1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTU11E. 



325 



BEE BOTANY AND ENTOMOLOGY. 



bed bud (Gercis c niiUctin'sj. 

 sjIHE t'crcis Canadznsis, although unknown in 

 this part of the state, grows wild in central 

 and southern Ohio. (See catalogue of Ohio 

 plants, in Ohio Agricultural Report for 1850.) J. H. 

 Klippart mentions it, as growing in the Black 

 Swamp. (See Geological Survey of Ohio; Itoport of 

 progress for 18T0, page 3">0 ) N. IT. Wlnchel names 

 it among the forest trees which he observed in Del- 

 aware, Union, and Paulding Counties. (See in Geo- 

 logical Survey of Ohio, Vol. II., part 1st, the reports 

 for the counties named above.) Wood (See "Botan- 

 ist and Florist") locates C. Canadensis in Middle aud 

 Western states; Darlington (See ''American Weeds 

 and Useful Plants"), from Canadi to Louisiana. 

 When a boy, I used to see, on the hilly banks of 

 streams, in Madison Co., O., what I suoposo to have 

 been the red-bud in bloom. II. Evans. 



Le Roy, O. 



Thanks, friend E. If this be the case, 

 there is no reason why we should not have 

 red bud on our honey farm. Who can fur- 

 nish us some young trees V and what is the 

 priceV Our southern friends must not ex- 

 pect to monopolize the red bud trees any 

 longer; that is, after ours get "growed big.' 7 



EDUCATING THE PKOPLK IS IMPROV- 

 ED BEE CULTURE. 



5npjS\ElNG at a bee-keepers' convention at Coshoc- 

 JTUy) ton, a short time since, a new idea was pre- 

 sented to my mind, which shows that the bee- 

 keepers almost universally have been very short 

 sighted in writing all of their bee literature to the 

 journals, and not any to their county papers. At 

 the above mentioned convention, there was present 

 an editor of a count}' paper, who said in the conven- 

 tion that for himself, and he thought such editors 

 generally would agree with him, he was not only 

 willing to give pi ice in the columns of his paper to 

 articles on bee culture, but he was anxious to have 

 them; he really desired them. 



There are a very ltrge number of men whom we 

 may propsrly call farmer bee-keepers, who have 

 from one to a dozen stands of bees, of course in box 

 hives, and who never take and perhaps never see a 

 bee journal, and to go to one of them and persuade 

 him to pay $1.00 for one is just out of the question; 

 so, of course, we cannot reach them through that 

 medium. Then the only possible way is to teach 

 them through their county newspapers, and you 

 will find nearly every one takes one or more of them. 



Hence it becomes self evident that those who wish 

 to awaken a more extended interest in bee culture, 

 must reach these men, and awaken their ideas, 

 through the medium of their county newspapers. 



I do not, by any means, intend by this that we 

 shall neglect or forsake our regular bee journals. 

 They must be kept up with a bountiful supply of 

 wholesome matter; but, at the same time, should 

 we not divide up a little, and enlighten our farmer 

 bee-keepers on the subject? Then I think we will 

 soon see a large increase in the subscription lists of 

 our journals. Bee writers, wake up and try it. 



A DAY AMONG FABMEB BEE-KEEI'EBS. 



One day last week, I took a horse and buggy and 

 spent the day among farmer bee-keepers, and I must 



say that if I did not teach them anything, I really 

 learned something myself. Not one in a dozen took 

 a bee journal. All had box hives. I found one who 

 had had some bees transferred a year ago, but they 

 had not done well, and had died. He showed me the 

 hive they had been transferred into. It was out 

 of one box-hive into another box-hive. How "high" 

 is that? I found two who had had quite a lot of box- 

 hives made a year ago. They began to see that the 

 movable comb hive is better, but could not think of 

 throwing their boxes away, and buying others. If 

 they could sell these, they would be glad to get thcir 

 bees into frame hives. They would take a bee jour- 

 nal by and by, but not quite yet. One or two wanted 

 their bees Italianized, but wanted to keep them in 

 their box-hives. One farmer, in particular, whom I 

 have been urging for the last year to take a bee 

 journal, has 13 stands of boos, but cannot afford a 

 journal yet; he takes 3 or :i farm and stock journals, 

 and several papers for his family, and children in 

 particul ir. He knows he would derive visef ul knowl- 

 edge from a bee journal but can't afford it yet. Hi 

 irill hy and hy. When I asked him how his bees were 

 doing, he really coul 1 not teM, for he had not looked 

 at them this spring. 



I Anally arrived at the farm of a man, of whom I 

 had often heard, a* one who had made bees pay in 

 box hives. I expected to find one who was fully set 

 in all the old fogyisms, and who would admit of noth- 

 ing as better than the box-hives and sulphur pit; but 

 I found a ■very sociable and agreeable old gentleman 

 of about (50 years. He had never read bee literature 

 for an hour in his life, because he had never had it 

 to read. He was willing and anxious to learn and 

 improve in bee culture. I think he had never seen 

 a movable frame hive until I showed him a sample. 

 He used what is known as the Eddy hive. He asked 

 me if the brood was all lost in transferring. Last 

 fall, he had several stosks that were weak, and oth- 

 ers that were light in stores. So he killed the beos 

 in some, and then turned the hives up and let the 

 others take the honey out. He did not know that 

 two stocks could be united. He stated that he had 

 one stock that produced an overabundance of drones 

 last season, so he went every day to the hive and 

 killed drones until tired, and kept count until he had 

 killed over sixtesn hundred, but could not miss any 

 from the hive. When I told him 1 had just a few 

 days before transferred a stock where I found a 

 large sheet of drone comb right in the center of the 

 hive where the most of the brood is raised, and that 

 the number of drones can be controlled by cutting 

 out drone comb, he began to think that it is never loo 

 late to learn. Well, I had a very pleasant chat with 

 him, for two hours, and when I left his son rode 

 with me a couple of miles, and he, as well as the old 

 gentleman, said they had always had good success 

 with their bees. The son said they had purchased 

 all of their household supplies with honey and wax 

 for the past five years. At one time he knew his 

 mother to trade $70.00 at once and pay for the whole 

 with honey. He said they had a farm of :J00 acres, 

 and he knew they got more money for the amount 

 of labor spent, from their bees, than from any other 

 work on the farm. 



Hut, before leaving him, I learned the real cause 

 of their uniform success. The old gentleman al- 

 ways made it a point every day to open the door in 

 the rear of each hive, and look in and see that every 

 bug, worm, cobweb, spoar of gras3, or anything that 



