1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



2»3 



established. But if tlie number is to reach seven 

 onnore, it is just as well to put six as four in the 

 first circle, as in Fig-. «. ('. C. Mim<er. 



Marengro. 111,. April, 1887, 



Many thanks, doctor, lor telling us jnst 

 what we have got to meet, sooner or later. 

 Now, I happen to know that a good many 

 localities are mo;e or less overstocked, per- 

 haps not ottcii l>y one single owner; bnt 

 many times wlieiv a wliole neighborhood 

 goes to bee-kee])ing. the result, unless during 

 extra seasons, is a small amount of surjjlus 

 per colony.— The distance bees tiy has been 

 a goo 1 deal discussed during years past ; 

 bnt I tVel ])retty well satisfied that yon are 

 right ill deciding that bees seldom fly more 

 than three miles; and notwithstanding all 

 tlie facts that have been brought forth. I do 

 nit believe tht^v work profitably more tlian 

 half that distance. I feel so sure I am right 

 that I have furuished bnckwheat and alsike 

 el >vpr-seed tn onr farming friends who are 

 no more than a mile and a half distant from 

 our apiary. Wliere they live two miles dis- 

 tant, we sometimes let them have it at half 

 price When we first brought our Italians 

 to Medina w'e rarely found them more than 

 two miles from home. When there was a 

 scarcity of blossoms, however, they were oc- 

 casionally found two miles and a lialf away. 

 This scarcity always occurred between fruit- 

 blossoms and clover. At tin's time, the 

 wild tliorn -apple would be covered with 

 Italians two miles from himie, while the 

 same trees three or ft^ur miles from our api- 

 ar> wfMe covered with black bees and no 

 Italiiins. Perhaps there were not Italians 

 enonyh at that time in our apiary. These 

 oliservati .ns were of no avail a year or two 

 later, because the Italians had got into the 

 woods. I think yon are right about it, and 

 Fig. (i would be the plan I would suggest for 

 seven ;ipiaries. You may remember, the 

 same thing is suggested in our A B (' book. 



ABOUT DRINKINa-W^ATEE. 



FHIKNI) TKKKY rilSCCSSES THIS IMPORTANT MAT- 

 TE U. 



fHK writer traveled some diiriiia' the past \vin- 

 ter with Prof. Detmers. of the Ohio State 

 University. Noticing that he did not drink 

 any water, but always tea and coffee only, I 

 asked him if he was afraid to drink water 

 when away from home. " Ves," he replied, " for 

 there is as much sickness and death caused by 

 drinking' impure water as by drinking- liquor. 1 

 drink no water when away from home unless it has 

 been boiled. Then it is safe." Not long after- 

 ward I met another scientific authority, and told 

 him what Prof. Detmers had said, and asked if that 

 was correct He iavighed, and said Detmers had |)ut 

 the case ii little too strong-ly ag-ainst water: but 

 still there was a good deal of truth in his statement, 

 for very much sickness and death is certainly the 

 result of drinking impure water. Not long after, I 

 bad the pleasure of eating supper with Dr. C. L. 

 Mees, of t)ie Athens University, at a hotel in the 

 city. 1 kept watch, knowing that he was a thor- 

 oughly posted man, to see whether he would drink 

 any water. He drank some. Then 1 asked him if 

 be wasn't afraid of it. He said there was some 



risk, perhaps; but he would take the chances as 

 long as he knew there were no cases of typhoid fe- 

 ver or similar diseases in the city. He was more 

 afraid of some disease that was present being com- 

 municated through the drinking-water, than of dis- 

 ease that originated from the impure drink. He 

 seemed to think that these diseases were not start- 

 ed by impure water or foul air, but that they low- 

 ered the tone of the sj-stem so that the germs of 

 typhoid fever, etc., if they happened around, were 

 far more likely to find lodgment and a proper place 

 to develop in. 



Well, I told the doctor how much pains we had 

 taken to have pure water at our house, so as to get 

 his advice. I told him we had a slate roof on the 

 house, and a cement cistern, with a brick partition 

 in it" to filter the water. He said: "If you clean 

 out your cist(>rn once in ii year or so, you have got as 

 pure drinking-water as you can obtiiin. If you had 

 a shingle roof, why, then you ought to let the first 

 rain that falls in a shower run off: and after the 

 roof becomes clean, turn it into the cistern. If 

 you burned soft coal, this would be best, even with 

 your slate roof; but with anthracite coal it will not 

 matter much." (This brick filter is simply a parti- 

 tion built up in the cistern, so as to have about 

 one-fourth of the space on one side, and three- 

 fourths on the other. The water Hows into the larg- 

 er si)ace, and is pumped out of the other. We used 

 quite hard bricks and cement. Our water has al- 

 ways been perfectly clear.) 



Next, I told of my well, where we get nice cool 

 drinking-water in summer. In the winter we use 

 only cistern-water. The well is in the dooryard, a 

 few feet from the kitchen-porch . The yard and the 

 fields around are kept clean and pure; that is, no 

 slops are emptied more than once in a i)lace, and 

 the privy-tub is water-tight, and the contents al)- 

 sorbed with dry muck. I spoke rather boastingly, as 

 I have taken a good deal of jiains in that line, of my 

 nice pure well-watei-. The shrewd professor smiled 

 quietly, and remarked: " Vou can not say that your 

 water is pure, although you have taken wise pre- 

 cautions, such as every person should, to try to 

 have it so. You manure your fields, and more or 

 less vegetable matter decays on them. The rains 

 fall on these fields, and the water goes down and 

 carries with it some impurities from this decaying 

 vegetable matter. The earth will not filter them all 

 out. In fact, it is next to impossible to filter them 

 all out. They will go through the brick wall in your 

 cistern with the water. Careful e-\periments have 

 shown that typhoid germs can not be filtered out of 

 water by earth. Your water may be bright and 

 clear, but it may not be entirely pure. In fact, 

 chemistry hardly dares to say, after analyzing, that 

 a given samj)le of water is harmless. It is far easi- 

 er to tell those which are certainlj- harmful. You 

 have taken every precaution that you can in your 

 location, but do not be too positive about your wa- 

 ter being too pure." 



VVell, 1 was taken down, I assure you, friend Koot. 

 Perfection can not be attained, perhaps, in this di- 

 rection nor any other; but we can certainly all 

 work toward it. However, they say boiling would 

 render the water perfectly safe. Certainly ever.v 

 one ought to take all the i)recautions we have. One 

 should do all he can for his own protection, accord- 

 ing to our best present light, and then trust in 

 Providence. 



A man told me this last winter, after hearinjr tne 



