1885 



GLEANINGS IX BEE CULTURE. 



82^1 



him I would. I put a lot of hives down for him, and 

 a lot for mygelf ; and as the swarms Came off he put 

 one in his hive and one in my hive, and so on, un- 

 til I got 8 swarms, and I traded him hives for two 

 old ones, and so I have 10 all told. They are all on 

 worker fdn., on the Gallup frame and Simplicity 

 hive, and I think in good condition for winter. 



A HOME-MADE EXTKACTOR. 



I made an extractor, and just as good as one I 

 could buy for ^10.00 or $12.00; and all together I re- 

 ceived about 150 lbs. cf comb and extracted honey, 

 and they are filled for winter since the last ex- 

 tracting. 1 use 12 frames in the hive, and some of 

 the swarms would scarcely cover two frames. I 

 used a division-board, and built them up on foun- 

 dation as fast as they could use it. The bees did 

 well on white clover until about harvest; during 

 that time they scarcely did any thing. Then buck- 

 wheat soon came in bloom, and they did tirst rate 

 for about three weeks, and since then they have 

 done very little. S. B. Miller. 



Amish, Iowa, Oct. 2, 1885. 



Friend M., tlie Simpson and sjtider plants 

 seem to give a good deal of tiouble in the 

 way you mention. With the directions giv- 

 en in the A B C, however, we do not fail to 

 get any amount of plants. But the cheapest 

 way we have found is to take up the seed- 

 lings that come up themselves every spring 

 in the open air. In fact, we have never been 

 able to get either of the plants to germinate 

 and grow as well as they do where they come 

 up themselves, out in the lots. 



DY.SENTERV RESULTING FROM CLOVER IIO.NEV 

 WITH NO POLLEN. 



I placed a crate of sections, that had about a hand- 

 ful of bees in it, on a hive; and in doing so I closed 

 the hole in the bottom cf the crate, and the bees 

 could not get out. When I took the crate off, the 

 bees were all dead, and the sections wet, and 

 daubed as badly as any that had the dysentery last 

 winter. The honey was new clover honey, and 

 contained no pollen. They were confined about a 

 montJi. Wm. With row. 



Paint Valley, Ohio, Oct. 19, 1885. 



Friend W., I hardly think your experi- 

 ment a fair one. The "bees wei-e in an un- 

 natural state, on accoiuit of conliucment. 

 A handful of bees could iiardly niaintain the 

 proper temperature to stand conlinement 

 safely, as a colony does in winter. I be- 

 lieve, however, we have had several reports 

 of bees that did show something very much 

 like dysentery, where very little pollen was 

 in their stores. 



MEXICAN BEES. 



Rev. F. B. Ticknor, editor of the Church lifcoiri, 

 Informs me that while on a missionary tour in 

 Western Texas, last summer, in company with an- 

 other gentleman, they found a colony of what are 

 known here as Mexican bees. They build their 

 comb from the end of a limb, somewhat like a hor- 

 net. The men climbed the tree and secured a piece 

 of the honey, and found it excellent. Have you 

 ever heard of them, and what do you know of 

 them? This is the first time 1 ever heard of them; 

 and from Mr. Ticknor's description they are more 

 like the Italian than the common black bee. 



A CAVE WITH LARGE QUANTITIES OF HONEY. 



Some years ago I saw, in Missouri, the crotch of 



a tree where the bees had built comb sufficient to 

 hold perhaps 20 pounds of honey the previous 

 year, but the bees had all died during the winter. 

 Mr. Ticknor also says thej- visited a cave where un- 

 told quantities of honey were stored. People liv- 

 ing in the neighboi-hood, by means of an Indian 

 ladder climbed up and secured all they needed for 

 their own use; but it would require considerable 

 labor to get to the part of the cave containing the 

 bulk of the honey. T. F. McCamant. 



San Antonio, Texas, Nov. 5, 1885. 



Friend M., we have had some notice of the 

 Mexican bees you speak of, but we know 

 comparatively little about them. If any of 

 our readers liave it in their power to give us 

 further particulars in regard to them, we 

 shall be very glad indeed. It would seem 

 funny, woukl it not, should it happen that 

 we liave bees equal to the Italians, in the 

 southern parts of our country ? 



BASSWOOD propagation; QUERIES CONCERNING. 



Will you please ask some of your subscribers who 

 have tried planting linden-trees, how they succeed- 

 ed? I put mine out in the spring of 1884, and last 

 winter the rabbits ate them off very close to the 

 ground. Most of them came up again this spring, 

 but they are all very weakly looking. The tallest 

 is only 15 inches high. I hood and mulched them, 

 but they do not seem to grow fast at all. 1 think I 

 shall put tarred paper around them this fall, to pro- 

 tect them from the rabbits. 



I sowed the alsike clover you sent me, with bar- 

 ley, and I have a pretty fair stand of it on 6 acres. 

 It is the only field of the kind, so far as I know, in 

 this section of the State. My bees have produced, 

 from 6 hives, 250 lbs. in section boxes. 



Garrison, Neb., Oct. 22, 1885. C. H. Sargent. 



No wonder your trees look weakly, friend 

 S.. if the rabbits ate them off. Perhaps your 

 hoeing hindered their growth, for we have 

 pretty clearly i)r()ven that basswoods make 

 a more exuberant growtli in a dense thicket, 

 or in the midst of a clump of briers and 

 brush, than when cultivated in the held, in 

 the glare of the sun. 



A CARP SWINDLE. 



An apparently extensive and mean carp swindle 

 is just being unearthed at Columbus, Ohio, through 

 the exertions of our association. I will forward the 

 particulars as soon as possible. In the mean time, 

 I will say that developments thus far show that par- 

 ties at Pittsburgh, Pa., and ZanesvlUe, O., are mixed 

 up in the matter. A large number of newspapers 

 have been inveigled into the publication of a very 

 plausible communication, ostensibly in behalf of 

 the U. S. Fish Commission, but directing readers to 

 address the " U. S. Fish Co." (not Commission, ob- 

 serve), Columbus, O. The postmaster at Columbus 

 writes us that there is no such " Co." as the " U. S. 

 Fish Co." at Columbus, and that some swindle is 

 contemplated, as a great manj- letters have been ac- 

 cumulating there for the bogus " Co." A second 

 letter, dated yesterday, says a woman has finally 

 called for the letters, claiming to represent some 

 man at Zanesville. The postmaster is holding them. 

 Milton P. Peirce. 



Philadelphia, Pa., Nov. 5, 1885. 



Thanks, friend P. Our friends will please 

 take notice, so as not to be humbugged by 

 the " U. S. Fish Co." 



