i88f 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



431 



a $25.00 watch, which I hold and carry to-day— the 

 best timekeeper I ever owned, and which is a per- 

 petual reminder to me of yourself and ray own bee- 

 life in former years, when my wife used to say I 

 had bees on the brain. T must say, that I admire 

 your manly way of treating' the fraternity. I have 

 been So absorbed of late years in my business in 

 New York that I have had to droj) out almost 

 entirely from the cluster of bee-keepers; and 

 but for the fact that I receive a call now and then 

 from some of them I would forget all I ever knew 

 of bee culture. But I am a good deal like the old 

 war-horse that came to be hitched to an old dirt- 

 cart in his latter days. When hearing- a bugle-call 

 in the street he jumped to answer it, and cart and 

 all bounded througli the streets as though charging 

 an enemy in battle. I remember with great plea- 

 sure you and Scotield making me that little call last 

 fall on your return from the convention, and I 

 thank you for it, and shall, if opportunity ever oc- 

 curs, return it at the Home of the Honey-Bees. I 

 am pleased to see that Gleanings is still prosper- 

 ing, and that her child has grown so much like its 

 mother that she is recognized only by the date and 

 the juvenile department. I well remember the first 

 issue of the children's Gleanings; and, if I mis- 

 take not, 1 put my thought in complimentary shape 

 in an editorial in the Bee-Keepers' Exclianye, using, 

 as a boom, Longfellow's poem, "The Children's 

 Hour." Well, God has blessed you, friend R., and I 

 rejoice with i ou, and I give you my hand in hearty 

 shake, and say, with all my heart, " May he contin- 

 ue to bless you, not only with this world's goods, 

 but with his Holy Spirit, that you may glorify him 

 in this life and eujoj' him for ever." 



Theodore O. Pbet. 

 Arlington, N. J., May 5, 1887. 



HIVING SWARMS. 



HOW liONG IT TAKES A BEE TO GO AND KKTURN 

 WITH A LOAD. 



fKOM the ABC book and Cook's Manual 

 1 have gained more knowledge of apiculture 

 in one year than I should have gained in a 

 lifetime of experience without aid from any 

 other source. I could not think of going 

 without Gleanings. Especially do I like the Home 

 Talks and My Neighbors. I have been able to keep 

 my tobacco pledge. It will soon be two years since 



1 threw away my pipe. I feel better, and am able 

 to do better mental work without it. 



During the past two years, when bee-hunting, and 

 at other times, I have carefully timed bees, and tind 

 that, on an average, they will fly 100 feet to their 

 hive (or tree), unload, and return in 2 minutes. 

 They will tly half a mile and back in 7 minutes; one 

 mile in 12 minutes, and 2'/i miles in from 27 to 30 

 minutes. From this it will be seen that bees will 

 fly one mile in .5 minutes. Of course, on a very 

 windy day it would take them longer. Trips within 



2 miles were made with surprising regularity. 



On page 20 of his work on comb honey, W. Z. 

 Hutchinson says that the brood-nest should not be 

 contracted so as to be tall and thin, but should be 

 low and flat, but he gives no reasons. I should be 

 glad to hear them. Would it not be an advantage 

 in increasing artificially to leave the queen and the 

 fullest comb of brood in the (Ad hive, on the old 

 stand, the remainder of the contracted brood-nest 



to be filled with starters only, and the super to be 

 placed above a zmc honey-board, the remainder of 

 the brood and combs to constitute the new swarm "i* 

 By this means all the advantages of the empty 

 brood-nest are secured, the same as in natural 

 swarming. I should like to know, also, if it pays to 

 hive the new swarms in an empty brood-nest, why 

 would it not also pay at the beginning of the honey- 

 harvest, when working for extracted honey, to pro- 

 ceed as above, but, instead of making a new colony 

 of the removed brood, to place It in the super, of 

 course using a queen-excluding honey-board, t 

 have tried Doolittle's queen-cell protector. It works 

 like a charm. William E. GoulD; 



Fremont, Mich., May 5, 1887. 



The facts you give us in regard to tlie 

 length of time it takes a bee to go and re- 

 turn are very valuable, friend G., and we 

 will try to have them embodied in the next 

 edition of our A B C book. I have made 

 some similar experiments, but I was in- 

 clined to think a bee would fly rather more 

 than a mile in five minutes, unless hindered 

 by the wind, intervening forests, or some- 

 thing of that sort. 



THE NEW SOUTH. 



THE EFFECT OF GRADUAL ELEVATION ON THE 

 HONEY-FLOW. 



fl51 HE reason that I gave last fall why this sec- 

 ^ tion should prove to be favorable for bees, 

 < that the sides of the mountains prolong the 

 flowering season, seemed to be questioned 

 by a friend in Tennessee. I would reply, 

 that I know not how small a difference in his sec- 

 tion would result from a very gradual slope for a 

 long distance; but it is a fact here, that an eleva- 

 tion of nearly 2500 feet in 3 miles does make a dif- 

 ference of from 4 to 7 days (according to the weath- 

 er in the spring); and to the top of " Flat Top," 

 which towers above us 1000 feet higher, the flower- 

 ing and leafing out of the trees is several days lat- 

 er still; so that the flowering of the topis delayed 

 often two weeks after the trees in the valley. This 

 prolonging of the flowering season 1 consider con- 

 stitutes the slope of this mountain ridge a desira- 

 ble place for bee-raising, besides being adapted to 

 most of the varieties of fruits. Pure air, the best 

 of water, a mild climate, cheap land, good soil, and 

 low taxes, are reasons enough to invite industrious 

 and enterprising farmers and apiarists to come and 

 settle. As some proof, in 18.50 Virginia reported 

 more honey and wax than Ohio; and in 1860 she 

 raised almost as much; but since the days of im- 

 proved hives, of course Ohio has taken the lead. 

 Bring this same enterprising spirit into the South, 

 and I see no reason why she should not again equal 

 if not surpass the North, having longer summers 

 and shorter winters. I am not a bee-keeper. It is 

 only because I am fully occupied otherwise; but I 

 am not the less an interested reader of Gleanings. 

 In fact, it is my preference of all the fourteen 

 papers I take. 1 could heartily wish its subscrip- 

 tion-list were 70,000 rather than 7000. Now that 1 

 am telling my likes, it will not be transcending the 

 department of " home interests " if I name the 

 next best. It is the Sunday-School Times, published 

 weekly at 1031 Walnut St., Philadelphia, Penn., 

 11 by 16 inches, 16 pages. To new subscribers. $1.00 

 per year. Though intended mainly to explain the 



