984 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Dec. 



er than it has ever been since I have been in the 

 business. I sold from the wagon this season from 

 thirteen to nineteen dollars' worth once a week for 

 quite a number of weeks, and canvassed only a 

 very small portion of the town. I run a trip once 

 each week with other produce, and the honey goes 

 along as a " side issue." 



Can i/mi sell your honey here at these prices? 



This is the main question that I have to answer. 

 I answer, no. There has been so much honey ship- 

 ped here, of poor quality, that the people will hard- 

 ly buy at any price. There has been "California 

 honey" sold here that never saw that State, and 

 "Ohio honey " that only passed through the State. 

 Some of our leading bee-men have shipped honey 

 here with their names on the crates that was fair 

 without, and the worst-tasting honey within that I 

 ever sampled. But this is the exception. Dear 

 friends, your honey is just as good as mine, and I 

 could sell thousands of pounds of it for you if it 

 were " Washington Co." honey. I have tried pur- 

 chasing honey to supply my trade when I was 

 short, but it did not work well, and it wasn't the 

 honey's fault. I once got a small case of very good 

 honey from friend Root to supply a lady customer, 

 but she declared it didn't taste like mine. It is 

 prejudice and conceit, and not so much the fault of 

 your honey. Now, friends, I would gladly help 

 you; but " charity begins at home." I have all the 

 work that I care to have, and once for all I can not 

 handle your honey. Our grocers are nearly all 

 nice men; and if you would try them they might 

 help you out. My experience has been, that it 

 were better to sell at home. If you are a pretty 

 good man, and have pretty good honey, I don't 

 think you will have any trouble in getting it all off 

 before honey comes again. I feel sure that I could 

 do it, and I see no reason why you can not if you 

 will just wake up and arouse your "latent vim." 

 I hardly know how I acquired my reputation; but 

 one thing I do remember: It took patience and 

 hard work. L. W. Vankirk. 



Washington, Pa., Nov. 21, 1889. 



Friend V., we read in the good book that 

 " a good name is rather to be chosen than 

 great riches," and your statement above 

 verifies it. 



BEES UNDER THE BED. 



A CHINESE HOUSE-APIARY. 



fRIEND ROOT:— I have something a little odd 

 to tell; but in order to tell it well, I must first 

 tell a few other thing's. One very common 

 way which the people in this particular cor- 

 ner of the world have of building their one- 

 story or story-and-a-half houses, is as follows: A 

 foundation of cobble stones having been laid where 

 the side walls are to stand, and perhaps also where 

 the back of the house is to be, two broad planks 

 are fastened on their edges between upright poles 

 set in the ground, on each side of the foundation, 

 and damp earth is put between them and pounded 

 down hard. The planks are then raised one course 

 higher, fixed firmly in place, and more earth put 

 in and tamped down, and so on till a height of ten 

 feet or so is attained. Then a wood frame is put up 

 inside of these walls. If the house is designed for 

 a shop or store, the whole front consists of mova- 

 ble boards sliding in grooved pieces at top and bot- 



tom. This is the general plan on which many a 

 Chinese inn is built. To economize space, the tav- 

 ern-keeper generally has a box-bed for his own use. 

 This consists of two boxes, each one about 3 by 3% 

 feet in length and breadth and 2$4 feet or more high. 

 These two boxes, set side by side, make as good 

 a bedstead as most Chinamen have. 1 was resting 

 in front of a tavern one day last February, when I 

 observed a string of bees pouring in and out 

 through a crack between the corner post and the 

 earth wall on my right. Through the obligingness 

 of the landlady I was enabled to investigate the 

 matter. There in that corner of the building stood 

 one of these box beds. Rats had gnawed a hole in 

 the lower corner of the box at the bottom, close by 

 the crack, and through this crack and rat-hole the 

 bees had come in and taken possession of the box. 

 The landlady told me that they came of themselves 

 in the previous May, and that she cut out their 

 stores last fall. They had nearly half a bushel of 

 new white comb partly filled with clear honey. 

 Rape, which is much cultivated here as a winter- 

 spring crop for making rape-seed oil, was just com- 

 ing into bloom, and the bees were doubtless at 

 work on this. In fact, ten days of mild weather 

 had started a number of wild plants : ?to blooming, 

 and the bees were booming. Chinese bees always 

 seem very docile. Rape honey is said not to be 

 equal in flavor to tea honey. The tea-plant blooms 

 in December. J. E. Walker. 



Shaowu, China, March 20, 1889. 



MANUM'S HOME APIARY. 



HOW IT LOOKS IN WINTER. 



R. ROOT:— Agreeably to promise I herewith 

 hand you a view of my home apiary in win- 

 ter. This picture was taken the day fol- 

 lowing one of our Vermont snowstorms, 

 and, as will be seen, Manum walked out 

 into the snow nearly up to his waist to have his pic- 

 ture taken. There is quite a contrast, as you will 

 observe, between his complexion and the beautiful 

 snow, as appears around about the hives in the 

 front row on the left. The playful winds toyed 

 with the descending flakes in such a manner as to 

 cause them to nestle down one over the other, be- 

 tween the rows, leaving the hives somewhat free 

 from snow, while that portion of the apiary on the 

 right is almost completely covered. 



I am often asked if I shovel the snow away from 

 the hives whenever I find them so covered with 

 snow. My answer is, "Not alwavs;" though when 

 there comes a warm spell, so I think the bees can 

 fly, I do so, that they may have a cleansing flight, 

 which I believe to be very essential for the welfare 

 of the bees, especially if their stores consist princi- 

 pally of honey, but not so essential if composed 

 chiefly of sugar syrup. 



The rows of hives at the left, along by the fence, 

 have been some winters completely covered with 

 hard drifted snow— so hard, in fact, that I have been 

 able to walk over the hives, and a stranger would 

 hardly have believed there were live bees under 

 so much snow, and yet the bees always came 

 through in good condition. But remember, when- 

 ever there were indications of a thaw I was on 

 hand to give the bees their liberty. I well remem- 

 ber the first winter that the snow drifted in the 

 manner above mentioned. I took a shovel and un- 



