GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



515 



who wanted to might come to his fruit-farm and 

 pick berries for themselves, if they would pay him 

 fifty cents a case (a case holds six gallons) and the 

 people flocked in for miles around— came in wagon 

 and buggy loads from little towns eight and ten 

 miles away. People who had never had strawber- 

 ries on their tables took eighteen gallons. The 

 " feast of strawberries " lasted three days, and the 

 doctor told me that letting' the people have them 

 cheap saved the rest of the crop, as the vines would 

 have been ruined if the berries had been left on, 

 and he could not think of hiring them picked, and 

 then throwing them away. So that was a kind of 

 charity that blessed the giver as well as the receiv- 

 er, literally. 



A few words to sister Nellie Linswik, and I close. 



My dear sister, bee-keeping is a business; religion 

 is a sentiment; and whenever business and senti- 

 ment cati go hand in hand, let them do so; but 

 whenever business and sentiment come in conflict, 

 then sentiment is bound to go to the wall. Now, I 

 love to go to meeting; 1 like the music of the organ, 

 and the good singing. When I shut my eyes I am 

 wafted away off yonder, away from all the cares 

 and turmoils of life; and then the sermon strength- 

 ens me, and the prayers lift me uj); and when the 

 meeting Is over 1 like to shake hands with every- 

 body, and talk a few minutes with the good old 

 minister whom I have known for twenty years. 

 Yes, I love it; but 1 never leave my bees to go to 

 church, nor anywhere else, in swarming time, un- 

 less 1 have a substitute to care for them. Some- 

 times when 1 am "just aching" to go to nieetingl 

 ask some of the rest of the family to " i>lay martyr'"" 

 in my place; but if they look sour, or pout the lips, 

 or make the least sign that 1 can read, I do not ac- 

 cept their services, but stay at home myself. 



My bees alwayf> swarm on Sunday and on the 

 Fourth of .July. They have swarmed every Fourth 

 of .July since T have kept them. Lust year was a 

 very poor season for bees. I had only three swarms, 

 and one of them ivas on the Fourth of July. Some- 

 times 1 ask Mr. Chaddoek to watch the bees for me; 

 but I tell him which hive is going to swarm, and fix 

 the new hive all ready, put a goblet on a plate to 

 hold the queen, and every thing. Mr. C. is not 

 strong; and during the working season he gets 

 completely worn out through the week, and he 

 won't go to meeting nor anywhere on Sunday, but 

 just rests; and if I would always leave him the 

 bees to care for, sometimes he would not get much 

 rest. And as I "think considerable of him," I don't 

 want him to work too hard. The tiees are mine, 

 and I do not want him to feel I'ouiid to do any thing 

 to them, unless he wants to. There are four of us 

 now— Mallieonie, Irving, Mr. C, and myself, who 

 are not afraid of bees; and as bees swarm only 

 about three weeks every year (as a general thing), 

 it is not so great a punishment after all for some of 

 us to watch them. You know what the Bible says 

 about taking things out of the ditch. 



Mahala B. Ciiaddock. 

 Vermont, 111., July 2.5, 1885. 



My good friend Mrs. C, 1 am afraid you 

 are not (luite orthodox, in calling religion a 

 sentiment. Would you call your love for 

 your child a sentiment, and piit business be- 

 fore it ? The Bible says, " iSeek ye first the 

 kingdom of God and his righteousness." No 

 doubt you are right in deciding that some- 

 times you can serve God more fully by re- 



maining at home than by going to church ; 

 btit someway it does not seem quite right 

 where you speak of making business come 

 before love to God ; but I presume you did 

 not mean it that way. 



PERFORATED ZINC A SUCCESS. 



IT RENDERS THE CLIPPING OF QUEENS' WINGS 

 UNNECESSARY-. 



fN page 455 of July Gleanings, in your com- 

 ments on friend Doolittle's article on " Clip- 

 ping Queens' Wings," you state that you 

 don't get many definite reports as to how the 

 perforated zinc works, as to obviating the 

 necessity of clipping the queens' wings, etc. I will 

 herewith give you my experience the present 

 season with the Jones guard. 



I regard the perforated zinc as a very great ad- 

 vance forward in bee culture. I make my guards 

 somewhat diUerent from the Jones. I place one 

 over each entrance, that isat alllikely toswarm nniiii. 

 When the swarm issues I am on hand to look after 

 it. I wait until the swarm is all, or nearly all, out, 

 when the (jueen will always be seen, promenading 

 and worrying to get through the guard. I move 

 the guard aw.iy carefully, all the time keeping my 

 eyes on the queen, and picK her up by the wings. 

 It refjuires a little dexterity to catch her sure every 

 time. But out of some 30 swarms or over I have 

 missed catching only two, and that was rather on 

 account of a little carelessness. The <jueen nearly 

 always makes from two to three etforts to take 

 wing, when they can usually be readily caught. 



Another point for which I value the zinc guard 

 highly is, that when the queen is released into the 

 new hive, by placing a gtiard o\er the entrance for 

 three or four days, until she is established in her 

 new home, you never need be uneasy about the 

 swarm deserting the new hive; for if they should 

 take a notion to leave, when they would find their 

 (|ueen was not ahmg they would return. I find it 

 necessary, while the gtuuds are over the entrance 

 of strong colonies, to remove them for a few mo- 

 ments about ,! o'clock in the afternoon, in order 

 that the drones may get out. 

 Bees store honey from the 



MAMMOTH CLOVER, AT MY HOUSE; SOME INTER- 

 ESTING FACTS IN REGARD TO IT. 



To-day I started toward the creek timber that lies 

 three-fourths of a mile east of mj- apiary, where 

 there is basswood m abundance; and when I got 

 over into my 15 acres of mammoth clover that is 

 out in full bloom, I was somewhat astonished to see 

 the clover literally swarming with Italians. 



" Oh : well, they smell it and want to get at it, and 

 can't — eh?" 



" No, sir." 



That basswood forest lying just across that 

 clover-field from the apiary, three-fourths of a mile, 

 in full view, and just in its prime, and very rich, is 

 the strongest argument that has yet come under 

 my observation, that bees secure large stores from 

 the red clover. I became so interested in the clover 

 that I plucked otf a handful of bloom and brought 

 it along home, and made a careful study of it under 

 a good compound microscope. I found quite a 

 large proportion of the heads containing tubes 

 quite short, and easj' of access to the bees. Out 

 in the fields I plucked a number of heads; and, 



