1091 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



53 



The stems of the sedge are wrapped with 

 twine, which forms the handle ; and my land- 

 lady said she could not sweep with a wooden- 

 handled broom, on account of her rheuma- 

 tism, but she could with one of these. Every 

 room had a fireplace, and the floors were bare, 

 and the brooms were fine in sweeping up litter 

 into the fire. When I returned to my home in 

 the North I brought in my trunk a short-han- 

 dled broom, and it is the nicest brush I ever 

 had to brush the bees from combs. I'm sur- 

 prised that Southern bee-keepers have not used 

 them for this purpose, and told us about 

 them. 



The landlord formerly kept a good many 

 bees, but of late years the)' had not done well. 

 His bees were in tall box hives, made of the 

 heavy southern pine, and he had tried mova- 

 ble-frame hives, but he did not like them, as 

 his bees did best in box hives. He gave his 

 bees little attention, as his family preferred 

 Florida syrup to honey. 



Mrs. L. Harrison. 



St. Andrews Bay, Florida. 



[Now, Mrs. H., do you see the prospect of 

 starting you in an industrial business ? Per- 

 haps you had better turn the broom making 

 task over to Booker T. Washington, and let 

 the colored women who have the apiary at 

 Tuskegee, Ala., manufacture brooms for bee- 

 keepers. — A. I. R.] 



A GOOD REPORT FROM BUCKWHEAT. 

 My bees averaged about 60 lbs. of buckwheat 

 extracted honey this year. S. J. Snyder. 

 Venice Center, N. Y., Dec. 7. 



[The above is given because so many people 

 inquire what amount of honey they may ex- 

 pect if they sow an acre or several acres of 

 buckwheat. In our locality it has been many 

 long years since we have had any thing like 

 the above, or even half as much. If friend 

 Snyder had told us how many colonies of bees 

 he had in one place we could tell better about 

 it ; and very likely this large yield was made 

 where there were hundreds of acres within 

 range of the bees' flight. — A. I. R ] 



UNITING BEES IN WINTER. 



Please tell in G1.EANINGS how to double up 

 colonies for winter. Is it not necessary to 

 use a double screen between the two colo- 

 nies during the night ? I used a single screen, 

 with the result that, in the morning, I found 

 over a quart of dead bees above the screen, 

 and nearly a quart below. There had been a 

 fierce battle. That was in August. 



Vancouver, Wash. G. W. Minki^er. 



[It is not usually necessary to have even a 

 single screen, let alone a double one. Of 

 course, a great deal depends on what kind of 

 bees you propose to unite. If they are cross 

 hybrids or Cvprians, one may have a good 

 deal of difficulty. In such cases I would place 

 the two clusters of bees, one on each side of the 

 hive ; close them up quietly, and then go back 

 in fifteen or twenty minutes and open them 

 very quietly ; and if there is no fighting, let 



them go. But if there seem to be " wars and 

 rumors of wars " I would smoke them pretty 

 thoroughly with tobacco smoke ; but be care- 

 ful not to overdo it. After that they will usu- 

 ally unite quite peaceably. With our ordinary 

 Italians we scarcely ever have any trouble. 

 We simply place two lots of bees together, and 

 close the hive up. — Ed ] 



Next issue will have 16 extra pages. 



The weather all over the country has been 

 exceedingly mild. This will mean good win- 

 tering. 



We have quantities of reading-matter on 

 hand that has been lying over from issue to is- 

 sue simply because vse have not been able to 

 find loom fi r it. A little latter on we shall be 

 able to get it before our readers. Our printers 

 say we never before had so much " good stuff " 

 on hand as now, and I think t^ey are right. 



Mr. Herschisfr, at the Geneva conven- 

 tion, in speaking of the tall thin section, men- 

 tioned one fact that I had not thought of be- 

 fore ; namely, that the thinner the box the 

 more transparent and beautiful the honey. 

 Mr. H. has had long and extended expf rience 

 in the matter of honey exhibits, and expressed 

 himself as generally favoring the tall box. 



THE PERSONNEL OF THE UTTER TRIAL. 

 We find it impossible to show in this issue 

 ^h.^ personnel of those who took an active part 

 in the celebrated Utter trial at Goshen, N. Y., 

 the engravings having arrived too late ; but in 

 our next i.^-sue we will give you pictures of Ba- 

 con & Merritt, of the judge who presided at 

 the trial, of the star witness, Frank Benton, 

 entomologist from the Division of Entomolo- 

 gy, Washington, DC, and of the defendant 

 bee-keeper Mr. J. W. Utter. Our printing de- 

 partment has been taxed to its utmost to fini.sh 

 up the latest edition of our ABC book, of 500 

 pages, and now that is out of the way we shall 

 he able to get out extra pages for Gleanings. 

 Just now we have on hand enough matter, 

 some of it in t\ pe, to make complete two or 

 three extra numbers. In our next we will be- 

 gin the subject of bottling honey. 



GRAFTING CELLS WITH A MEDICINE-DROP- 

 PER. 



A CORRESPONDENT Suggests the use of 

 an ordinary medicine-dropper, or pipette, or 

 what some call a fountain-pen filler, for the 

 purpose of handling royal jelly. If some one 

 else has suggested such a device, I do not now 

 recall it ; but I feel confident that royal jelly 

 could be handled this way easily. Its manner 



