616 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug 



apiary. I don't think so now. I want them away 

 as early as possible. C. C. Millek. 



Marengo, 111. 



^ ^ 



BEE-KEEPERS' CONVENTIONS, ETC. 



OUK GOOD FRIEND DR. MASON GIVES US SOME 

 GLIMPSES AND HINTS IN REGARD TO TDEM. 



fKlEND ROOT: -I wish I had the descriptive 

 power of some of your correspondents, so 

 that I could tell about my observations, made 

 when on a Ramble, and of the amateur ex- 

 perts I see at such times, in an entertaining 

 way. At any rate it may not be uninteresting to 

 learn that, in this locality, or within the bounds of 

 our Tri-County Agricultural Society, comprising 

 the counties of Lenawee and Monroe, Mich., and 

 Lucas, Ohio, the bee-keepers are awake to the im- 

 portance of improving every opportunity to edu- 

 cate" the people in regard to our important and 

 growing industry. 



A year ago last winter the society held a three- 

 days' meeting at Monroe, Mich. It was just 

 " chock full " of enthusiasm, and bee-keepers did 

 their full share. It wa6 so arranged as to have our 

 specialty discussed in the evening, when there 

 would be a full attendance of people from the 

 city, whom it is quite desirable to disabuse of their 

 false belief in regard to the adulteration of our 

 product, and correct the false impressions made by 

 "Wiley" lies and newspaper squibs— the produc- 

 tion of the fertile imaginations of reporters. 



The next week after the above-mentioned meet- 

 ing, a farmers' institute, under the auspices of the 

 Ohio State Board of Agriculture, was held in this 

 county, ten miles from Toledo, at which our friend 

 T. B. Terry was one of the lecturers, and our spe- 

 cialty was again brought to the notice of the farm- 

 ers and others by the reading of a paper by myself, 

 and the subject received its share of attention. 

 And again at a like institute held in another part 

 of the county on the last day of last year and the 

 first day of this, the subject was again presented 

 by an essay that gave something of the natural his- 

 tory of bees and the benefit they are to the farmer 

 and to the horticulturist. 



Last winter at Adrian, Mich., was held the anni- 

 versary of the Lenawee County Horticultural So- 

 ciety, and one of the principal addresses, through 

 the efforts of one of your patrons, Mr. D. G. Ed- 

 miston, of that place, was on the relation of bee 

 culture to horticulture. It was well received. 

 Again in January last was held at Adrian the meet- 

 ing of the Lenawee County and the Tri-County Ag- 

 ricultural Societies: and on the programme for 

 one of the evening sessions, half of the time was 

 given to a paper on bee-keeping, etc., by H. D. Cut- 

 ting, of Clinton, Mich., and to one by your humble 

 servant. The subjects of both papers were discuss- 

 ed by such beekeepers as D. G. Edmiston, Mr. Allis, 

 A. M. Gander, and others; and the discussion show- 

 ed that a lively interest was taken in the subject. 

 I never was at a gathering of any kind where so 

 many sample copies of bee-journals were asked for 

 by interested parties. 



Mr. Newman had kindly sent some copies of the 

 American Bee Journal for distribution, and I had 

 some extra numbers of GLEANINGS to distribute 

 also, and they were given to interested parties, and 

 I doubt not you will hear from some of them. I 

 had some copies of " Dot Happy Bee-Man " song 



with me, and at the close of the discussion of the 

 bee essays the glee-club sang it, to the evident sat- 

 isfaction of the hundreds present. 



At the close of the institute, at the solicitation of 

 our friend H. D. Cutting, we (that's my better half 

 and 1 I went home with him, 22 miles by rail, and had 

 a good three-days' visit with him and his family. 



Of course, I had to take a good peep at his bees. 

 Till the last two or three winters his bees have 

 been wintered outdoors, packed on their summer 

 stands, but he is now a thorough convert to the 

 benefits of cellar wintering. His cellar is under his 

 house, and used as a family cellar for vegetables, 

 etc., and is Hix24, and 7 feet high. He has made a 

 kind of rack along one side and end, so as to hold 

 three tiers of hives, which are set with their en- 

 trances toward and within a few inches of the wall, 

 each one being easily removable without disturbing 

 any others. The frames are covered with enamel 

 cloth, and the bottom-board is left on.' Some of 

 them were placed in winter quarters Oct. 20, and 

 the last on Nov. 20; and I am safe in saying that 

 there were not two quarts of dead bees on the cel- 

 lar bottom, from about 40 colonies, and none had 

 been taken up. A small window at one end admits 

 light at all times, sufficient so that no artificial light 

 is needed to sec to get things from the cellar, and 

 but little light reaches the bees. He prefers a tem- 

 perature of from 38° to 40°. If with the tempera- 

 ture of my cellar, 50°, I were to admit light, I should 

 have to carry out mostly dead bees in the spring. 



On the evening of the second day of the institute 

 I had the pleasure of going home with and being 

 entertained by Mr. E. W. Ellis, president of the 

 Adrian Scientific Society. He lives five miles in 

 the country, and, metaphorically, is full of bugs, 

 beetles, reptiles, etc. Being rather timid, and hav- 

 ing no especial liking for such amimals, you can 

 perhaps imagine my feelings on being ushered into 

 a room about twelve feet square, more or less, 

 " zhust zhammed crammed full of dose pets vot 

 vorks all der day und nefer 6chleep nights, morc'n 

 ten tousand hundert, 1 bets." But then I soon 

 found they were all dead. Mr. Allis is an enthusias- 

 tic entomologist, and he has a large library of 

 scientific books, and seemed to know all that was in 

 them. Of course, he keeps a few colonies of bees, 

 and tries all sorts of experiments with them. 



We were entertained at Adrian by Mr. Edmiston 

 and family; and of course he keeps bees, or how 

 else could 1 possibly have stayed over night with 

 him? His bees are wintered on their summer 

 stands, in chaff, and other hives of that character; 

 and being a small-fruit grower and nurseryman he 

 does much toward properly educating the people 

 of his locality in regard to bees and their work and 

 production. 



During the last two winters I have attended five 

 of theee institutes, held in the three above-named 

 counties, and made special preparation to present 

 our branch of agricultural or horticultural interest, 

 bee culture, etc., in the most interesting and at- 

 tractive form that it was possible for me to do. If 

 any other bee-keepers were present, they have 

 willingly " lent a helping hand." In no case has an 

 effort been made to induce any to engage in bee- 

 keeping as a business, but to give, in as entertain- 

 ing a way as possible, a brief natural history of 

 bees; tell where honey comes from, and how the 

 bees gather, store, and ripen it; how extracted hon- 

 ey is secured, and, if possible, illustrate; tell how 



