704 



CJLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Sept. 



bring about the change than one who had 

 not already tried it would imagine. Re- 

 forms ill naming things in bee culture have 

 been talked about for years, and some of 

 them have been agreed upon, but that was 

 the end of it. A very few tried for a little 

 while to use the new name, and then got 

 discouraged and gave it up. Shall we not 

 let well enough alone V 



GRAND DISPLAY OF BEES, QUEENS, HONEY, APIA- 

 RIAN SUPPI-IES. ETC., AT THE OHIO STATE 

 FAIR, 1887. 



Notwithstanding the dry season, one of the most 

 attractive sights at the State fair con id have been 

 seen in tht apiarian department of Agricultural 

 Hall. Many of the stalwart bee-men of the State 

 were there with bees, queens, honey, and supplies. 

 The following persons were awarded premiums: 

 Elias Cole, of Ashley, O., five premiums, aggregat- 

 ing $30.00. Aaron Benedict, of Bennington, O., flrst 

 on bees and second on feeder. C. E. .Tones, of Dela- 

 ware, ()., was awarded 8 premiums. Dr. Bcsse, of 

 Delaware, O., received four premiums. W. P. Craw- 

 ford, of Delaware, O., three premiums. G. W. New- 

 love, of Columbus, O., flrst on thin foundation. 

 Chas. McClave, of New London, O., received two 

 l)remiuras. The deepest regret prevailed, caused 

 by the absence of the newly elected officers, the 

 president and secretary of the Ohio State Bee-keep- 

 ers' Association. Hoping that we may never have 

 the opportunity to allude to their absence again, 

 when their presence is expected, we will forgive 

 the past and hope for better in the future. 



Bloomington, Ohio. S. R. Morris. 



The president very much regrets his ab- 

 sence at the State fair— the more so. because 

 the bee-men of our State did so well under 

 adverse circumstances. If the real truth 

 were told, he would have to confess that the 

 (late of the fair quite slipped his mind un- 

 til after it was too late to get to Columbus 

 in time. He and the secretary will try to 

 make amends by doing all they can to make 

 a rousing good convention, to be held in 

 Columbus some lime in mid-winter. 



DO BEES EVER PUNCTURE FRUIT? 



Does the honey-bee ever puncture the skin of any 

 or our fruits, and afterward suck the juice? This 

 subject has been under discussion at some length 

 in the meetings of the Portage Co. Horticultural 

 Society, and also of several papers read before the 

 Garrettsville Antiquarian and Scientific Society. 

 This will be again presented before the first-named 

 society this month. I desire the opinion of the 

 most noted bee-keepers on this important subject. 

 I shall be pleased to learn your opinion at an early 

 date; and when published I will forward you a 

 printed copy of the paper on this subject. 



Geo. J. Streator. 



Garrettsville, O., Sept. 1, 1887. 



Friend S., this matter lias been discussed 

 over and over again for years, through our 

 bee-journals ; and the sum and substance 

 of a great amount of the testimony seems to 

 be about this : As a rule, bees do not and 

 can not puncture fruit, even if they wanted 

 to ever so much. A great many would stop 

 right here, I presume. My opinion is, that 

 they can puncture fiuitto some extent when 

 theylgetjisufticiently excited, and when they 

 are'in sufficient ninnbers. .\s an illiistra- 



tioh : I have seen bees so excited around 

 overripe grapes that great clusters of bees 

 covered the bunches, so that not a grape 

 was visible. The bees were at such times 

 rolling over each other, and fighting for the 

 grapes. When bees get on such a raid as 

 this, tliey will almost cut through inch 

 boards, and at such times the grapes disap- 

 pear — good, bad, and indifferent. Now, I 

 can not say positively that there were any 

 perfectly sound berries in any of the bunch- 

 es ; but my opinion is, after the best in- 

 vestigations J could make, that the bees had 

 got a going so savagely they managed to cut 

 into the grapes in some way or other — per- 

 haps by starting an opening where the stems 

 joined the fruit. May be they pushed so 

 hard they crowded the fruit loose on the 

 stems ; and from what I know of bees I 

 think the latter is quite probable. It is no 

 more than fair, however, to add that we 

 have good crops of Concord grapes year 

 after year, right over our bee-hives. There 

 are 400 or 500 bearing vines, and the bees 

 have never yet worked on the grapes enough 

 to destroy a single pound. Most seasons 

 they never notice them at all. 



HOW TO M.A.KE THE STOPPER, AS SHOWN ON P. 576. 



When giving a description of my machine for 

 emptying supers I omitted to explain the stops 

 which hold the supers in proper position upon the 

 bearing-board. They are shown in Fig. 6, at Z, page 

 .576. They are formed by fastening to each of the 

 end-pieces of the machine a piece of board three or 

 four inches wide and '5 inch thick (the width and 

 thickness are immaterial), and long enough to e.v- 

 tend backward as far as the back side of the super 

 will require to go when being emptied. These are 

 sawed off square at the back end, and another piece 

 reaching across from one to the other is nailed on 

 to them. This forms a stopper to keep the super 

 from going too far back. A block is nailed into 

 each corner of this stopper, of suitable dimensions, 

 so that when the super is placed upon the bearing- 

 board, and pushed backward against the stopper, it 

 goes loosely between said blocks, by means of which 

 it is held accurately in place while the follower is 

 bi'ought down upon it to remove it from the sec- 

 tions. The stopper for wide frames is made by flrst 

 nailing a strip j^; thick, and as wide as the thickness 

 of the bottom piece of bearing-board, on to the back 

 side. Over this is nailed a piece of board which ex- 

 tends upward above the upright bearings, high 

 enough to form the stopper. Joshua Bult^. 



Seymour, Wis., Aug. 17, 1887. 



SUFFICIENT ENERGY AND ENTERPRISE, ETC. 



On page 637, speaking of two Medina bee-keepers 

 who got a big yield while their neighbors, north, 

 south, east, and west, got nearly nothing, comment- 

 ing upon it you observe, " Give us a man with suffi- 

 cient energy and enterprise, and he will have a 

 crop, no matter what the season may be." You 

 certainly ought to know the way at Medina, but 

 this time you are off to the " Lake of the Dismal 

 Swamp." .J. Hamilton. 



Beason, Til. 



Well, I declare, friend II., I don't know 

 but that I have got myself in a tight place 

 this time. I don't believe I shall back out 

 just yet, liowever, even if you and Dr. Miller 



