720 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept 



intelligent lady taking entire charge of 

 something like 200 colonies. With the help 

 of an assistant they had been extracting ; 

 but a swarm had just come out, and while 

 we were talking another came. The day 

 was intensely warm, and I could not but 

 admire the energy that this lady showed in 

 going right out in the sun and giving the 

 bees the needed care which came all in a 

 heap, as it were, during the height of the 

 basswood yield. Her attention was first 

 directed to bees when friend Freeborn, a 

 year or two before, planted an out-apiary in 

 her vicinity. She became interested, and 

 linally purchased the apiary complete. Her 

 first venture was in paying $<i(J0 for 1(10 col- 

 onies of bees, and this while she knew next 

 to nothing about bees. I should have said 

 at once that it could result in nothing but 

 failure. Not so, however. If I remember 

 correctly the bees were all paid for with 

 the first crop of honey, and now she is a 

 well-to-do bee - keeper. " Who does the 

 housework?" do you ask? Why, a couple 

 of nice bright daughters manage it nicely, 

 and it probably does them as much good, as 

 it does the mother to manage the bees. 

 Think of it, ye of the fair sex, who are 

 thinking the heat is too great to do more 

 than fan yourselves, sit on the sofa, and 

 wait till it gets cooler. 



Before I reached friend Pickard's my at- 

 tention was taken up with a queer-shaped 

 bluff in the neighborhood of the apiary. 

 The ground rises so abruptly on all sides 

 that it takes a man or woman of pretty good 

 wind to climb it on a hot day ; and when 

 you arrive at the summit you are confront- 

 ed with a ledge of rocks rising perhaps fifty 

 feet higher than the summit of the hill. 

 By a sort of winding stair, of nature's own 

 make, filled out in one place with a crotch- 

 ed tree, you are enabled to climb to the 

 summit. I tried taking this bluff with the 

 Kodak. Tt was a pretty large subject for so 

 small an instrument, and the view was 

 hardly worth reproducing. On the way 

 down the hill I rather forgot the warm 

 weather and the perspiration my climbing 

 had put me in, at the sight of a blooded 

 Jersey bovine belonging to friend Pickard. 

 He devotes his attention to fine cattle, 

 while his wife tends to the bees. We tried 

 the Kodak on his majesty— that is, when we 

 could get him to stop bellowing and pawing 

 long enough to get his picture ; but for 

 some reason (probably the operator's inex- 

 perience) we did not get a picture fine 

 enough to reproduce. I should have enjoy- 

 ed myself greatly had it been possible for 

 me to stay a day or two ; but my leave of 

 absence was coming so near to a close that I 

 fear it pained my good friends by declining 

 to stay to dinner; and a little later on, 

 friend J', and myself were speeding behind 

 a couple of blooded ponies, on the way to 

 friend Freeborn's. You will remember 

 that it was to call on this latter friend that 

 my visit was mainly undertaken. More 

 beautiful springs enlivened the way, as we 

 passed through the basswood timber of 

 Richland County. But I think I shall have 

 to tell you in our next of my visit to friend 

 Freeborn's. 



SPECIAL DEPARTMENT FOR A. I. ROOT, AND HIS 

 FRIENDS WHO LOVE TO RAISE CROPS. 



ENLARGEMENT AND MULTIPLICATION IN 

 OUR DOMESTIC INDUSTRIES. 



f^HE question has often been asked, 

 T " What may a single colony do in the 

 I way of increase in a single favorable 

 season?" 1 do not believe that any 

 of us yet know the possibilities, even 

 by natural swarming. In poultry-raising, 

 how many chickens may one hen become 

 the mother of in a single year, or say two 

 years? Before you answer, perhaps you had 

 better think about it a little. Again, how 

 shall we manage to get the largest number 

 of colonies that will winter over, or, in the 

 other case, the largest number of good 

 strong healthy chicks? Just at present I 

 am having a good deal of enjoyment in see- 

 ing what four strawberry-plants may do in 

 one season. They are in the middle of one 

 of our highly fertilized plant-beds. The 

 ground is nearly half manure, and it has 

 had considerable bone dust worked into it 

 besides. The soil is nearly two feet deep. 

 Whenever I want to enjoy myself I just go 

 and take a look at those strawberry-plants. 

 I especially enjoy the beauty of the foliage 

 when the dew is on the leaves. Well, how 

 shall we make a single strawberry-plant do 

 its utmost? I did think at one time that re- 

 moving strong plants by means of our trans- 

 planting-tubes would be a gain ; but now I 

 am inclined to think you would do as well, 

 or better, as follows : Set your one straw- 

 berry-plant in the middle of a bed of fine 

 rich soil, say a plot of 20 feet square, and 

 may be more. As soon as a runner makes 

 its appearance, encourage it to grow in a 

 straight line until the new plant appears ; 

 then lay the runner in a shallow trench, 

 may be half an inch deep. Push the fine 

 dirt over all except the little plant at the tip 

 end of the runner. Divide the runners all 

 around the plant in the shape of spokes to 

 a wheel ; but make each one reach out just 

 as far from the center of the plant as possi- 

 ble : that is, make them come out into new 

 ground and sunlight just as soon as you can 

 without severing the runner. If you com- 

 mence early in the spring, and keep off all 

 fruit-buds, by July or August you will have 

 a pretty fair strawberry-patch. It is quite 

 an exciting little problem to so manage as to 

 give each little plant as much room as you 

 can, and at the same time let dame Nature 

 have full sway by putting out just as many 

 runners as she "wants to. The plant will 

 seem to catch the enthusiasm, and strain 

 every nerve in the effort to propagate its 

 own species and build up a thriving little 

 family. Pick out every weed as soon as it 

 gets barely visible to the naked eye. Assign 

 a place to each runner, and cover it with 

 a little dirt, keeping the ground constantly 

 raked fine, and your 20 feet square of straw- 

 berry-patch will be a surprise and joy to you. 

 When the plant gets to booming, it wants 

 care almost every morning. What will you 

 do next year if you are ready for fruit? 

 Well, I have not figured out just yet. You 

 can take up the plants with the transplant- 



