698 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



Convenience of arrangement; absolute protec- 

 tion of face and head; freedom of vision; while the 

 glass is large enough to allow a good range of vis- 

 ion, it is 60 light and strong and ingeniously insert- 

 ed in the body of the veil as to remove all objections 

 to glass on account of liability to be broken, hence 

 durability. It will not injure the eye by continued 

 use, as friend A. H. K. Blood, of Quincy, Mass., 

 wrote me has happened hi6 eyes by the use of the 

 no-glass veil. 



The glass will be broken only through careless- 

 ness, and will last for seasons. The sense of com- 

 plete comfort, and freedom of vision, will more 

 than pay for the care of the glass. I am a practical 

 bee keeper who believes that there are times and 

 conditions necessitating the most experienced to 

 protect their face; at least, discretion is the better 

 part of valor. Jno. C. Capehart. 



St. Albans, W. Va., July 19. 1889. 



We tried your glass-front veil, and did not 

 like it. The glass would continually get out 

 of range— one eye would look through the 

 glass and one eye through the meshes of the 

 veil. The only way to remedy this difficulty 

 would be to make it larger, and that would 

 be impractical. Again, moisture would 

 with us rise from the breath and collect 

 upon the glass, and then it was about as 

 transparent as— well, cheese-cloth. A fine 

 silk brussels-net facing affords almost no 

 obstruction to the eyes, and at the same 

 time it may be made large enough so that it 

 is not at all likely to get out of range. Our 

 glass front finally got broken, and we thought 

 we were careful too. 



MY EXPERIENCE WITH CARNIOLANS. 



GREAT SWARMERS, AND NO MORE GENTLE THAN 

 ITALIANS. 



Tf> AST September and October 1 bought eight 

 I§) Carniolan queens of Dr. Morrison. I had an 

 4^1 unusual amount of trouble in introducing 

 "*™ them, losing three. One of the three was ap- 

 parently introduced and then was missing. I 

 thought perhaps she was a virgin queen, and flew 

 out to meet the drones. I think Dr. M. afterward 

 stated in Gleanings that he failed to get his young 

 queens to lay in September and October. At any 

 rate I could not persuade them to lay, and I do not 

 think T raised a bee from one of them until spring. 

 Two of the fine queens were lost in wintering, from 

 lack of stores— the only ones lost in winter out of 37 

 colonies. This left me three to commence this sea- 

 son with. They bred up rapidly, and began to 

 swarm in May, and have swarmed ever since, or 

 would if permitted to. I think they are rather 

 more inclined to swarm than Italians or blacks. All 

 three hives after swarming filled up with bees from 

 the young queens, and swarmed— one the 12th of 

 July, in a dearth of honey, and one last Friday, 

 Aug. Kith, with no honey coming in. It was a rous- 

 ing big swarm. To-day I have returned them. I 

 will tell j on the condition of the hive: 



Common shallow L. hive, 10 frames, and set of 

 sections over them, with no honey-board. Were 

 the sections full of honey? Not a drop. The first 

 comb removed, an outside one. had no honey in the 

 outside; the other side was perhaps a third full, 

 and a few capped cells. The next two combs had 



some honey, but no brood. The remaining seven 

 had brood and honey, and perhaps 5 queen cells 

 capped, which I removed. Then I returned the 

 swarm which stood close by. 1 should have done it 

 the same day, but I had other work to do. I do not 

 see that they handle any better than the gentle 

 strains of Italians, though I have not had enough 

 of them to give this point a thorough trial. With 

 regard to their honey-gathering qualities, I can 

 form no opinion in this disastrous year. 

 Walpole, N. H., Aug. 19, 1889. J. L. Hubbvrd. 



MRS. HARRISON WRITES A BLUE 

 LETTER. 



WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? 



E received a letter lately from Mrs. Chad 

 dock, who is still playing on the same harp. 

 She says, "It does not pay to bother with 

 bees in this part of the country. I have 

 said so before— I say it again." She is sell- 

 ing honey at 10 cents per pound. How does this 

 compare with the price of honey? I sold six gal- 

 lons of blackberries at 10 cents per gallon, the pur- 

 chaser picking them. "Just as nice blackberries 

 as I ever saw have been selling all the season in 

 Ipava for 10 and 1254 cents a gallon." "Wheat 

 crop is poor— some kind of a bug is in the stalk; 

 oats lodged, and wasted about a third." 



I saw in the morning's paper that oats were sell- 

 ing at a railroad station in an adjoiuing county for 

 18 cts. per bushel. It would be well for those who 

 are continually complaining of the low price of our 

 product, to compare it with other agricultural pur- 

 suits. Compute the interest on land, implements, 

 teams, seed, and labor, and note the result; also on 

 our investments in hives, implements, etc., used in 

 the apiary, and compare notes. There has not 

 been a large crop of honey, so far, in Illinois, that I 

 have been able to learn. To much rain, and such 

 cool nights; yet choice honey in one-pound sections 

 has been selling in this city and neighboring towns 

 at a less price than I ever knew it to be sold at 

 before. Some was sent here to a commission 

 house who wanted it out of their way, and they 

 sold it to a huckster for 8 cts. per lb. He must now 

 get his money back, and he hawks it around for 10 

 cts.; at the same time, grocerymen were retailing at 

 15 cts. " What are you going to do about it? " 

 Peoria, 111. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Mrs. H., suppose you stop raising honey 

 and blackberries and oats, and, in fact, farm 

 crops in general, what other business 

 would you go into ? There has been a 

 constant demand — an unfilled want, per- 

 haps — for some kind of business or industry 

 that does not have its ups and downs. But 

 no such thing has been found, that I know 

 of. Remember the statistics Farmers suc- 

 ceed in at least making an honorable living, 

 95 times out of 100. No other industry 

 makes a showing any thing near as good ; 

 and, in fact, the whole mercantile world 

 makes a showing of 95 failures, sooner or 

 later, out of every 100. I think that, in 

 your own locality, large quantities of honey, 

 blackberries, yes, and oats, have been sold 

 at good prices, notwithstanding the short 

 intervals when these things for a time went 

 away down. 



