8.52 



GLEANINGS IK i3Et: CULTIt^E. 



Dec. 



" Is my stuff done yet?" I asked. 



" No; don't you see it is not?" 



I felt insulted. How did I know that stuff was 

 mine? I rather thought it was, for he said mine 

 would be ready before that time. He folt mean or 

 he would not have talked that way. I said nothing; 

 but by keeping watch over him the stuff was ready 

 in fifteen minutes. I intended never to patronize 

 t|iiat man again, and I did not until I had hunted 

 the city over and found that I could not get what I 

 wanted anywhere else. I went back to him be- 

 cause I had to. 1 had to send after the stuff. He 

 gave me more than he at first thought he could, he 

 said, for the money. It came to me in a bundle; 

 and when 1 unpacked it I found the raggedest lot 

 of lumber I ever got. Such patching as I had to do 1 

 For some kinds of work the stuff could not have 

 been used at all, and the boards were not as thin as 

 I wanted them, or as they would have been if I had 

 been there to watch him. To call such a man a liar 

 and a cheat may seem harsh terms, hut they are 

 the simple truth. I think I shall send off' for my 

 stuff ne.\t time, even if I have to pay more for it. 



I am not through yet, but I must stop. I expect 

 this will go into the waste-basket, after all; but I 

 can sell honest honey; lean keep my woi-d: lean 

 tell the truth, all the same, confident that in the 

 long run honesty is the best policy. 



Geo. F. Robbixs. 



Mechanicsburg, 111., Nov. 25, 1885. 



Friend R., I do think it pretty harsh to 

 call even a bad man ;t liar: audit" yon will 

 excuse the liberty, 1 am afraid you are a lit- 

 tle inclined to uncharitaltleiiess. I tised to 

 think it was the rijiht thing to do, to face a 

 man and denounce him as a liar and cheat, 

 when the circumstances seemed to warrant 

 it ; but for some little time lately 1 have de- 

 cided that such a course so often does more 

 harm than good, that I have resolved to be 

 very careful about doing it any more. Fur- 

 ther back you make the remark, that rogues 

 sometimes prosper, etc. Now, if you have 

 the correct definition of the word "'prosper'' 

 in mind, I do not believe that rogues ever 

 do prosper. They sometimes get money, 

 but so does the highwayman ; yet. would 

 you want to stand in his shoes? Show up 

 fraud and deceit inisparingly. Init let us be 

 mild and careful in our denunciations. 



ARRANGEMENT AND POSITION OF 

 THE STORES FOR WINTER. 



A WINTKK-NE.ST. 



T HEAD, in the department of Our Own Apiary, 

 et in Gleanings for Nov. 1, the following: "It 

 jir was just in this way that we wintered our bees 

 ■*• last year with, however, the e.xception that 

 they now have honey instead of sugar stores." 

 Now, I think I see another very important differ- 

 ence. Last winter, if I mistake not, you arranged 

 your hives and then fed syrup. This allowed the 

 bees to place their stores as they saw jiroper. This 

 year yotir plan gives them no choice. I believe it 

 essential to have what Mr. Doolittle calls a winter- 

 nest; that is, a space containing no stores in the 

 combs on which the bees cluster. I would rather 

 have my bees separated by a division-board than by 

 a solid frame of honey. I fear that your only 

 chance of success this winter is that your bees may 



have time to consume or remove the honey from 

 this space before very cold weather. In our cli- 

 mate we often open hives through the winter, and 

 always find them arranged with the winter-nest. 

 If stores are sufficient, we do not average a loss of 

 five per cent. W. H. Greer. 



Paris, Tenn., Nov. 24, 1885. 



Friend G., I think it quite important that 

 the bees have this Avinter-nest ; that is, that 

 the bees shall cluster together in the form 

 of a sphere, in empty cells, and then that 

 there should be food enough so it entirely 

 surrounds them, above and below, to the 

 right and left, in front and rear. Our most 

 successful wintering has been when things 

 were in this shape, and I admit that heavy 

 feeding just before winter seems to get this 

 state of affairs best. Oui- bees have such an 

 abundance of natural stores, however, that 

 the conditions are pretty nearly in this shape 

 as it is. In our locality we never have too 

 much honey in the hives for winter, because 

 they have ample ticue after the honey-flow 

 ceases, to consume enough to give them 

 this i)rood-nest. In speaking of heavy feed- 

 ing, I mean that, although you feed heavily, 

 several days will be occupied giving enough 

 for winter. 



ANOTHER FLORIDA APIARY. 



.MISEUV LOVES COMP.\NY. 



§fiEING reports in Gleanings from so many 

 places, I am moved to write an account of 

 my own apiary, even if I have come so near 

 getting into Blasted Hopes. The article on 

 page 774, by that California "bee lunatic" 

 gave me some comfort. By the way, is it not rath- 

 er curious, when a person is out of luck, feeling 

 out of humor with his surroundings, and about 

 half displeased with himself, how quickly it will 

 raise his spirits to hear of somebody who has not 

 done so well as he has? 1 have a notion to sermon- 

 ize a little right now, instead of writing about bees, 

 but I will curb the inclination, and just say, in that 

 line, when you have the blues, and feel as if every 

 thing were going wrong, and you might as well 

 quit trying, or any feelings akin to those, stop, col- 

 lect your thoughts a little, look around, and see 

 how much better you fare than somebody else. 

 More than likely you are faring much better than 

 a majority of poor suffering humanity. 



I commenced last year with 15 stands of Italian 

 bees, which I brought from Iowa. They increased 

 to 42, and we took 1650 lbs. of honey, nearly all ex- 

 tracted. J thought I had found it, and solved the 

 problem how that hungry spell from a pine woods 

 to a bearing orange grove could be bridged over, 

 at least for my family. But, alas! how uncertain 

 are earthly things I 



Last spring we started in with 40 stands. I had 

 sold two, and left the 40 on their summer stands, 

 with the upper stories on. They were in good con- 

 dition, and commenced swarming in April. Dry 

 weather set in about this time, stopping their sup- 

 plies so they stopped swarming; and by middle of 

 May there was less honey in the yard than when 

 swarming commenced. It now set in wet, raining 

 nearly every day for three mouths, very little hon- 

 ey could be stored, and only occasionally a new 

 swarm came out. I was bothered a great deal by 



