168 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



money in dosing insects. Where cheap la- 

 bor can be secured (little boys and little 

 girls, for instance), the matter can be man- 

 aged, oftentimes so as to leave a safe mar- 

 gin. I have paid small boys live cents a 

 hundred for potato-bugs when they first be- 

 gan to show themselves in the spring. This, 

 von know, is Terry's plan. Where boys can 

 be hired for less money than Paris green 

 costs bv all means pay the money to the 

 boys. It needs a man of judgment to han- 

 dle Paris green as a rule ; and my experi- 

 ence is that a man of judgment costs consid- 

 erable money for every hour you keep him at 

 work at the potatoes. Putting something 

 into the soil to destroy the rudiments of the 

 insect-foes seems to me the more rational 

 proceeding ; and the guano and lime for 

 plant-gardens— yes, and for early radishes 

 in beds, I think gives us a pointer as to 

 what may be accomplished in this line. 



LOOKING OUT FOR FROSTS. 



I want to urge again the importance of a 

 barometer and thermometer to the gardener 

 or fruit-raiser. For ten days past we have 

 had very cool nights, and once or twice a 

 little frost. The question came up each 

 night, " Had we better go to the expense of 

 carrying out boxes, etc., and covering our 

 plants, or shall we take the chances ? " To 

 cover our stuff as well as we could, would 

 take perhaps three or four men two or three 

 hours. In fact, it would cost a dollar or 

 two to fix well for a frost. Now, then, I 

 will tell you how the above instruments 

 sive money. After watching the matter 

 closely I have decided there is but little dan- 

 ger of frost unless the thermometer goes 

 down to 50 or lower at sundown. Now, 

 there is no danger at this temperature un- 

 less the sky should be clear at night. The 

 barometer here indicates pretty accurately 

 whether it will cloud up or not. On one oc- 

 casion everybody w T as sure there would be 

 a frost. Newspapers and pieces of cloth 

 were flying from every dooryard ; but I 

 steadily insisted that there was no danger, 

 and made no preparation at all, because the 

 barometer was " away down." When some 

 of them laughed at me, I told them that, 

 with the present low barometer, it must 

 cloud up or else we should have a big wind, 

 and either one would interfere with a frost. 

 In the morning it was very cold, but we had 

 both wind and clouds, and no frost. At an- 

 other time I decided there would be a little 

 frost. I told the boys to cover the pepper- 

 plants, sweet potatoes, and cucumbers. 

 The result was, that there was just frost 

 enough to scorch the tops of the tallest 

 potatoes, occasionally an enterprising bean- 

 stalk, and the edges of a few of the cucum- 

 ber leaves. Nothing was greatly harmed. 

 Of course, we put sashes over all the sweet- 

 potato beds. Well, the sashes were covered 

 with frost ; and where the leaves and sweet 

 potatoes touched the glass they were scorch- 

 ed—nothing more. The sidewalks and tops 

 of the bee-hives— in fact, the glass of the 

 greenhouse, was covered with frost ; but 

 the squashes, even down in the creek bot- 

 tom, were uninjured. A great many 

 thought it very strange that the squashes 

 and cucumbers low down on the ground 



were unharmed, while the sidewalks were 

 white with frost. I knew pretty well what 

 it would be, the night before. The sun had 

 been shining for several days, and the 

 ground was quite warm, and warmed down 

 pretty deeply. This latent heat saved the 

 vines and every thing else on the creek 

 bottom ; but in the peat swamp, however, 

 it was a good deal worse. The reason is, 

 the light porous peat is a good deal like the 

 boards of the sidewalk. The air circulated 

 under and through it so that it cooled down; 

 while in the clay and sandy soil it did not. 

 So far this season (May 28) we are uuharm- 

 ed, and the labor of covering and uncover- 

 ing with us during the month of May has 

 not cost us fifty cents. 



CONDUCTED BY ERNEST It. ROOT. 



HOBBIES ; ESTABLISHING OUT-APIARIES. 



T* IKE my paternal ancestor, I find my- 

 ||| self occasionally running into hobbies. 

 J^r It is one thing at one time and anoth- 

 ■*"^ er thing at another. First it was 

 chickens and pigeons ; then came guns, 

 electricity, chemistry, microscopy, and pho- 

 tography. Bees V Yes. They have had their 

 fair share of patronage ever since I recover- 

 ed from my first fear of the sting. Well, 

 what is the latest hobby V It is out-apia- 

 ries. If I seem to be more enthusiastic than 

 the subject warrants, you must lay it all to 

 Dr. C. C. Miller, who is responsible for the 

 fever. Of course, to keep up constant com- 

 munication with an out-apiary necessitated 

 a good traveling horse. No sooner had 1 

 purchased a good colt than my fever was 

 horses and out-apiaries. Sometimes my 

 mind runs on training colts, and sometimes 

 on building air-castles in basswood orchards 

 which a far-seeing parent provided seven- 

 teen years ago. I make this introductory, 

 so that, if you see any thing wild or erratic, 

 either in my writings or methods, you may 

 be able to make a little allowance. 



After we had decided upon the construc- 

 tion of the Dovetailed hive, we found that 

 we had quite unwittingly blundered on to 

 something that seemed to be specially adapt- 

 ed to moving bees to out-apiaries. When I 

 discovered this, and when I had become 

 thoroughly animated by Dr. Miller's out- 

 apiary articles, I could not rest easy till I 

 had purchased a colt and made other ar- 

 rangements to carry out, for the present, 

 the out-apiary scheme. By the way, I know 

 of no better fun than to go out into the 

 country buying up bees, with a good spirit- 

 ed colt. I know of no better way to get 

 fresh air ; and it certainly is a pleasure to 

 talk with the bee-keepers, here and there 

 dotted throughout the county. 



I decided that it would not do to take 

 bees from our own home apiary. Having 

 had foul brood in days gone by, 1 thought it 

 would be a wiser way to introduce entirely 

 new stock, and put them in an entirely new 

 location. As we fill orders for bees by ex- 

 press from this apiary we were obliged to do 

 s >. Accordingly Billy (my colt), the cart. 



