GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



593 



nearly as well one or two other years prior to 1880. 

 This was all gathered by Italian bees, while at the 

 same time the blacks were consuming the stores 

 which they had gathered from basswood. 



G. M. Doolittle. 

 Bees frequently work on it; and they surely 

 would not work it for pollen alone in my location, 

 where pollen resources are so great. I doubt, how- 

 ever, whether I ever realized any great amount 

 of surplus from it. E. E. Hasty. 



No, not separate from white clover, as my bees 

 work on both at the same time; that is, both bloom 

 together here, and bees are seen working on both. 

 My bees work well on the red clover some years 

 when it is plentiful. I find that the dark or leather- 

 colored Italians work on it much better than the 

 bright yellow bees. Mr. Frank Boomhower, of Gal- 

 lupville, N Y., who advertises "red-clover queens," 

 first got his stock from my apiary, when he said 

 they were the first bees he ever saw work on red 

 clover, b. I never get it separate from white. 



A. E. Manum. 



The striug of "noes "at the beginning 

 would seem to indicate, either that red clo- 

 ver does not flourish everywhere, or that it 

 doe? not yield honey very often. I feel like 

 adding that the friends who say " no " have 

 not observed as closely as some of us ; may 

 be, however, that last had better not be 

 added. Muth says, " Once in a great 

 while ;" so we know he is pretty certain 

 that he has had a good yield from red clo- 

 ver. Friend Freeborn once gave red clover 

 the credit, but now thinks it doubtful. 

 James Ileddon has had only one good yield 

 from red clover. Now, I am inclined to 

 think, as in the question just before, that 

 we are all indebted more to red clover than 

 we know. In our locality you may go out 

 into the fields in July, August, or Septem- 

 ber, and And Italians working steadily and 

 busily on red clover, day after day, and 

 week after week. And, while it gives a 

 surplus only under very favorable circum- 

 stances, 1 feel certain that red clover keeps 

 bees busy and out of mischief, and keeps 

 brood-rearing going, and oftentimes enables 

 them slowly to accumulate sufficient stores 

 for winter, where it does nothing more. 

 Ernest remarks that only last summer, the 

 red-clover bloom gave enough honey so as to 

 save quite a good deal in sugar feeding. 

 The color and taste of the honey indicated 

 pretty surely the source. In our locality, 

 more or less red clover is always round 

 about us, to the extent of perhaps 100 acres 

 within range of the bees' flight, from which 

 a good deal of clover seed is raised. What 

 we call red-clover honey has a ranker taste 

 than that from white clover. The color is 

 a little greener. That a bee Alls its sac from 

 the blossoms of red clover, can be easily 

 proven by dissection. You can also And 

 the same honey by dissecting the clover- 

 head. Sometimes the honey is scarcely per- 

 ceptible, either to the taste or to the sight ; 

 at other times it seems to almost All the 

 tube of the blossom. At such a time, the 

 bees work strong, and All the boxes. A 

 tfood yield of honey, however, from red clo- 

 ver, in our locality, is the exception rather 

 than the rule. 



Every boy or girl, under 15 years of age, who writes a let- 

 ter for this department, containing some valuable fact, not 



GENERALLY KNOWN, ON BEES OB OTHER MATTERS, will receive 



one of David Oook's excellent five-cent Sunday-school books. 

 Many of these books contain the same matter that you And in 

 Sunday-school hooks costing from $1.00 to 81.50. If you have 

 had one or more books, give us the names that we may not 

 send the same twice. We have now in stock six different 

 books, as follows; viz.: Sheer Off, Silver Keys, The Giant-Kill- 

 er; or. The Roby Family, Rescued from Egypt, Pilgrim's 

 Progress, and Ten Nights in a Bar-Room. We have also Our 

 Homes, Part I., and Our Homes, Part II. Besides the above 

 books, you may have a photograph of our old house apiary, 

 and a photograph of our own apiary, both taken a great many 

 years ago. In the former is a picture of Novice, Blue Eyes, 

 and Caddy, and a glimpse of Ernest. We have also some pret 

 ty little colored pictures of birds, fruits, flowers, etc., suitable 

 for framing. You can have your choice of any one of the 

 above pictures or books for every letter that gives us some 

 valuable piece of information. 



A WHOLE PLATEFUL, OF HONEY AT A TIME. 



My uncle Joseph has 14 hives of bees. He has 

 taken 50 lbs. of extracted honey, and 50 lbs. of 

 comb. But the rainy weather has been a drawback 

 on the bees. He expects to take a nice lot more; 

 that is, if it doesn't rain too much. I never used to 

 like honey till this year, because when my uncle 

 first kept bees I ate a whole plateful and it made 

 me sick. I have a little playmate who likes to eat 

 salt on honey. Mabel, Briggs, age 11. 



Cornwall Landing, N. Y., June 17, 1889. 



PAPA'S GREENHOUSE. 



Papa has a forcing-house. It is 12 by 34 feet. It 

 is covered with glass, and heated by a furnace, on 

 the return-flue system. It is a perfect success. 

 He has a lean-to on it and half of it is covered with 

 glass. Iu that he keeps his furnace, water-tank, 

 and also has room to transplant in it. He has the 

 beds in the other part. He has about 3000 once 

 transplanted Grand Rapids lettuce-plants. He also 

 has cabbage, cauliflower, and tomato seeds sown, 

 and has radishes up. He gives us children one cent 

 per 100 for transplanting. 



Lovina E. Whitney, age 10. 



Independence, Iowa, Feb. 15, 1889. 



BEES IN GERMANY. 



Bees in Germany are doing very badly. My 

 mother is there this year, and also my brothers, 

 taking care of them. My mother is going to send 

 me a photograph of our buckwheat apiary, of about 

 40 straw hives. You have no such hives in your A 

 B C book as we have in Germany. My mother had 

 the first swarm Pfingsten (Easter). She took some 

 hives along, and other goods, to show the people in 

 Germany. About half of our bees died last winter, 

 for we had no one to see to them until mamma 

 came out in spring. She is going to visit some large 

 bee-men; and when she comes back I will send you 

 a report of her journey. Papa is busy hiving 

 swarms. He says the bees have no honey, and are 

 doing little. Last year he and I extracted honey 

 June 24. Anna Blanken, age 11. 



Jersey City, N. J., June 26, 1889. 



All right, friend Anna ; let's hear from 

 you again. 



