32 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



of day, whether stormy, place where stung, and, 

 particularly, the temper of the bee. Having had 

 many hornets to kill this year, I was slightly stung 

 by one on the arm near the pulse. Tt was very 

 painful, and swollen. I thought I was swell-proof ; 

 but I had to apply some spirits of camphor to the 

 wound. Will Professor Cook kindly tell us in what 

 proportion the different formic-acid-possessing in- 

 sects are to each other, and whether scorpions and 

 myriapods have the same principle of poison. We 

 often find them here under hives. The sting of a 

 scorpion is very severe. By a sting I got in the 

 thumb, the pain traveled all along the arm, and 

 seemed to settle all round the shoulder and side of 

 the breast where 1 got the sting; and on one occa- 

 sion. I was bitten by a myriapod (forty feet) on the 

 shoulder, through the woolen shirt. I suffered 

 from both about three days. 



Ph. S. Baldensperger. 

 Sharon Apiary, Jaffa, Syria, Nov. 1, 1888. 



Friend B., we are much obliged for your 

 very full report. It seems a little singular 

 that you should get honey from orange-blos- 

 soms in Jaffa, while in California they fur- 

 nish little honey or none at all. Very likely 

 the peculiar circumstances of the country 

 have much to do with it. I am inclined to 

 agree with you, that the bees from one hive 

 do. as a rule, work on some particular tree, 

 or in some particular locality ; but I am not 

 satisfied as to just how they manage to fol- 

 low or keep track of the inmates of their 

 own hive. Under such circumstances as 

 you mention, it probably is well to keep 500 

 or more hives in one location. I have 

 changed my mind considerably since I saw 

 the large apiaries of California, and heard 

 of the large yields; but I still think there 

 are few localities outside of California where 

 apiaries of more than 100 hives can be kept 

 profitably in one place. The mountain 

 thyme that you mention is probably a good 

 deal like the mountain sage of California. — 

 As you state it, there seems to be a positive 

 advantage in painting hives different colors. 

 Any kind of dark color, however, is objec- 

 tionable in our locality, because it absorbs 

 the rays of the sun, and becomes so much 

 hotter than a hive painted white.— Surely 

 you can get relief from the unreasonable 

 taxation you mention, can you not? Our 

 proof-reader suggests that it is only the 

 same thing over that happened in the time 

 recorded in the Scriptures. When Christ 

 came on earth he found just such extortion 

 in the collection of taxes as you mention ; 

 and, dear friend, is it not true now as it was 

 then, that there is no permanent complete 

 remedy except the spreading of the gospel 

 in the hearts of men?— The oriental races of 

 bees are not acknowledged with us to be 

 superior as honey -gatherers. They are, 

 however, acknowledged to be more prolific. 

 Are we to understand that you get honey 

 from olives also? In California I saw vast 

 orchards of olives.— It seems, friend B., you 

 still have faith that spirits of camphor help- 

 ed the hornet-stings. It is so natural to go 

 for the camphor-bottle, that a great many 

 of us, perhaps through the force of habit, 

 feel better when we see the bottle in some 

 friendly hand, accompanied by friendly 

 words of sympathy, and the refreshing and 



perhaps reviving aromatic smell of the cam- 

 phor.— So you were actually bitten by a 

 thousand-legged worm, were you? It is 

 true, you mention that it had only forty legs 

 instead of a thousand ; but the fact that 

 you suffered from its bite several days 

 rather, upsets some of Prof. Cook's state- 

 ments. Will the professor please explain? 



THE SEASON OF 1888. 



8EI.MNG HONEV; SOMETHING ABOUT COMMISSION 

 MEN. 



TTp S I'll have to tell it any way, I may just as 

 ^fjk well say right now that the failure of our 

 j5» honey crops in the two last seasons has tak- 

 ■*^*- en about the last bit of enthusiasm out of 

 me. The season of 1887 was poor, but 188S 

 was a total failure, so far as getting surplus honey 

 goes. I have 100 colonies, all in good shape to date. 



They have been having good flights for the last 

 three days. Their winter stores consist almost en- 

 tirely of honey that is as black as ink. I am satis- 

 fied that, should they be confined to their hives for 

 a period of six weeks or two months by cold weath- 

 er, there will not be a bee left to tell the story. 



After two weeks of bad weather during this 

 month, there came a warm day when the bees flew 

 out, and the hives were "spotted with dark excre- 

 ment, worse than I have ever seen after a long 

 winter's confinement. It might be urged that this 

 poor honey should have been taken away, and, in- 

 stead, sugar syrup given. As an excuse for this 

 palpable negligence, I will say that here our main 

 reliance for honey is clover, and this has been al- 

 most annihilated by the summer drouths of this 

 and last season, which made the prospects for a 

 year or more ahead unfavorable. In our judg- 

 ment, we should not be justified in going to much 

 trouble and expense to save the bees. If a few 

 days occur through the winter, offering opportuni- 

 ties for cleansing flights, our bees will come out all 

 right; but if they all die I shall not feel so badly 

 after all, as I console myself with the fact that I 

 can purchase honey from the" commission dealers 

 for about the same money that it costs to produce it 

 in our locality. 



Why can we buy honey from commission houses 

 for less money than it ean be had of.the producer? 

 This question I put for the sole purpose of opening 

 the eyes of bee-keepers of a certain class. For the 

 first time, this fall' I have handled a good deal of 

 honey on commission. You see, I am getting some- 

 what into the commission harness; and this being 

 the case you will bear with me if I say some plain 

 things about dealers. Although I had not a pound 

 of honey this year, I have been selling more this 

 season than ever before, a greater part of it being 

 purchased from dealers, and some I have handled 

 on commission. At the beginning of the season for 

 selling honey I wrote to perhaps one hundred bee- 

 keepers for prices of honey; but as their prices 

 seemed too high, I began to look to dealers in hon- 

 ey to supply me, which was done at very satisfac- 

 tory prices. 



" How can this be?" you ask. I will tell you just 

 how this is done. It is one thing to produce honey; 

 but to sell to the advantage of the producer is an- 

 other and quite a different thing. Now.it is sur- 

 prising how many successful honey-producers wr 



