208 



GLEANINGS IN BEK CULTURE. 



Mar. 



school. I lead in the J'ifth Reader. I have three 

 sisters, joungcr than myself. Lilly White. 



Columbus Grove, Ohio, Feb. 20, 1>^85. 



A i;uOU ItEPOltT FROM A VOUXG UEK-KKEPKH. 



1 bought one hi\c of bees last spring-. They 

 swarmed Ave times. Two went off, but I saved 3. I 

 sold one to my brother, and one to my sister. I g-ot 

 no honey. They are all in bo.v hives, but I intend to 

 try the Langsti-oth hive ne.vt summer. 



Selkie D. Gijove. age U. 



rewamo, Mieh., Feb. 18, 1885. 



We got 1500 lbs. of comb honey iu one-pound sec- 

 tions last summer. 



Harvey Baer, I guess you are 12 years old, but you 

 stated your example wrongly. You should have 

 said, " My age, mimis \i of my age, minus J.i of my 

 age, equals 3." Mellie McFatridge, age 11. 



Deer Creek, Ind., Feb. 3, 1885. 



THE .jersey heifer. 



Pa has fi.'j stands of bees. We live on a farm a 

 mile and a half from Cumberland. We have 48 

 acres of land. I go to school. I watch the bees in 

 summer, and I get five cents a swarm. I am named 

 after my father. We have a good many strawber- ! 

 ries. We have a Jersey heifer. I 



Thomas Footers, Jr., age 10. i 



Cumberland, Md , Feb. 3, 1885. ! 



TH.iT CROSS man. 



My father has no bees, but I am going to write a 

 letter. I have lots of pigeons, and some cats. There 

 is a man at our house, and he is as cross as a bear. 

 If I go in the barn he will come and drive me out. 

 We have had good skating here all winter, but I 

 have no skates. Little Huber would like to be here 

 to slide on the ice, I think. Dannie McCokmick. 



Cameron, Pa., Feb. 11, 1885. 



So. iJaiiiiie. you have a cross man at your 

 house, have youV Well, iiow, I have no- 

 ticed that wherever there is a cross man 

 there is almost always somethinjj; else. Shall 

 I tell you what tliat somethin.nelse is? "Well, 

 1 susyiect it is a miscliievous boy. and I 

 shouldn't wonder if his name is Dannie 

 ^IcCormick. 



a D.A.NGEROUS KIND OF SPARKS. 



Pa takes Gleanings. I read how Mi-. C. F. At- 

 wood set his bees afire with the sparks from his smo- 

 ker. Pa puts green grass in the top of the smoker, 

 so as not to let the sparks tiy out, and by so doing is 

 never bothered with sparks — only around my elder 

 sister. Pa has a draft in the bottom of his smoker. 

 Our bees gathered lots of honey from red raspber- 

 ries. They are fiuite numerous here, and make 

 very nice honey. Gexeievk Hill, age 10. 



Uandolph, N. V., Feb. 8, 1S85. 



Now. iny little trieud. suppose your elder 

 sister sl)oul(l happen to .i>-et her eye on this 

 letter; wouldn't she just '-go for'- you':* 



FRO.M A YOUNG BOOMHOWER. 



1 am a little boy C years old. My name is Novice 

 Hoomhower. 1 was named after you. My pa keeps 

 bees, and 1 am going to be a bee-keeper too. 



Novice Doomiiower. 



(ialUipville, N. Y., Jan. 6, 1885. 



Jiight welcome you are, my young name- 

 sake. And so it is indeed true, tliat since 

 the time 1 called myself Novice, a boy has 

 grown up and written a letter. We know 

 all about your ]>apa, for we have seen a pic- 

 ture of liis apiary. 



HARVEY'S AGE, AG.i^lN. 



My papa has 35 stands of bees living; 20 have died. 

 Some had too much bee-bread. Pa thinks that kill- 

 ed them, as some of them left considerable honey. 



A WET PLACE FOR BEES. 



My pa started with two old moth-eaten bee-gums 

 year before last, and now he has got 23 hives from 

 them, and would have had a good many more if the 

 moth had not killed them out so much. It overflows 

 where we live. We live on Red River. My pa has 

 to put his hives up on beuches to keep the water 

 from drowning them out. Pa is afraid of bees, and 

 I have to work with them a great deal. We got oUO 

 lbs. of honey last year. Johnnie Dudney, age 14. 



Collinsburg, La., Jan. 28, 1885. 



ABOUT THE SILKWOR.MS. 



I will tell you about my silkworms. I bought ICOO 

 eggs; about the first of May they hatched, and they 

 looked so little. They were black, but began to 

 change color, until, at the last moult, they were of a 

 light yellow. The Osage orange grew close to our 

 house. Ma said when they were fed they sounded 

 like snow falling, so many of them chewing. It 

 was the nicest time of all to see them spin. The> 

 made nice yellow cocoons. I sell eggs. 



Ethel Dyke, age 11. 



Pomeroy, Ohio, Feb. 2, 1885. 



TACKING bees IN THE HIVE. 



My father has five colonies of bees. He bought 

 them last fall. He put them in the cellar, and tack- 

 ed wire cloth over the entrance of the hive, to keep 

 the bees from coming out. He does not intend to 

 shut them in the hive next winter, because they 

 crawl down against the wire, and die, and it is a 

 great deal of bother to get them out. (Jur bees are 

 hybrids, and they are very cross. 



Elvis H. Holloway, age 13. 



Rolling Prairie, Ind., Feb. 7, 1885. 



RABBITS AND OPOSSUMS FOR FOOD. 



My father takes Gle.\nings, and thinks it is " just 

 splendid." He has si.x colonies of bees, but they did 

 not make much honey this year. 1 have two broth- 

 ers and two sisters. I like to read the young folks' 

 letters very much. I have two birds, Betsey and 

 Chip; and I have a dog named Shep. When the 

 snow is on the ground he and myself go out and 

 hunt rabbits. I like rabbits, don't you? and opos- 

 sums too. They are just splendid— to eat, 1 mean. 

 Mabel C. Cotton, age 11. 



Wabaunsee, Kan., Feb. 6, 18!:'5. 



HOW THEY CAUGHT THE SWARM. 



We have a swarm of bees. The way we got them 

 was this: One day a playmate of mine and myself 

 were playing, when 1 heard a humming noise, and, 

 looking up, saw a swsirm of bees Hying over. We 

 beat on old cans, and any thing we could get hold 

 of, and at last they settled on a tree just outside of 

 our yard. Then going into the house I told my 

 mother, and she went out and helped us fix a box 

 for them. Then we put a sheet on the ground, and 

 put the box on the sheet, and then shook the tree, 

 and the bees fell on the sheet, and went into the 

 box, where they have stayed two years without 

 swarming. ' Elmore Wilson. 



Allerton, Wayne Co., la., Feb. 13, 1885. 



