkey hen 

 who sat on 13 eggs, I have been spreading myself, 

 but haven't spread enough yet. I wish the breth- 

 ren wouldn't get into a fidget all at one time. I oc- 

 casionally get a letter ordering a queen, with the 

 request to send by r return mail the queen or the 

 money. Well, you know how hard it is to part with 



a few dollars in one's pocket. 



W. P. Henderson. 



Murfrecsboro, Tenn., May 7, 18S0. 



Thank you for the illustration; it really is 

 impossible to meet all of these sudden de- 

 mands, and I, too, hope the brethren will be 

 as patient at such times as they can. If 

 those who send an order see fit to direct that 

 the money or the queen be sent back by re- 

 turn rnaii, they have a perfect right so to do ; 

 but it is a little severe, and one is strongly 

 tempted, for just this once, to give such or- 

 ders the preference, and let those who are 

 patient and really entitled to the queens 

 wait. This should not be; the money 

 should be returned at once, and the appli- 

 cant informed that all orders are filled 

 strictly in rotation. 



