424 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTU11E. 



Sept. 



The specimens sent are Asclepias Tuberosa,— But- 

 terti3--weed or Pleurisy-root. I have received it be- 

 fore as a bee plant. It is one of the milkweeds, and 

 thrives in dry hill-sides and fields, but does not con- 

 tain much milky juice. It is a very pretty plant, 

 and is sometimes cultivated. W. J. Deal. 



Michigan Agricultural College, Lansing, Mich. 



I would especially commend the course of 

 the friend who carefully took the plant up, 

 and placed it in his own garden. If more 

 will do this, we shall soon have not only a 

 band of experimenters, but some valuable 

 knowledge of the value of the honey plants 

 of the world, in different localities. You 

 that have not tried it little know the pleas- 

 tire one feels in seeing a plant blossom un- 

 der the stimulus of the cultivation of his 

 own hands, and then in seeing the bees be- 

 jnn to work on it. 



MINNICH'S HONEY PLANT. 



I send 3"ou a package of roots of the same honey 

 plant of which I last fall sent you the seed. They 

 should be planted in strong, rich,, damp soil. They 

 will do well on the bank of a brook or pond, about a 

 foot above the water, but the soil must be moist. I 

 never saw bees work on iron-wood, boneset, or mus- 

 tard, but I have seen them work on this plant I send 

 you, and fill themselves so full of honey as to fly 

 with difficulty. As to the quality of the honey, I 

 can not say, as there is none of this plant close to 

 my bees ; but I have set out some, and will be able 

 to tell in a year or so. In geod soil, this plant will 

 grow seven fee* high, .with from three to twenty 

 stalks in a hill, each bearing on its top a head of li- 

 lac colored blossoms, the size of a peck measure, 

 and a hill in bloom is beautiful, to say the least. It 

 blooms about the first of Aug. or last of July, and 

 continues in bloom for a week or ten days. As it is 

 exceedingly hardy, thriving in stiff sod, and a per- 

 ennial, it will be no trouble to propagate it, if that is 

 all that is needful. I hope to hear of its success 

 with you as a honey plant. C. S. Minnich. 



Gratiot, Licking Co., O., Apr. 20, 1880. 



These roots were planted down by the 

 pond, and as they shot*up tall, beautiful 

 stalks, having six large leaves equally spaced 

 around the stalk at nearly regular distances 

 from base to top, it became a plant of con- 

 siderable interest to us. It is now in bloom, 

 and not being able to name it, we sent a leaf 

 and flower to Prof. Beal, who replies as fol- 

 lows: 



It is Eupatorium purptu-cunii trumpet weed,— Joe- 

 Pye weed. It has often been sent as a bee plant. 

 Many of your readers would be astonished at the 

 large number of species sent by bee men as good for 

 honey. Remember my article some time ago, in 

 which I said there were east of the Mississippi over 

 1500 species, all good for bees where they grow in 

 sufficient quantity. W. J. Beal. 



Agricultural College, Lansing, Mich. 



The bees work on it all day, and it is pret- 

 ty thickly covered with them. Further facts 

 in regard to it, will be found under our 

 own apiary and honey FARM. Speci- 

 mens of the same plant have been sent by a 

 number of our readers. 



CALIFORNIA BEE-KEEPIN<;. 



LIPPIA NODI FLORA. 



HplHE time of the year is fast approsi 

 J°|[ our Southern California bee-keep 



inching when 

 ■keepers will have 

 ~ to wait for the rains of next winter to moisten 

 the ground, before they can expect much more hon- 

 ey. It is not so with us however, for the Lippia 

 Nodiflora is growing, flowoi ing, and yielding honey 

 more abundantly than ever, although irrigation has 

 failed some time since, and ihe ground is dry and 

 dusty every where. The bees are so busy gather- 

 ing the nectar from the flowers, that they scarcely 

 notice you when taking the full sections away and 

 replacing them with empty ones. 



SINGLE TIERS OF SECTIONS VERSUS WIDE FRAMES. 



I am fully satisfied that it is no small job to put 

 together the sections, and put in fdn., and change 

 them for tilled sections on the hives, for I am only 

 two weeks behind time, though doing my best, and 

 almost giving out, and the queen nursery not looked 

 at to-day. I am already satisfied that I would like 

 your one tier of boxes in the shipping case, ready to 

 go to the city, when it conies off the hive. 



SPIDER PLANT IN CALIFORNIA. 



The bees do not notice the spider plant, although 

 fine, large drops of honey glisten in the sunshine 

 quite late in the morning. We have not succeeded 

 in propagating the Simpson honey plant here, al- 

 though we have tried it repeatedly. O. S. Davis. 



Lemoore, Tulare Co., Cal. 



The cases containing one tier of sections 

 may be the least trouble, but, with a strong 

 colony of bees, you will get considerably 

 more honey, with the wide frames and doub- 

 le tier. Your spider plants are too few. Our 

 field of them, now (21st) is covered with bees 

 in the morning, beyond anything I ever saw 

 before. 



FRIEND MARTIN'S APIARY. 



AND SOMETHING ABOUT HOW HE GOT IT. 



f HARDLY expected you would make an engra- 

 ving of our apiary, but as you seem determined 



" to spend your money on pictures, I will give 

 you a little description of the place. 



I think much of the photo, for, in looking at it, 

 I see the work of my own brain and hands, as an 

 expense of less than $10.09 cash has paid for all la- 

 bor except my own. I have been my own laborer 

 with spade and hoe, my own architect to plan and 

 execute, and my own artist to paint and adorn. I 

 have put up my bee house by piecemeal; first my 

 wintering house, then my store room for honey, and 

 then my room for working up wax, etc. I also use 

 this room now for extracting. I have a drop of 3 

 feet from this room to the next room, and honey 

 can be run directly from the extractor into barrels 

 without lifting. 



The large hives in the center are chaff. I use a 

 two story hive, size of frame 14x14, and run mostly 

 for extracted honey. Like friend Rue, I adopted 

 this frame in 1874, from your recommendation. I 

 now make them just 11x14 and have over 2000 of 

 them in use. It would be very convenient if we all 

 used the same sized frame, but that day will never 

 dawn. As long as every bee-keeper can tinker up 

 his own hives he is sure to get his frames an odd 

 size, even if he get everything else right; and where 

 extracted honey is the object, I am strong in the 

 opinion that it makes no difference what sized 



