412 



GLEANINGS IN J3EE CULTURE. 



UNE 



TITOSE OKAKGE-TRBE8 ! TI1K MiNOTUM TOMATO. 



I have just sold that little patch of seedling 

 orange-trees that you were admiring when here— 

 1000 trees grown one year in the seed-bed and one 

 year in nursery rows, for $175, and have enough 

 seed planted to raise from 10,000 to 15,000 more. I 

 received 33 Ignotum tomato-seeds, and have 133 nice 

 plants, transplanted and growing in the garden. 

 That seed is good. J. F. McIntyre. 



Fillmore, Cal., May 10, 1889. 



I am very glad indeed, friend M., that the 

 perforated zinc honey-board works so well 

 in your hands. I think I should use the 

 drone comb, by all means ; in fact, a good 

 many prefer drone comb to worker for ex- 

 tracting. I am inclined to think that the 

 bees can store honey faster in drone comb 

 than in worker comb; and I also believe 

 that the honey is thrown out more easily 

 with the extractor. The only objection that 

 1 know of is the liability of gettting drone 

 brood ; but the perforated zinc board ought 

 to remedy this entirely.— I am glad to get 

 your report from the orange-trees. Now, 

 this is one of the mysteries that I can not 

 understand. The demand for orange-trees is 

 large, and yet the prices are what I should 

 call away up. Now, notwithstanding this, 

 thousands of people are found all over Cali- 

 fornia, wanting something to do ; in fact, I 

 am afraid that a great many of them went 

 to California just on purpose to get a job, as 

 they could not get one at home. I think 

 my talk on the subject in our last issue pret- 

 ty nearly solves the problem.— If you got 

 33 tomato-plants from that little paper of 

 seed, I think that you too, friend M., must 

 be an adept in making seeds grow. May be 

 your good wife kept an eye on them. Give 

 my respects to the little girl who climbed 

 the mountain with her doll-baby, a good 

 deal faster than I could do it with both 

 hands and feet, and all my strength. 



FROM DECEMBER TILL MAY. 



A REPORT FROM THE GREAT BASSWOOD REGION 

 OF WISCONSIN. 



f O-DAY is about the first day that it has rained 

 this season to prevent work, so it gives us 

 opportunity to make a short report at this 

 end of the route. May 18th, and 80 colonies 

 • not looked over yet this spring to crop 

 queens or regulate frames. How is that for a mod- 

 ern bee-keeper who takes five bee-papers, and 

 keeps 300 colonies of bees? I am aware that it is a 

 good plan for a bee-man to look over his bees every 

 month or two. 1 have tried to do so, but in an evil 

 hour I listened to the advice of those who counsel a 

 bee-keeper to have some other business to fall back 

 on, that, in the event of his bees failing during off 

 years, he would have some other string to pull, or 

 some other source of income to provide for his 

 family and keep the wolf from the door. Had I tak- 

 en the advice of A. I. Root on this point, which 

 was given somewhere in Gleanings, all would 

 have been well. His advice was, to put money in 

 the bank, where we could have it handy to draw on 

 to tide us over during poor years. Instead of act- 

 ing on this sensible plan, after considerable thought 

 I went iuto the nursery business on a small scale, 

 adding a small orchard, grapevines, small fruits, 



etc. Now be it known that this nursery business 

 will take the cake for keeping a man employed 13 

 months out of the year. To explain how it gets in 

 13 months, I will say that he can hoe all summer, 

 graft all winter, and in the months of spring and 

 fall when he delivers his stock he will have to do 

 two months' work in one, so that will make the 13 

 months. The above will explain why 1 have neg- 

 lected my bees until this late date. Customers had 

 to have their trees, vines, and plants, at the right 

 time, so bees had to take their chances. Now. if 

 any dissatistied bee-keeper wants to exchange his 

 bees for nursery stock let him come forward, for I 

 am anxious to have one job or hand, and have the 

 satisfaction of having things done in time. 1 was 

 unable to visit my bees previous to last week, ex- 

 cepting two or three times, giving them a hasty 

 examination, and feed where necessary to prevent 

 starvation, being all the care they got since taking 

 them out of cellars March 19th and 20tb, excepting 

 60 colonies that were left in six days longer. I see 

 no perceptible difference between those taken out 

 first and those last. Bees have wintered well in 

 this county generally. Mine were too warm all 

 winter. The Sextonville lot, 219 colonies, would 

 have made a good hot-bed if we could have utiliz- 

 ed the heat. They were so warm that they dried up 

 all of the moisture on the walls, and would proba- 

 bly have dried the sand on tho bottom of the cellar 

 if it had not been covered with dead bees. T don't 

 see how Mr. Barber keeps his bees at a temperature 

 of 70 or 80. Mine at 55 to 65 came out poorly. Many 

 colonies were weak when set out, and quite a num- 

 ber worthless; but they had no spring dwindling. 

 All that were good when taken out are so yet, show- 

 ing that a high temperature will not hurt bees in a 

 winter repository, if they will stay in the hive. 



Up to date I have 318 colonies with queens, out of 

 350 put in winter quarters. They average better 

 than last year. They have used honey rapidly this 

 spring. We have fed several hundred pounds of re- 

 served comb honey, in going over them this our 

 first time. If they should need feeding again be- 

 fore clover, I shall have to resort to extracted hon- 

 ey, of which we have 1200 lbs. 



The prospect here has been rather poor for clo- 

 ver, as previous droughts have caused a light 

 stand; but the present rains may bring forth to ad- 

 vantage all there is of it. In all of my experience 

 with bees, over 30 years, I have never known bees 

 to swarm in April but twice. Last April was one of 

 them. Several swarms were i-eported the last of 

 the month in this county. My first and last swarms 

 were the 4th of May. We bad after that a cold and 

 windy time of ten days duration, which checked all 

 inclination to swarm. I see by reports from all 

 parts of the country that a booming season for bees 

 is confidently" expected. Bees are in splendid order; 

 white clover is coming on finely; and being the full 

 year for basswood, a large honey-yield is anticipat- 

 ed. If it comes in as well as predicted, where shall 

 we sell our honey? Judging from the way the small 

 crop of last year filled the market, where can we 

 find an outlet for a large and general crop? It looks, 

 as though a large crop in 1889 would put the price, 

 down where poor folks could eat it. For one I am 

 not disposed to sell mine cheap until I see it- 

 Eleven years ago, 1878, bees swarmed in April. They 

 had wintered as well or better than last winter. It 

 looked as though we were going to have an excep 

 tionaljy fine season; but.up to September \st, bees 



