18S9 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



638 



fear that I have not been able to do any thing- with 

 the bees. 1 ought to cut out queen-cells and do a 

 great many other things, but I dare not for fear 

 of the annoyance to passers by. I have had a no- 

 tion of moving them back about 50 or 60 yards, but 

 I did not know whether I could do it or not. My 

 bees have been unusually cross this year, oq ac- 

 count of rainy and cool weather, and at this time of 

 writing they are most of them clustering in front 

 of the hives. They have been dragging out drones 

 for two weeks. If you think I can move them 

 back without any great loss, please tell me how. 

 If I can move them, when would be the proper 

 time. This fall or next spring? I leave bees on 

 summer stands all the winter. G. W. Reame. 



Franklin, Tenn., July 3, 1889. 



Under the circumstances we would not 

 advise you to keep your bees in their pres- 

 ent location. You had better move them to 

 the back part of your lot, at least far enough 

 from the highway so that no annoyance can 

 occtir. It is not usually possible to move 

 bees a short distance without some incon- 

 venience or loss ; but if you have only a few 

 colonies I would advise you to move them 

 all back at night, at once. Change the ap- 

 pearance of the old location, and make 

 every thing look as strange as possible. At 

 the same time, make the new location re- 

 semble as much as possible the old one; at 

 any rate, put each hive in the relative posi- 

 tion it occupied on the old location. If the 

 bees should cluster on the ground near the 

 old location, scrape them up, mix them to- 

 gether, and make a nucleus or colony of 

 them, and take them back among the other 

 bees. For further particulars, see " Moving 

 Bees." in the A B of Bee Culture. Also 

 see R. Powell's article in Gleanings for 

 July 1, p. 531. 



A VARIEGATED CALIFORNIA GARDEN. 



Few people who plant gardens for beauty are 

 aware of the great number of plants with variegat- 

 ed or odd-colored foliage. True, we have many 

 plants which are almost constant bloomers, but a 

 plant with beautiful foliage is itself a flower which 

 lasts through the entire season. Do you wish to 

 plant fruit-trees in your garden? Our beautiful 

 purple-leaved prunus, Pissardi, bears a very fair 

 plum; and the fruit of the peach-tree with purple 

 leaves is by no means to be despised. Here in Cali- 

 fornia we have evergreen orange, lemon, and lime 

 trees, whose leaves are most beautifully marked 

 with yellow, white, and green. Some of my apricot- 

 trees are gay with light and dark green variegation. 



You can have corn (Zed Japonica var.), and lovely 

 foliage beets of half a dozen varieties. Our Chilean 

 beets have been as much admired as any thing we 

 have in our garden. We raised our abutilons, with 

 their beautiful spotted green and yellow leaves, 

 from cuttings. They rooted readily, and in four 

 months were blooming profusely without a drop of 

 water from the time I planted them. I think our 

 dry summers heighten the variegations. I paid a 

 dime for my Althru var., but its yellow-white and 

 green leaves are not so pretty as those of the wie- 

 gela or the very showy euonymus. The wiegelas 

 grow easily from cuttings too. The purple-leaved 

 filbert which I bought proved to be plain green; 

 but the purpje barberries keep their colored leaves 

 the whole year. We have rubber-trees of the glos- 



siest evergreen; but when my wife learned that 

 there was a variegated Ficus elastica, the glories of 

 the others were faded. Our beautiful green dra- 

 cena was forsaken when I brought home one with 

 red leaves, and our common maples looked faded 

 beside the varied foliage of their Japanese cousins. 



Our spotted callas suffer from want of water, and 

 our sun is too hot and dry for the caladiums, cro- 

 tons, and the half-dozen kinds of coleus. I think 

 the last will do fairly well when it is a year old. 

 Trade8cantia multicolor fades in our hot sunlight. 



Nothing is prettier of its kind than the old-fash- 

 ioned ribbon-grass; and it stands drouth and heat 

 very well, and keeps fresh all the year with me. 

 My Euhilia Japuitim looks very much like it; but 

 the Euhilia zebrina is an oddity, for its stripes go 

 across the leaf. No other plant is thus marked ex- 

 cept one other from Japan (the Scirpus). 



But if I should tell you all about my acalphas, 

 alternatheras, aloes, amaranthus, stevia, etc., broth- 

 er Root would surely say, " Waste-basket," so I will 

 just wish, in closing, that you could see our gerani- 

 ums. Their leaves are gorgeous, and they stand 

 drouth better than almost any other plant, unless 

 it be the variegated myrtle, or vinca. 



Springville, Cal. C.M.Drake. 



EXTRACTING FKOM YOUNG SWARMS. ETC. 



(1) Do you think it would be safe to extract honey 

 from the frames of the young swarms, after the 1st 

 of August, providing they have plenty of honey? 



(2; Do you think bees could be moved a mile at 

 this time of year without their going back to their 

 old location? F. N. Perdew. 



Henry, 111., July 18, 1889. 



(1) You can extract from surplus frames, 

 but we would hardly advise you to take any 

 from the brood-nest. In most localities, or 

 at least in our own, there is very little cer- 

 tainty in getting very much honey after the 

 first of August. It is safer for beginners to 

 leave the brood-nest alone. If you get a 

 good fall crop, give the bees empty combs 

 in which to put it. These sealed combs will 

 come very handy for distributing stores just 

 before putting bees into winter quarters. 



(2) Most of the bees would stay in their 

 new location, although doubtless some 

 would return to their old stands. If you 

 move them a mile and a half, we should ex- 

 pect very little going back ; two miles, ordi- 

 narily, none at all. If you move them a 

 mile,* change the appearance of the old loca- 

 tion as much as possible, and in the new lo- 

 cation put the hives in the same relative po- 

 sition they occupied formerly. See answer 

 to G. W. Reame, in the opposite column. 



CLOSED-END FRAMES ; FRIEND HEDDON'S SUGGES- 

 TION ON P. 536 BEING TE8TED. 



I notice on page 536, July 1, that Mr. Heddon has 

 exactly described the hive I am using. I never 

 liked the beveled edge nor the Heddon L. hive 

 with the bottom-board fastened, so I made a hive 

 with a bottom-board and cover the same as the pat- 

 ent Heddon. The brood-chamber is 18 x. 1 1& x 9 in., 

 which holds 8 frames, the closed end resting on the 

 strip of tin extending in % inch on the bottom end 

 of the hive. This is a reversible frame or hive. I 

 use two of these stories on strong colonies for ex- 

 tracted honey, and a super with sections on top. 

 This hive has given me the best satisfaction of any 



