674 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



busy workers. I also noticed some trees loaded 

 with bloom which the bees scarcely looked at. The 

 scrub-palmetto was a failure here this season. 

 Just now bees are " at home," and cross. 



Miss Claha Slough. 

 Daytona, Fla., July 22, 1889. 



We did wonder a little what was to be 

 done with the bowls, my friend, but it is all 

 very plain now. Perhaps our three-cent 

 bowls are the cheapest thing that can be 

 furnished for this purpose. One objection 

 has come up against their use in this way, 

 and especially where 1 hey are used in hot 

 climates — the rapid evaporation of the wa- 

 ter ; but to prevent this, the surface of the 

 water has heen covered with a layer of oil. 



THE IGNOTUM AS EARLY AS THE DWARF 

 CHAMPION. 



Yesterday, Aug. 6, I picked my first Ignotum to- 

 mato, but at the same time picked one from both a 

 Mikado and a Dwarf Champion, so that with me 

 they are not proving 1 any earlier than the others. 

 It is a smooth tomato, weighing a little over a quar- 

 ter of a pound, but 1 have others which will be 

 much/ larger. K. A. Clarke. 



Groton, Ct, Aug. 7, 1889. 



Why, friend C, nobody ever claimed that 

 the Ignotum is -an early tomato, so far as I 

 know. It was not intended for such ; but 

 notwithstanding, I did mention that the 

 first tomato I had ripen in the open air was 

 the Ignotum last season. Now another sea- 

 son has proved that it is as early as the 

 Dwarf Champion, for which so much has 

 been claimed. Our experience is like yours. 

 Our first-ripe tomatoes were picked aboutthe 

 same day, from the three you mention, also 

 from two others which I shall speak of in 

 another column. 



ANOTHER REASON WHY ONE SnODLD JOIN THE 

 CHURCH. 



Will you allow me to add one more thought to 

 your four good reasons why one should join the 

 church? It is a reason which would come with con- 

 vincing force to every reader. It is found in Matt. 

 12:30: " He that is not for me is against me; and 

 he that {/athcreth not with me, scattereth abroad." 

 What will that sound like to the large mass of 

 church goers— that the blessed Jesus himself ex- 

 plicitly declared that he considers every one who is 

 not positively working under his standard as really 

 working for the evil one? Just as in a harvest-field, 

 one cuts the grain, another binds the sheaves, and a 

 third gathers them into the barn, while the fourth, 

 though he may be hi the field, and even looking on 

 with complacency, yet, if he is not actually (tssistimj 

 in the harvest, will not be entitled to the reward. 



Mons, Va., July 26, 1889. A. H. Van Doren. 



A GOOD SUGGESTION ON HOW TO BURN SULPHUR. 



I put one or two pounds of lump or stick sulphur 

 into an old cast-iron dish; set it outdoors on three 

 stones, over a slow tire, to melt. While I am watch- 

 ing it I tear old calico into strips, a couple of inches 

 wide and as many feet long; put some of these into 

 the melted sulphur; and when they are saturated I 

 take hold with pincers on one at a time, and raise 

 it straight up to let it drain off. After a few sec- 

 onds, when it is dry 1 throw it aside, going on in 

 this way till the dish is wiped dry. For use, take 

 one or two strips, according to your tight box or 



closet; put into an old pan; fix a raised cover of 

 another one to protect your goods close by; apply a 

 match, and you will be surprised to see what a 

 great smudge you can make with a minimum of 

 sulphur and heat. Wm. Goldspohn. 



Lodi, Wis., July 29, 1889. 



Your description reminds me of the way 

 in which I used to see them fix their sul- 

 phur matches for brimstoning bees in my 

 boyhood. I believe they did it exactly as 

 you describe. Hut in this case is there no 

 loss of sulphur from sublimation? or does it 

 all get converted into sulphurous acid by 

 burning^ 



hive barrow— another device of h. fitz hart. 

 Mr. Root:— In reply to your favor of July 2 I had 

 forgotten to send you a drawing of my modified 

 hive-eart. After sending you my idea that your art- 

 ist so ably worked out in Gleanings of May 15, I 

 chanced to see an old wheelbarrow, something of 

 the pattern of your Daisy. I knocked out the bot- 

 tom, put on two more legs, as shown, nailed a hori- 

 zontal piece 2!4 inches from the ground, on the 

 legs, in such a way that it would be level when the 



barrow was being wheeled. To use it, I run it up 

 to the hive I want to move, and drop it over; then 

 I put a stick on the side-pieces, at each end of the 

 hive, under the bottom-board. For use when taking 

 out frames for extracting, 1 put a board on the 

 two side pieces, and then pile my hives of full or 

 empty frames on that. If made with two wheels 

 instead of one 1 think it would be one of the most 

 valuable articles about the bee-yard, especially 

 where one is working 150 hives single handed, or 

 has to move them in and out of the cellar. 

 Avery, La., J uly 6, 1889. H. Fitz Hart. 



Very good, friend Hart ; but we do not 

 quite see what will hold the handle-bars of 

 the barrow rigid. Is there not a liability of 

 their wabbling sidewise, as you have repre- 

 sented it? On a good many accounts we 

 think your hive cart illustrated on page 410 

 is better. 



REVERSING OF HIVES AND SECTIONS ; A CALIFOR- 

 NIA APIARIST CONSIDERS IT. 



I am greatly interested just now in some kind of 

 a reversible frame or hive, or both. 1 have had a 

 great deal of trouble this season to get the bees to 

 go into theT supers to work in the sections. They 

 would fill the lower part of the hive nearly to the 

 bottom-bars with honey, and then laugh at me 

 when I would look into the super to find it entirely 

 empty. I fastened the frames in two hives so that 

 I could reverse the whole hive. One of the colo- 

 nies thus reversed took immediate possession of the 

 super, and filled the 28 sections in about one week. 

 The other did not go above after being reversed 

 until I put on a super that was partly tilled; then it 

 went to work in earnest. I think that, if I could 

 have reversed about 100 hives at the same time, I 

 should have now several hundred dollars' worth of 



