296 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



lasting benefit. There is a great amount of time 

 thrown away upon even our daily and weekly pa- 

 pers. The Rambler reads many a paragraph before 

 dinner that he can not remember after dinner, and 

 he does not eat very hearty either. That we may 

 all lie free from frequent reading-sprees is the de- 

 sire of the Rambler. 



Friend R., I have just been meditating on 

 the very point you make, and I am really 

 afraid that a good many of our young peo- 

 ple are reading too much and practicing too 

 little. The result of this kind of intemper- 

 ance—for intemperance it surely is— is an 

 ability to talk well on these subjects, and 

 oftentimes to write very fair essays for the 

 agricultural papers ; but when somebody 

 happens to pay a visit to the writer of these 

 articles, and finds that his home does not 

 correspond a bit with his preaching, it tends 

 to demoralize and disgust the whole fabric 

 of human society. Every one should read 

 the books and papers, and know what is 

 going on ; but to continue to read and raad, 

 without actual practice, is just what you put 

 it. In our own home we have a young lady 

 who reads books until almost eleven o'clock 

 at night, unless her parents interfere ard 

 make a fuss about it. As a result she is 

 not ready for breakfast next morning. 

 When I was her age I read pretty much 

 every tiling I could get hold of, but there 

 was not enough to be had to give me a 

 chance to be intemperate, as you put it. In 

 this age of abundant periodicals, private 

 and public libraries, etc., it does behoove us 

 to look well to our children, and see that 

 they do not acquire intemperate habits in 

 the use of books. 



CELLAES AND WINTERING. 



PROF. COOK GIVES US A FAVORABLE REPORT OF 

 HIS CELLAR DURING THE PAST WINTER. 



R. EDITOR:— Our old cellar was in sand, en- 

 tirely below ground, and provided with good 

 sub-earth ventilation. A good stream of wa- 

 ter flowed into and out of that cellar con- 

 stantly. I never knew the thermometer to go 

 lower than 38° F., and I rarely knew it to go lower 

 than 40. The bees wintered well. Our present cel- 

 lar Is in regular Medina clay, and this winter the 

 thermometer has gone down to 35° F., repeatedly, 

 and once down to 30° F., so that water froze in the 

 cellar. I used an oil-stove repeatedly, and so kept 

 the temperature for the most part up to about 40° 

 F. My first point is, that a cellar in sand is better 

 for bees than one in clay. I should think that the 

 running water might have made the difference, ex- 

 cept one very dry winter when the stream dried up. 

 That winter was much colder than this winter has 

 been, and yet 38° F. was the lowest in the old cel- 

 lar. Again, the old cellar, or the house above it, 

 was protected by a barn and evergreens. The 

 present bee-house is on a bleak exposed hill. This 

 situation may aid the clay. Were I to build a bee- 

 hou.se again, and could have my choice, I should 

 select a sandy site. When the thermometer got 

 down to 30° F., the bees were quite uneasy. 1 don't 

 like such a low temperature in the cellar, so I was 

 uneasy. Accordingly, last Tuesday, being a warm 

 day, we concluded to give the bees a fly. We find 

 them usually strong and in good condition. As in 



the two past winters, the Heddon hive is far ahead. 

 My assistant said every colony in the Heddon hives 

 is as strong as they were in the fall. Most of the 

 hives are covered only with aboard, and have the 

 entrances open. When set out, the covers were 

 dripping with water. We fed most of them sugar 

 syrup last autumn. I have never yet given just 

 my opinion of the new Heddon hive since using it. 

 I shall, with your kind permission, do it soon. It 

 will not be all praise, but I am fully persuaded that 

 the double brood-chamber, divided horizontally, is 

 an advantage in cellar wintering. 



I believe that Mr. Doolittle, it I remember cor- 

 rectly, found, a few winters ago, that the use of his 

 oil-stove, to keep the cellar at the right tempera- 

 ture, was an expensive experiment. So I was 

 somewhat nervous this winter. I am glad to re- 

 port that our bees are bright, lively, with no smell 

 of disease about their persons, and yet they were 

 warmed by an oil-stove. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich., Apr. 1, 1889. 



1 have for some time been much of the 

 opinion you express in the above, friend C, 

 that a sandy soil is much better for a bee- 

 cellar than cellars made in the damp cold 

 clay. I should ba glad to have a report 

 from you, favoring a double-brood chamber 

 divided horizontally. At this date, Apr. 11, 

 Ernest has not yet taken his Heddon hive 

 out of the cellar. He says he wants to wait 

 until a week or two after just the right time, 

 as Dr. Miller said at Columbus. 



A QUESTION OF BREAD AND BUTTER. 



SHALL WE COMBINE OTHER OCCUPATIONS WITH 



BEE - KEEPING, WHEN IT NECESSITATES A 



NEGLECT OF THE LATTER? 



TTp ROUT a year ago there was some discussion 



9M& as to whether it was better to market our 



^w eggs all in one basket, figuratively speaking. 



-*^- To give a little of my experience in the last 



year is the task I undertake. 



My crop of 18S7 was very small— the gross pro- 

 ceeds only a little over £126, or about $100 net. 

 You see, without some other resource I should 

 hardly have made a living that season. As it hap- 

 pened, I did not have to neglect my bees much dur- 

 ing that year. But this last season, the case was 

 different. My bees came out of winter well, but 

 shorter of stores than ever before. The spring was 

 so cold and cloudy that they hardly got three days' 

 work on fruit-blossoms. I managed to bring them 

 into summer in pretty good condition, however. 

 Then day after day passed, first into weeks, then 

 into months, as I looked anxiously. Was the fail- 

 ure an unmixed evil? I had other crops in, which 

 I had employed a hand to cultivate. But he failed 

 me early in the season. Then, owing to the 

 scarcity of laborers, and ill health on my own part, 

 those crops were all and more than I could attend 

 to properly. The season was favorable to the 

 growth of potatoes, corn, and— weeds. If I could 

 keep down the weeds I knew that corn and pota- 

 toes would yield me something, while the bees 

 did not promise any thing, as it appeared that 

 clover would not blossom at all. Should I peg 

 away at a certainty, save my other crops, and let 

 the doubtful bees go? I did that very thing, so far 

 as I was able. I knew most of them would get 

 along, although poorly. Some were in a starving 



