M4 



GLEA^mas iU Bki^ (JuLTUUb. 



Atto. 



thanks, for g'iving' this " Good " cand3- to the public 

 in the way he has done. 



It is no use, friend Root; we can neither write 

 brilliantly nor instructively with this roaring in our 

 ears. What roaringV Why, the roaring of the bees 

 working on basswood. We munt lay down the pen 

 and go out and work among them. 



8-W. Z. Hutchinson, 70-100. 



Rogersvillc, Mich. 



Well, friend H., I suppose we are to un- 

 derstand the wooden queen-excluding honey- 

 boards woik all right, with the exception of 

 this objection you mention, of wax and 

 propolis. I think a jet of steam would clean 

 them quickly and nicely.— I want to second 

 your rejquest that customers may state their 

 complaints calmly, coolly, fairly, and gentle- 

 manly. Not more than an hour ago I re- 

 ceived a letter from a man who could not 

 introfluce the queen he had received ; and 

 simply because his ])ees would not accept 

 her, he jumped at the conclusion that we 

 had sent him a queen imperfect in some 

 way; for he said tliat, according to his ex- 

 perience, when bees rejected a queen it was 

 because the queens were defective in some 

 way. lie wound up his letter by threaten- 

 ing to publish us if we did not send another 

 one in her stead. Now. I do not want to be 

 uncharitable on my part. May be this friend 

 has been humbugged, and has decided the 

 only way to make a man honest is to talk 

 right up to him, and threaten to publish him 

 in the papers. If it works with everybody 

 as it works with me, it is a very poor plan — 

 W^e are glad to know that the basswood 

 boom has gone away up to Rogersville, Mich. 



MRS. CHADDOCK'S LETTi H. 



She tells us about Bees, Strawberries, ard 

 some other things. 



WHY THE BEES THAT DIXON & DTI.T.C^N SENT GOT 

 AHEAD OF THE BKES WE SENT. 



a EAR MR. ROOT:— There might be an advan- 

 tage in the larger cage that Dixon & Dillon 

 use. The cages that they sent their half- 

 pounds in were twice as large as your half- 

 pound cages, and fully as large as Mr. Gedye 

 sent me the one-pound packages of German bees 

 in. Then I suppose the Dixon & Dillon bees were 

 caged only half a day. I think they could come to 

 Vermont from Parrish in two hours. They were 

 the sprightllest bees that I ever saw. It was nearly 

 dark when we put the first lot in the hives— so dark 

 that we had hard work to see the queen; but the 

 bees went right to work as if they had been de- 

 frauded out of all the time spent in transit, and 

 were going to make up for it. They were clearing 

 out the hives. It was two of their first ones thai 

 built up so fast. Afterward he sent for thi-ee more 

 half-po\inds; and when they came, one queen was 

 dead, and brother Phillips united the queenlcss 

 ones with one of the others, making a pound of 

 bees in that hive. Then he sent for another pound. 

 The last lot that he sent for came a week later than 

 the first; and the last pound, ten days later than the 

 first. 



Well, I went down there this morning, and went 

 through them. The two ;4-lb. packages that I was 

 jealous of have grown into full colonies; they have 

 the sections on, and are " nosing" around in them. 



The hive that had the one pound in is full also, and 

 the bees have built new comb in the sections in two 

 places, building upward some pieces as large as my 

 hand. The last pound that came is next best, and 

 the others are all much better than mine. None of 

 them have put any honey in the sections, because 

 they were not put on soon enough for the white- 

 clover honey, and the basswood did not amount to 

 any thing at all this year; and what honey the bees 

 get now is from catnip, smartweed, mustard, and 

 such small game, barely enough for their own use. 

 They have not put an ounce of honey in my boxes 

 in the last week. So you see some of brother Phil- 

 lips' half-pounds almost equaled his whole pounds, 

 but they had a week the start; and a week In the 

 midst of the white-clover harvest is equal to three 

 weeks at some other times. The bees go wild with 

 greed, and excel themselves. 



I looked at the queens in my "poor bees" to-day, 

 and I never saw finer queens, so large and yellow. 

 I had thought that I would let them alone, and see 

 what they would come to; but wlien I looked at 

 them to-day I felt sorry for them, and gave them 

 lots of brood from other hives, and they will be all 

 right after this. 



When Mr. Gates was having so much trouble and 

 worry, if he had only " said so," all would have been 

 well. But perhaps he had not time to "say so." I 

 I think I can see it all. All the work to do, man 

 crippled, baby sick, father sitting up till midnight, 

 mother sitting up till morning, both of them getting 

 up tired and sleepy, and doing every thing at once, 

 and doing nothing as they would like to— notliing 

 but waiting on the sick child— that is done just 

 right. Then the other child is sick, and they go 

 from one bed to the other, giving water and medi- 

 cine, and are almost distracted, when here comes a 

 "mad letter" from a "sassy woman" up in Illinois, 

 and the father and mother look at each other and 

 say, "We could not help it, could we?" I am very 

 sorry for hurting their feelings, and I hope the 

 children are well now. 



Yes, I raise strawberries. I told in GT-.EANING8 

 how I set them out. Well, I did nothing more to 

 them. The men cut otf the sweet corn and fed it to 

 the cows, and the plants grew. After the ground 

 was frozen solid we carried straw, and covered the 

 plants about two inches deep. Last year we did 

 not have any berries to speak of; but this year we 

 sold 156 gallons, and \ised and gave away «. We had 

 Crescent and Charles Downing, with a sprinkling of 

 Green's Prolific. We sold them in quart boxes, at 

 ten cents a box, or ."3 cents a gallon, where they 

 took six gallons at one house. We did not expect, 

 when we set the plants, to have more than enough 

 for ourselves. We set only 400; but this was a good 

 year for strawberries, and ours were very fine. I 

 ha\ e a plat of sod ground that was plowed the mid- 

 dle of June, and we hoed and pulled the weeds in it 

 last week, large enough to set .')00 plants. I want to 

 have all that we can possibly eat. We ate three 

 gallons a day; and if there are a few more, we can 

 always sell them. I know fan'ilies where there are 

 half a dozen children living on farms, that do not 

 raise a strawberry. I think it if ruel not to give 

 children strawberries to eat. There are fifteen 

 acres of them planted in and around the town of 

 Vermont, III. They ship them to Rock Island, Peo- 

 ria, and various other points. This year there was 

 a ghit in the market; and Dr. Taylor, who has 3'/i 

 I acres in strawberries, gave out word that anybody 



