1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



57 



bee country after a while. You have discovered 

 that my bees are in a badly mixed lot of hives, and 

 I propose to transfer them in the spring and have 

 them all alike. Now, this is new business to me, and 

 there are but few bee-men around hei-e to show me 

 much about it. I do not expect to get right into it 

 without making some mistakes, but I am going to 

 make it win if 1 can; and while I am keeping my- 

 self out of mischief, I want to make some money. 

 I don't expect to beat pa with his short-horns, but I 

 should like to come just as near it as possible. 

 Holton, Kan., Jan. 2, 188.5. M.A.KCUS Bry.^nt. 



Marcus, I am very glad to see your zeal 

 and courage ; and if you go ahead as you 

 seem to have started, I think there will be 

 no trouble about your succeeding. Wliere 

 there is a determination, and an earnest, go- 

 ahead spirit, obstacles make but little dilTer- 

 ence. Of couise, it is harder for you to get 

 around; but it is better to be crippled in 

 hody than to be crippled by a lazy disposi- 

 tion. May be you may beat your father 

 with his short-horns yet ; who knows V— 

 The bees failed to work on the Simpson 

 plants, either because there was not enough 

 of the plants, or because there were other 

 sources of honey that were of more import- 

 ance than these few plants you set out. 



THE YOUNG PHILOSOPHER. 



WHAT ANNA SAID, AND WHAT HER KATHER SAID. 



READ you would give a hook to me if I would 

 tell you something new and useful. I-am go- 

 ... ing to try to get Ten Nights in a I5ar-room. I 

 asked papa to tell me something new. He 

 said there was nothing new under the sun, for 

 the Bible said so. Then I thought you would not 

 have to give away many books. But papa said he 

 guessed you meant things new to you. He said 

 it would be new to you to find out I had 35 swarms of 

 bees. But I said that would not be useful to 

 you. He said it would, since he would buy books 

 and goods of you, so I have told you something new 

 and useful. 



But I guess you will not think this is fair, so I 

 will tell you about papa's "bee ring," as I call it. 

 It is made by planting young cedars close together 

 in such a way as to make a ring. Keep them 

 trimmed well as they grow, and they will be very 

 thick, so that the wind can not blow through them. 

 Let them grow close to the ground, and little pigs 

 can not get through them. Papa says a half-ring is 

 better than a whole one. Take the north half, let 

 the trees on the north grow eight feet high or more, 

 but gradually lower them on each side till they are 

 not more than two feet high where they end. Then 

 it will look like a new moon, and no shade will ever 

 fall on the hives, and it will be the warmest place 

 that can be found out of doors in the winter, and 

 yet quite cool enough in the summer. Of course, 

 the bees should have shade in the summer. Papa 

 says he likes raspberries better than grapevines for 

 shade. On the south side of each hive, put two 

 plants about two feet apart. Let them grow 30 inch- 

 es high; keep the side limbs pinched off close to 

 the stalks, except those between the two stalks; let 

 those interlace till they make a thick shade. 



The bees got lots of honey out of flowers, and we 

 got a good crop of berries. Bees never bother ber- 



ries as they do grapes. Every bee-man who sees 

 papa's ring says he must have one. 



Anna Anderson, age 9. 

 Ladoga, Ind., Dec. 19, 1884. 



Give my respects to your kind papa, friend 

 Anna, and tell him that I think he has suc- 

 ceeded in furnishing us something both new 

 and useful. In fact, the tirst paragraph of 

 your letter is pretty sharp, both for you and 

 your pa.— I lliiuk that cedar bee-ring would 

 be beautiful ; but the most interesting part 

 of your letter is the raspberries for shade. 

 They are more of a bee-plant than grape- 

 vines, and, come to think of it. I believe 

 they would answer even better. Last fall I 

 bought 5(30 strong pot-grown raspberry 

 plants that are almost too large to go into 

 pots now ; besides, pots are too heavy for 

 shipment. Some of the friends say they 

 do not care for pot - grown plants. But 

 I do. I would give more for one good strong 

 plant growing nicely in a pot, than for half 

 a dozen like tiiose iisually sent out. The 

 pot-grown plant will keep right along grow- 

 ing, and bear a crop of fruit, at least a small 

 one, this present year. Now, my neighbor 

 is going to put IWO of these strong raspber- 

 ry plants in (juart paper oyster-pails. Tlie 

 space around the plant is to be filled witli 

 nice compost, and when tliey get nicely to 

 growing in the spring I am going to offer 

 them for sale to plant around bee-hives for 

 5 cts. each. When any of you are ordering 

 goods you can have one of my potted rasp- 

 berry plants, oyster-pail and all, for an even 

 5 cts.. if you want it. We shall have both 

 the Gregg and Doolittle black-cap varieties 

 of rasi)berries. Neighbor Green, who fur- 

 nislies tiiem, says tliey get more berries from 

 the Doolittle black-cap than from any of the 

 new-fangled kinds with high - sounding 

 names. 



WHAT SORT 



OF GLASSES 

 WEAR? 



DO YOU 



WHOLESO.ME LESSON FOR OLD AS WELL AS 

 YOUNG. 



WO little children, Tommie and Kitty, were 

 "*}" amusing themselves one morning bj' look- 

 ing through the colored glass panes on either 

 side of the hall door of a house where I was 

 visiting in St. Albans. The lower panes were 

 of a bright crimson hue, the next of a deep blue, 

 the others of yellow, green, etc. Little Kitty's 

 small size permitted her to sec through only the 

 lower panes; and every object she looked at, trees, 

 flowers, people, and even the ground, seemed to her 

 eyes gloriously bright, almost as if on Are; not be- 

 cause they were really so, but because seen through 

 the medium of the crimson glass. The little girl 

 did not dream this was only a borrowed light, and 

 she called out to her brother, "O Tommy! this yard 

 looks the prettiest that you ever saw this morning. 

 I do believe the trees and the flowers, and the 

 ground too, are just going to burn up. Come, see 

 how bright they be; thej' look like the Are up at 

 Uncle Nat's, in the big fireplace." 



"It is n't bright at all; it looks all blue, and just 

 as gloomy looking as can be; and I guess it is a go- 

 ing to snow too," said master Tommy, who was 

 some two years older than Kitty, and felt himself 



