1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



611 



pantry on one side, and into the dining-room 

 on tin"' otlicr. In rcu'ard to using tlie kitcli- 

 en foi' a dining-room, we ol'teii use the i)an- 

 try for meals ; and it is always in the i)an- 

 try that 1 get my sui)i)er Sunday evenings, 

 after prayer-meeting. I rather enjoy it, 

 too, for the room is so suiall we eat by twos, 

 and Sue and I are generally the last two, so 

 we luive a little hit of Sunday evening alone 

 by ourselves, just as we used to have a, hit of 

 Sunday evening all to ourselves about 2o or 

 30 years ago.— I agree with you in regard to 

 the outdoor business. Let the women and 

 everybody else have something to eall them 

 outdoors regularly every day all winter long. 

 Poultry is certainly one of the best indus- 

 tries. A cari)-pond close by might tempt 

 them out to slide and skate, and I believe 

 my wife would beat any of her girls in slid- 

 ing, even now ; but I fear that she wouldn't 

 want to stay on the ice long enough to put 

 on skates. 



CUBA, AGAIN. 



FRIEND OSBURN TELLS US SOMETHING ABOUT 

 THE GREATEST YIELDS OF HONEY. 



fRlEND ROOT:— You wish to know what was 

 our greatest yield from any one colony, and 

 about how much said colony in its best days 

 stored in one day. It would be impossible for 

 me to give you a statement or record of what 

 any one of our colonies did last winter; for my lit- 

 tle son and myself being- alone it was all we could 

 do to take the honey as fast as it came in, and do 

 what other work there is connected with the har- 

 vesting of a crop. But 1 can give you the result of 

 one colony's work for 59 days while I was at San 

 Miguel, three years ago this winter, flive No. 43.3, 

 from the :Slst of December until the 2Tth day of 

 February, stored 620 lbs. of honey. The yield per 

 day was nothing to what colonies have been known 

 to store; but taking the whole flfty-nine days, the 

 amount secured will compare favorably enough 

 with other large yields; for, in truth, it is a big 

 yield. If my health is spared me, I shall take one 

 more honey crop in Cuba (this winter), then I shall 

 return to California; for my obligations to my chil- 

 dren will not admit of my keeping them here any 

 longer than this winter. I expect to be obliged to 

 leave Cuba with a cherished ambition unsatisfied ; 

 i. e., taking from a given number of colonies (say 

 100) .')00 lbs. to the colony. I think it is possible; 

 and had it not been for the many ifs in the way last 

 spring, my son being taken sick on the 7th of 

 March, and the large increase we wanted to makv- 

 (430 colonies from 80), I am satisfied I should have 

 realized what I wished to; that is, .50,000 lbs. from 

 100 colonies. This winter our apiary will be so large 

 that it will be quite impossible to keep the honey 

 of any otie colony or number of colonies separate. 



Speaking a little further about large yields from 

 single colonies, that sj'stem of reporting is wrong. 

 While there may not be any injustice intended, it is 

 apt to put too glowing a face on bee-keeping for a 

 beginner, while the veterans know that such re- 

 sults are possible only Avhen all conditions are fa- 

 vorable. You and I, Mr. Root, have been in the 

 business some time, and we know that, when a col- 

 ony fills their top combs every week isay50 1b8.) 

 week in and week out, it is good business, and there 



are more colonies that will not do it than there are 

 that will. Rut in an e.\i>erience of many years it 

 has not often happened that we have met with the 

 e.xact combination for such large yields in individ- 

 ual colonies, and I am compelled to say that, when 

 we have, it has always been hybrids. 



Yes, I have used gi-ass in the nozzle of my smok- 

 er, but 1 do not know that I got the right twist to it, 

 for it never gave very good satisfaction. It would 

 soon burn out, and the ashes and partly burnt 

 grass would all be blown in the hive, which would 

 cause the bees to make faces at such treatment; 

 but I have much faith in the sawdust for fuel, al- 

 though I have never tried it. I think, if it is press- 

 ed down hard, and dampened a little, it would work 

 nicely. I will add one word more about burning 

 green wood. After the smoker has been burning a 

 spell and wants more wood, I press to one side the 

 wood that remains in the smoker, and is partly 

 burnt, and put the green sticks in the other side. 

 That keeps the fire and charred wood close togeth- 

 er; and by the time it is burned out, the green will 

 be seasoned and burning too. 



BEES MIXING. 



I told you in my last article how close our hives 

 sit to one another. Well, many of them are very 

 strong, and, under the influence of this Cuban cli- 

 mate, lie out on the front of the hive, the alighting- 

 board, and on the ground, and they mix and mingle 

 together, until it would seem that they were all one 

 family. Do they quarrel and fight? No, they seem 

 to have a good time of it— a sort of old-tashioned 

 quilting or husking bee. Whether they go into one 

 another's hives or not, I can not say; but one thing 

 1 do know— they are not bad enough, under such 

 circumstances, to kill another fellow's mamma. 



PAINT. 



After trying many of the mixed paints and white 

 lead, we have at last settled down on zinc as giving 

 us the best satisfaction. 



GLEANINGS. 



One word as to its being an " all-around journal." 

 I think no well-balanced mind can find any fault 

 with the make-up and the matter that grace its 

 pages from month to month; and the subject, 

 " The Water We Drink," I have been deei)ly inter- 

 ested in. I fully agree with you and Prof. Cook in 

 what you say; and the article contributed by 

 Geo. Thompson is worth more than the price of 

 Gleanings for one year. It contains so much sub- 

 stantial good that every man, woman, and child 

 should read it. It is just what I am heart and soul 

 interested in. 



the water we drink. 



After three years' living here, my children and 

 myself put up with water as best we could, such as 

 comes from open wells, that the oldest man could 

 not remember the time when they were cleaned, 

 and from springs that run through pastures, and 

 were the receptacles of decayed vegetation. 1 sug- 

 gested to Mr. Dussaq that we have a bored well of 

 our own, and we had it. Need I tell you it is a 

 bigger prize than was ever drawn at the Havana 

 Lottery'? The soil here is a stitt' hard clay. After 

 going down 20 ft. in this clay we struck water, pure 

 and unadulterated. The hole is 2'4 inches, and a 

 2-inch pipe put down, with a good pump. I will tell 

 you how it is fixed around the top, to exclude sur- 

 face water. For about 'S ft. from the top down, the 

 hole is six inches across. We first begati filling in 

 around the pipe at the bottom of this ti-inch hole 



