68 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JAN. 



Gleanings in Bee Culture. 



Published Semi-Monthly. 



*o+~4o« 



^. I. BOOT, 

 EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, 



*JL£ZDT.2XJ±, OHIO. 



TERMS: $1.00 PER YEAR, P08""PAID. 



For Glutting Bates, See First Page of Beading Matter. 



irvEiEnDiisr^, j^L-isr. is, nees. 



And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and 

 east ■■lit man; devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, be- 

 cause they knew him.— Hark l 34. 



EARLY QUEENS KHOM THE SOUTH. 



Already inquiries are coming in. "To whom can 

 I send and get a queen now?" Our friend Nellie 

 Adams, of Florida, comes forward with an adver- 

 tisement in this issue, but 1 believe she is the only 

 one. I talked with the folks about it in California, 

 but they are all too well off. or too lazy, or too busy 

 with something else. Now, if there is anybody else 

 in Florida or Texas or (California who has young 

 queens on hand ready to mail right off now, let us 

 know, and we will give you an advertisement free 

 of charge. 



PRICE LISTS AND CIRCULARS OF APIARIAN SUP- 

 PLIES AND PRODUCTS FOR 1889. 



We are now ready to make mention of all such 

 circulars and price lists, but we must insist that 

 they have a printed date on them. How else are 

 we to tell whether it is something we noticed last 

 year, or a brand-new one? Sometimes, perhaps, 

 the date is left off by omission; but please remem- 

 ber that nowadays every thing that gives prices or 

 information of any kind in regard to merchandise 

 gives a date.. We do not want to waste our time in 

 reading over something that is old and out of date. 



THE "WHITE PLUME" LETTUCE. 



The most promising head — the head I wrote 

 about Nov. l">th. died on our hands after it had par- 

 tially sent ii|> a seed-stalk, so we have got to go 

 back to first principles and start a lot more plants 

 with the seed we raised last summer. The plants 

 are up in the greenhouse, and we can, without 

 question, succeed in getting as nice a head as the 

 one we lost. I presume that none of the friends 

 who received seed from u^ have done more than to 

 get some nice white heads, without securing seed, 

 unless some friend far enough south secured the 

 Heed in the winter. If any such there be, we shall 

 be glad to hear from them. 



"GROWING JAPANESi: BUCKWHEAT, ON PAPER." 



I omitted to make any comment or reply to the 

 article on page 67, under the above heading, lor the 

 simple reason that I do not know how anybody can 

 advise or suggest in such matters. Many people in 

 many localities would do all and perhaps more than 

 is there figured out; but there are others who 

 would make a failure of the crop, even in the best 

 locality. Then, again, there are experts in farming 

 who would make as good a crop as our friend has 

 figured, on almost any soil, and during almost any 

 season, no matter how unfavorable. The most we 

 can do is to print reports of what others have done; 



but it should be borne in mind, when reading these 

 reports, that those who report at all are, for the 

 most part, the ones who have achieved at least a 

 moderate success. 



A HINT IN FAVOR OF HOUSE-APIARIES. 



On page 62 Frank W. Reed tells us of a colony of 

 bees under the clapboards of a house, that had win- 

 tered safely for twenty years; and the record shows 

 a better condition than we usually get where hives 

 have good care. This colony has had no care what- 

 ever, for the very good reason that it was impossi- 

 ble to give them any. Now, why can't our friend, or 

 anybody else, in fact, locate bees under the siding, 

 all over the house? The swarms that come out 

 every year will be so much clear gain, even if you 

 sold them for a dollar apiece to whoever would take 

 them ; and it certainly would not be a very difficult 

 matter to give each colony a crate of sections. Does 

 some one urge that the bees would annoy the in- 

 mates? Well, then, let some stubborn brother, who 

 loves bees and never expects to get married, con- 

 duct the enterprise. 



I). A. JONES'S PRACTICAL BEE-KEEPING — A COR- 

 RECTION. 



OUR friend D. A. Jones is now writing a series of 

 papers on " Practical Bee-keeping," in the Canadian 

 Bee Journal. The author is full of bee-lore, and 

 that of a practical kind. These papers will be read 

 with interest, because the matter bespeaks experi- 

 ence. But somehow or another, in speaking of the 

 Parker machines he has got us quoted wrong. He 

 says, " Ernest Root tells of a girl in their employ 

 who can average 3000 i putting in foundation sec- 

 tions! a day with the Parker, and on occasion can 

 put foundation in 1200 sections in an hour." We 

 have not used the Parker machine in our establish- 

 ment for several years — at least not to any great 

 extent— our girls preferring the foot-power instead. 

 Besides, if we could on occasion put foundation in 

 1200 sections in an hour, we ought certainly to aver- 

 age more than 3000 per day. The average would be 

 nearer W,00O, would it not? Aren't you thinking of 

 what he said on page 795, of the Oct. 15th issue, 

 friend Jones? We there said that our girls could 

 fold mot put foundation in) sections at the rate of 

 1000 per hour, and could, on occasions, fold at the 

 rate of 1200 per hour. With regard to the relative 

 merit of the Parker and the foot-power machines, 

 our experience says that the latter work more rap- 

 idly and easily, but the Parker does rather better 

 work; that is, the foundation is made to hang 

 straighter after it leaves the machine. 



NEST-EGGS FOR COLD WEATHER. 



I notice that one of the poultry-journals makes 

 objections to glass and porcelain, that they are too 

 cold for winter use. They give the poor biddies the 

 toothache, probably, when they are obliged to sit 

 on them at a zero temperature. They also object 

 to the heavy porcelain, or china eggs, that, because 

 of their weight, they knock against the good eggs 

 and break them. Both objections, however, 1 think 

 will not hold good to the eggs we have been selling, 

 made of white glass. These are no heavier than 

 ordinary eggs— perhaps not so heavy; and the ma- 

 terial of which they are made is so thin they would 

 not be likely to chill the poor biddy. The basswood 

 nest-eggs are free from both the above objections— 

 they can not be broken, and are less expensive. 

 Ernest says, however, their extreme lightness 



