1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



315 



and yet these are very serious drawbacks to the 

 farmer in many sections of country. I believe the 

 greater part of noxious weeds propagate themselves 

 by seed instead of by root; the parent dying as soon 

 as the seeds are matured. Being hard to transplant 

 does not prove them easily subdued. 



The potatoe bug is an easy fellow to eatch, and if 

 you crush him or drop him in boiling water, he is 

 dead; and yet the combined efforts of an offended 

 and injured nation appear to have but littte effect 

 upon his numbers. The difficulty consists in hU 

 great power of reproduction. So with most noxious 

 weeds; their power of producing an immense quan- 

 tity of seeds is what makes the difficulty. Thistle 

 seeds are to be feared in particular, for they take 

 wing- and Jly— who knows where? Blue thistle and 

 Canada thistle, being unlike in habits, may require 

 different treatment which would aggravate the 

 difficulty. Please give this an insertion in Glean- 

 ings and oblige— S. T. Pettet. 



Belmont, Ont,, Can., June 10, 1883. 



P. S.— Since writing the above, I have received, 

 from 111., a letter containing one dollar with the re- 

 quest to send the writer a half dozen Canada thistle 

 plants. This proves what T said in a former com- 

 munication, that some will cultivate thistles re- 

 gardless of the consequences. No sir; I will not 

 send them. Money is no inducement to intfict such 

 a calamity upon any community. S. T. P. 



Many thanks, my good friend P. I have 

 never had a doubt but that all you have said 

 was said in the kindest and most friendly 

 spirit, but, for all that, I think you carry 

 your point almost too far. You know there 

 are extremes in almost every thing. I once 

 heard of an old lady who refused to ride on 

 the cars, on account of the accidents that 

 happen. Some of my friends censured me 

 most severely because I would fuss and ex- 

 periment with grape sugar, when they knew 

 I would certainly ruin the honey business if 

 I did not stop. The honey business is not 

 ruined, and grape sugar has proved a great 

 boon, as you will see by the reports, espe- 

 cially the one from friend Hutchinson in 

 this number. As you state it, even buck- 

 wheat is a bad weed, and perhaps it is the 

 worst one on our honey farm ; but, instead 

 of letting it grow where it wants to, we only 

 let it grow where we want it. liag weed 

 was in great plenty on our land at first, but 

 I do not believe visitors find any of it now. 

 I do not wish to send out the seed of rag 

 weeds, and I have therefore bought an ex- 

 pensive fanning mill just to fan the seeds 

 out ; but, at the same time, I think it is a 

 disgrace to any farmer to have it on his land, 

 or even on his road sides. Keep it off as 

 you would keep the moth out of your hives. 

 Have all of the space occupied with some- 

 thing useful. We had a dozen blue thistle 

 plants in our garden, but they all died in 

 spite of all we could do. Mr. Faris said 

 blue thistle was plenty in his neighborhood, 

 but that it never grew only where the land 

 was neglected, and that he never heard of 

 its being considered a troublesome weed. I 

 think I would ask my friend what he want- 

 ed with Canada thistles before positively re- 

 fusing to send them to him. Canada this- 

 tle was growing in small patches in some 

 parts of Medina Co., more than 30 years age, 



but it has been been kept in check, so there 

 is now no more than there was then, if as 

 much. Some farmers will have weedy farms 

 anyway, and seem to take great comfort in 

 laying the blame all on the enterprising 

 weeds that can not be killed out, while oth- 

 ers will not have weedy farms, no matter if 

 Canada thistles are on every side of them. 



OUR OWN APIAKY, HONEY FARM, AND 

 FACTORY. 



EARLY AND LATE SIMPSON HONEY PLANTS. 



g|TILL the Simpson plants are growing, 

 £jy and to-day, June fith. they are nearly 

 as high as my head. Under the influ- 

 ence of the cultivator run both ways through 

 them, they are making an astonishing mass 

 of luxuriant foliage. The great, oroad, 

 green leaves have that bright, fresh, green 

 tint that indicates a strong growth, and 

 makes one almost involuntarily ask what will 

 be the result of these, when in bloom, com- 

 pared to what a few feeble plants did last 

 year. I am looking at, and thinking of, them 

 so much, I am almost afraid some great 

 wind or something else will destroy them 

 all. You may remember that friend Irish 

 has spoken of an early variety. I had some- 

 how got an idea that it was the same plant 

 that had accidentally bloomed a little earli- 

 er; behold, to-day I found one among the 

 lot he sent me that had suddenly shot forth 

 a flower stalk, and was ready to blossom, 

 though scarcely a foot high, while ours 

 showed no signs of buds. 



8th. — The small Simpson plant is in bloom, 

 and, sure enough, the tiny pitcher-shaped 

 ball is full of nectar, as they were last year. 

 The flowers seem to be full as large, and in 

 every way like, those of the large plant. No 

 bees are seen near them now, for the white 

 clover takes all of them. 



15EES BY THE POUND. 



The demand for bees by the pound, with 

 queens, has been so great that our apiary is 

 depopulated just about as fast as we can re- 

 plenish it by buying bees from neighbor 

 Kice. Neighbor H. says it don't pay to sell 

 young Italians for $1.25 per lb., for it spoils 

 his whole apiary for queens, honey, or any- 

 thing else. I tell him that if the apiary is 

 spoiled, the money for it is in his pocket, 

 and that it is about as good a way to convert 

 bees into cash as I know of ; I bought one 

 new swarm last July, that weighed 7 lbs. 



I did not know you were going to want so 

 many pounds and half pounds of bees with 

 your queens, or I should have been better 

 prepared for the seige. However, I believe 

 we have filled all orders for bees and queens, 

 pretty promptly. Queens now come in by 

 every mail and express, often in lots of a 

 dozen or two at a time ; but the mails each 

 day take nearly every one, as fast as we get 

 them. The bottle cage described last month 

 is working beautifully now. There is some- 

 thing exhilirating in seeing so much busi- 

 ness moving forward simply at one's com- 

 mand, but I tell you the weight of care is 

 fearful, when things get tangled as they 

 once in a while do. There are about a hun- 

 dred now in my employ, besides a good 



