1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



895 



THE BEE-BUSINESS BOTH PLEASANT AND PROFIT- 

 ABLE. 



Inclosed please find a check for $ 1.00, in payment 

 for Gleanings, which has been worth more than 

 five times that amount during the past season. The 

 timely hints were at once put into practical use, 

 and proved of great value. I have been five years 

 in the bee-business, and have now 68 colonies. I 

 received about 1400 lbs. of white honey, from 47 

 colonies, spring count. I use the chaff and Simplic- 

 ity hives, with T supers. I find the business both 

 pleasant and profitable. W. S. Gardner. 



Brown Hollow, Pa., Oct. 21, 1889. 



A CORRECTION. 



Gleanings for Nov. 1, containing my article on 

 "Aphida?," is just at hand. In the second para- 

 graph I notice that one statement I did not make as 

 I intended. What I wished and intended tosay was 

 this: " I always had the idea that they (insects) all 

 come from eggs deposited in or on some substance, 

 until within the last year or two, when my own per- 

 sonal observation forced me to come to the conclu- 

 sion that there must be some exceptions to the 

 rule." The italicized words were left out of the 

 article in question. In Prof. Cook's article on flies 

 I had understood him to imply the same idea. 



Ipava, 111., Nov. 5, 1889. Anna B. Qoillin. 



JAPANESE AND SILVERHULL BUCKWHEAT SIDE BY 



SIDE IN THE SAME FIELD ; THE JAPANESE 



100 PER CENT BETTER. 



The peck of buckwheat you sent me did well. I 

 got eight bushels from it. I sowed it the 10th of 

 June; and I think if I had sown it a little later it 

 would have done better. I sowed, the same day I 

 sowed it, some silverhull buckwheat by the side of 

 it. The Japanese was more than a hundred per 

 cent better. I would not sow the silverhull if a 

 man would give it to me, and give me the ground to 

 sow it on besides. J. P. Meyers. 



Fort Dodge, la., Oct. 20, 1889. 



40 BUSHELS OF JAPANESE BUCKWHEAT FROM V 2 

 BUSHEL OF SEED. 



Seeing the report of Mr. C. J. Schafer, of Eddy- 



ville, la., on Japanese buckwheat, I decided to send 



in mine. I sowed of seed, got from you last spring, 



a half-bushel on one acre of ground, and had just 



40 bushels. My mode of cultivation was as follows: 



The ground was in corn last season; was plowed 



about the 20th of June, and thoroughly harrowed. 



On the 5th of July it was harrowed well, and 200 lbs. 



of dissolved bone drilled, then on the 9th of July the 



buckwheat was sown broadcast and harrowed twice 



with spring-tooth harrow. It was cut with a reaper 



10 weeks from the day it was sown. If it had not 



been so dry just when it was making the grain 



thick it would have been much better. 



Louis Stephens. 

 Fayette City, Pa., Oct. 24, 1889. 



Friend S., our experience about here is, 

 that it pays exceedingly well to drill in either 

 bone or phosphate, at'the rate of about 200 

 lbs. to the acre. Sometimes the phosphate 

 makes all the difference between a good 

 crop and no crop at all. 



BEE-STINGS A CUKE FOR RHEUMATISM; VALUABLE 

 AND POSITIVE TESTIMONY. 



It may interest you to hear my experience with 

 bee-stings as a remedy for rheumatism. Ever since 

 the war I have been a confirmed sufferer with this 

 dread complaint. I have been treated by Dr. Ham- 



mond, of this city, and Dr. Agnew, of Philadelphia, 

 besides other doctors of less reputation, and in no 

 case did I derive any permanent relief. I tried 

 Blair's gout pills, and for awhile I controlled the 

 disease with these; but finally they lost their grip, 

 and I got so bad that I lay in bed for weeks, suffer- 

 ing such torturing pain that my wife was obliged to 

 prop the bed-clothes so they would not touch me; 

 and Dr. Cassaart had to be called in night after night 

 to give me hypodermic injections of morphine. 

 Finally my attention was called to newspaper 

 articles about the first of last January, and I made 

 up my mind to try the bee-sting remedy. I consult- 

 ed with Dr. Capsaart. and he secured 25 bees. He 

 grasped one after the other with a pair of tweezers, 

 and let one bee after another sting me where the 

 inflammation and pain were the greatest, until I 

 was stung 18 times. He stopped then, because the 

 pain had shifted from my left foot to my right knee. 

 The doctor decided then to stop and await results. 

 This was about 11 o'clock in the forenoon. When 

 he called, about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the 

 pain had actually subsided, and by next morning I 

 was up and around, cured entirely. I could walk, 

 and stamp my foot as hard as I liked, and 1 have not 

 had a single twinge of rheumatism since; therefore 

 I consider bee-venom a specific for rheumatism. 

 John Magruder. 

 Washington, D. C, Oct. 25, 1889. 



Friend M., you give us the most astound- 

 ing testimonial that has ever been received. 

 Had not so long a time elapsed since the 

 cure. I should be inclined to think it might 

 be only temporary. The account reads some 

 like a patent-medicire testimonial ; and I 

 hope you will excuse me for being unchar- 

 itable enough to fear that you were going to 

 wind up with something to sell — perhaps 

 bee-venom put up in bottles. It is not very 

 likely, however, that this remedy will need 

 to be administered in that way. Scarcely a 

 locality can be found where there are not 

 more or less bee-keepers ; and any bee-keep- 

 er could give you 25 bees at any season of 

 the year, without very much expense. Will 

 other friends who are suffering from rheum- 

 atism test the matter and report V It seems 

 to me that your doctor should take pains to 

 have the result of this experiment widely 

 disseminated through the medical journals. 

 It may be a little offset to the talk there is 

 in some localities about bee-keepers being a 

 nuisance. 



BEE-STINGS SEEMINGLY NOT A CURE FOR RHEUM- 

 ATISM. 



I am not in the habit of writing for publication, 

 neither do I think myself capable; but as you ask 

 for facts regarding bee-stings curing rheumatism, I 

 will say I have had some experience in the matter, 

 as I have been afflicted with that disease ever since 

 the late war. In fact, I got it there. About 12 years 

 ago I got my first swarm of bees; and, as you know, 

 beginners usually get stings enough. Some time 

 after, I began reading bee-literature more or less; 

 and among other things, plenty of stings, it was 

 said, would cure my disease, but time wore on. My 

 rheumatism didn't hurt so bad, and I began to 

 think I was cured; but, alas! I am to-day as bad as I 

 ever was, and I believe worse. So I would say to 

 all afflicted in that way, don't harbor such a vain 

 delusion, for it is nothing less. As I said, I have 

 had it since the late war, or for nearly the last 25 



