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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Dec. 



low zero. It seems of late years that the longest 

 cold spells come in the latter part of winter. Now, 

 it was not always this way. If we have a winter 

 like 1882 the honey-dew will make the bees kind o' 

 tired. During that winter the worst cold spell 

 came in the fore part of winter, or from the 12th of 

 November to the 27th of January, making 75 days 

 of confinement. During the winter of 1880 the bees 

 were kept in their hives 99 days in succession, or 

 from the 4th of December to the 15th of March. 

 Any honey-dew during that winter would have 

 been fatal. Now, if the fore part of this winter 

 consists of a prolonged cold spell, Bro. Doolittle's 

 eyes will begin to stick out toward spring. If the 

 longest cold spell keeps off until after the first of 

 the year, any hive with less than ten pounds of 

 honey-dew is safe. If they have more I should not 

 like to insure them. I left very little honey-dew 

 with mine this winter; but having only a limited 

 amount of white honey on hand I have placed them 

 on short rations for winter. I winter half in a cave, 

 the rest on their summe stands. 



I have sold 40 gallons of honey-dew up to date, at 

 one dollar per gallon. It is as black as pine tar, 

 and has a very unpleasant flavor. Some of my 

 hives stored as much as 00 lbs. of it. They gather- 

 ed all of it from the 20th of August to the 12th of 

 September, just working in the mornings. I ex- 

 tracted about half of it, and left the rest in combs. 

 I don't think my bees will starve the coming sea- 

 son, unless they starve this winter. J. Dallas. 



Sharpsville, Pa., Nov. 26, 1889. 



Friend D., you speak only of wintering 

 outdoors, if I am correct. How about keep- 

 ing bees 100 days in confinement in the cel- 

 lar, as many of our friends do right along? 

 I am inclined to think that some specimens 

 of honey-dew are very wholesome ; but I 

 am well aware that the greater part of it is 

 very poor. Sometimes when I get a taste of 

 it in comb honey, I find it so exceedingly 

 disagreeable that I do not wonder that it 

 kills bees. Who was it, pray, that bought 

 forty gallons of honey-dew, as black as pine 

 tar, and what did they want to do with it — 

 that is, if you have no objection to letting 

 us know? If it was used for flavoring to- 

 bacco, may be it was all right, although I 

 should be much better pleased to hear that 

 the tobacco, honey dew. and all had been 

 thrown away or burned up. 



THE " BEE ELDORADO OF THE WORLD." 



I see by the last number of Gleanings that Mr. 

 W. K. Ball, of Iteno, Nevada, gave you a few items 

 about alfalfa. I have no doubt but that, at some 

 future day, that country he speaks of will be the 

 bee Eldorado of the world. As there is considera- 

 ble money in raising alfalfa, all the available land 

 in that section will be set to this plant of the des- 

 ert. 



There is a long strip of territory on the east side 

 of the Sierras, which extends from the northern 

 boundary of Nevada down into Arizona. Our bee- 

 keeping friend, Mr. John L. Gregg, is located on a 

 continuation of this same belt. All through the 

 Great American Desert, alfalfa would flourish if it 

 could be irrigated, and then, truly, the "desert 

 would blossom as the rose." On the west side of 

 the Sierra Nevada mountains (in Eldorado Co.) it 

 does not yield honey to amount to any thing. On 

 the east side it seems to be the reverse as regards 



the secretion of nectar. I suppose the change of 

 climate, atmospheric conditions, and sandy soil are 

 more favorable for honey secretion. Alfalfa flour- 

 ishes best on sandy soil. It is a pretty sight to see 

 a field of one hundred acres one vast sheet of pur- 

 ple blossoms. S. L. Watkins. 

 Placerville, Cal. 



bee-stings vs. rheumatism; another valuable 

 testimony. 



I see many statements in Gleanings regarding 

 the subject of bee-stings as a cure for rheumatism. 

 I contracted it while in the army, and have been a 

 great sufferer for many years, often being confined 

 to my bed for months at a time, experiencing all 

 the excruciating agony and pain that any mortal 

 could endure. I was given up to die, by the best 

 doctors in eastern Pennsylvania, being reduced to 

 a mere skeleton of ninety pounds. After the doc- 

 tors forsook me, and had told many of my neigh- 

 bors that I could live but a few days at most, I, 

 through the intervention of a kind Providence, 

 gradually got better, and in three months I could 

 get out on crutches, and in that condition I lived 

 for six years, when I bought a swarm of bees in the 

 spring of 1883. When the bees showed their temper 

 I could not get away from them very lively, and I 

 received many very severe stingings. At one time 

 I came near dying from stings. Oh, but I was sick ! 

 I broke out in blotches all over my body, and a 

 numbness came over me so that I could not move 

 my tongue to speak, and for once in my life I was a 

 mute in reality. From that time I have often told 

 my friends (when they speak of my improved con- 

 dition) that I give the bees the credit of doing what 

 the doctors could not. I am not careful to avoid an 

 occasional sting, and I can walk around comforta- 

 bly with a cane, and I weigh 190 pounds. I do not 

 claim a complete cure, but I am so much improved 

 over my former condition that 1 cm not help hail- 

 ing with joy any thing to relieve such terrible suf- 

 fering as I have endured. • S. W. Taylor. 



Harveyville, Pa., Nov. 25, 1889. 



bee-stings a positive cure for inflammatory 

 rheumatism. 



I have read the reports in Gleanings about bee- 

 stings as a remedy for rheumatism; and as there 

 are some that claim it cures them, and some that it 

 does not, 1 thought perhaps my case might interest 

 you a little. I have suffered with the worst kind of 

 what I call inflammatory rheumatism at different 

 times for over fifteen years. Sometimes it would 

 be two months when I could scarcely turn over in 

 bed and could not even bear the bed clothes to touch 

 the limb that was bad. My knees and ankles and 

 feet were the most affected. It would commence 

 in one joint, and get so bad that the joint would 

 swell terribly, then all in a second it would ease off, 

 and in about an hour the pain was all gone; then in 

 perhaps another hour it had settled into another 

 joint, and it was as bad as the first one. It would 

 sometimes move three or four times before it had 

 run its course, then I would gradually improve. 

 Some years I would have only one or two spells, 

 and some years I would have three or four, and it 

 was mostly when I caught cold. 



About four years ago I commenced to keep some 

 bees, and, of course, I got the allotted number of 

 stings, and now I have been three years without 

 any rheumatism worth speaking about. I have 

 had a slight aching this last rainy weather, but not 



