358 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



May 



then be none to take care of the brood, to 

 keep it from chilling and starving, until the 

 second new swarm came out. If you are 

 sure of having swarms every day, it might 

 answer; but otherwise you would lose all 

 the sealed brood left when colony No. 1 

 swarmed. When a natural swarm comes off, 

 there are always bees enough left in the 

 hive to take care of the brood. I think that 

 these bees had better be left there. Where 

 one has more bees than he wants, however, 

 and does not care if the brood does die, this 

 might answer, to get as much honey as pos- 

 sible, regardless of loss of bees. 



THE SHRUB THAT BLOSSOMS THROUGH THE SNOW. 



You inquire about forsythia. It is a cultivated 

 shrub that is referred to, I think, and it has been 

 known for at least 20 years to be a pollen-plant in 

 this State. Tt will be in bloom from April 1st to 

 May 1st, according to season. It is good; it looks 

 well with its load of rich yellow flowers on the bare 

 green twigs, and before any other shrub blooms. 

 Bees work on it well. Its abundant bloom is fine 

 too. I can send you a bundle of cuttings if you 

 want them. It is as handsome a shrub as a Japan 

 quince. H. L. Jeffrey. 



New Milford, Conn., March 22, 1889. 



Thank you, friend J.; but it now trans- 

 pires that we have the forsythia in our own 

 dooryard. We never knew it to blossom, 

 however, when the snow was ou the ground. 

 Its yellow flowers usually come out the last 

 of April or first of May. We should not 

 have recognized it, perhaps, had not one of 

 our subscribers sent us some twigs by mail, 

 directing us to put them in a tumbler of 

 water, saying they would soon blossom, 

 which they did, and I at once recognized it. 

 It does not seem to do well, however, very 

 much further north than we are. See the 

 following : 



FORSYTHIA VIRIDISSIMA. 



< >ver thirty years since, in a bale from Ellwanger 

 & Barry, of Rochester, N. Y., was one of the above- 

 named shrubs. It blossomed the next spring; that 

 is, a small part of it. In three or four years it was 

 increased to several, and each one would have a 

 little branch or two blossom every spring, just 

 enough so that one could imagine what a beauty 

 one would be in full bloom. I tried "protection" 

 and cellar " wintering" on them, but with no better 

 success; and after eight or ten years I became dis- 

 gusted, dug them up, and consigned them to the 

 flames. From 15 to 30° below zero was too much for 

 them. I kept bees, but never saw one on the blos- 

 soms. The shrub is probably kept in most nurser- 

 ies. Jas. H. Andrus. 



Almont, Mich. 



THAT FINE QUALITY OF CALIFORNIA HONEY; 

 MORE ABOUT IT. 



Friend Root:— In company with the rest of the 

 urn isitcd Californians, 1 was somewhat disappoint- 

 ed in not seeing you while you were in the land of 

 booms. I had saved out about a ton of the X qual- 

 ity <>!' comb, of which I sent you a sample case last 

 fall. In acknowledging the receipt of the case you 

 spoke of the honey as the finest, both in taste and 

 color, that you had ever seen, and said that you 

 would give "considerable" to know what feed 

 would produce such honey. Well, it was gathered 

 from alfalfa blooms, pure and simple, all three 



grades, the darkest during cooler nights, the light- 

 est during the warmest nights and hottest days (110° 

 in the shade). Remember, too, that this beautiful 

 white honey was produced in the San Joaquin (waw- 

 7.U /ii Valley, and not in the mountains, and that I 

 have taken the first premium whenever I have ex- 

 hibited in competition with the "white sage" and 

 other grades of California honey. Did you find any 

 thing superior to it, while on your pleasure-trip? 



I hope that both yourself and Mrs. Root will find 

 time to visit us when you come to the State again. 



Louis W. Burr. 

 Bakersfield, Cal., March 18, 1889. 



Friend B., we have never seen any nicer 

 honey to look at, and, I think I may add, 

 finer to the taste, than the samples you 

 sent us ; and I am very glad indeed to know 

 that it came from alfalfa and nothing else. 

 But, strange to tell, when I inquired of bee- 

 men in California, near the great alfalfa 

 fields, I do not remember one of them who 

 told me they got any honey at all from it. 

 They seemed to treat the whole thing as a 

 sort of myth. Our older readers will re- 

 member that the alfalfa that we tested here 

 on our honey-farm did not yield enough 

 honey so that a bee was ever seen on it. 

 This matter is interesting, as quite a few 

 bee-keepers have been talking of sowing al- 

 falfa, mainly because it is a honey-plant. 

 Now, will vou tell us something about it in 

 your locality V Does it yield honey every 

 year ? and is it possible or probable that it 

 will amount to any thing for honey when 

 small patches are sown, the same way we 

 sow buckwheat for bees, for instance? 



NOT IN FAVOR OF QUEEN-EXCLUDING HONEY- 

 BOARDS. 



When I received your price list yesterday I look- 

 ed through it as soon as possible to Gee what you 

 had that was new and useful; but when I came to 

 the zinc honey-boards I stopped to consider (as Eli 

 Perkins used to say). Well, I have had considei-a- 

 ble experience with those things— about ten of them. 

 I can't call them honey-boards or queen-excluders, 

 or any thing very good. They were on the common 

 L. hives, and every brood-nest was above the queen- 

 excluder, and all were very weak— much weaker 

 than other hives in the same apiary. One of the 

 excluders was so full of dead drones that a common 

 bee could scarcely get through it. The poor fellows 

 were all hung by their necks; and when I lifted the 

 zinc up it looked more like a large brush than a 

 honey-board. A man ought to be taken up for cru- 

 elty to animals who would use such a thing. I use 

 the Heddon slatted honey-board. Friend Wilkin 

 says he don't believe you dare publish this; but I 

 don't care; that is just what 1 think of zinc honey- 

 boards. L. E. Mercer. 



San Buena Ventura, Cal., Mar. 15. 1889. 



Friend M., you tell our friend Wilkin 

 that he must scrape up a little more charity. 

 We not only dare, but we want facts, both 

 for and against every thing we advertise 

 and sell. In all that has been said for and 

 against the perforated zinc, we do not re- 

 member to have received a report like 

 yours. In the Alley drone-trap we have 

 seen a few drones caught in the manner 

 you describe ; but we concluded that the 

 poor fellows had worried so long to get 

 through that they died in the attempt, hang- 



