81: 



Cl.EA^i^tiS m BEE CULTUKE. 



Nov. 



ASTER. 



Pnif. (7oo7f ;— By this mail I send you a specimen of 

 a splendid honey-plant, known here as Kelley's 

 honey-plant. It blooms here about the first of 

 September; yields fair honey in great quantities. 

 Please name, and give history in GiiEANiNOS. My 

 bees work on it from morning till night. The honey 

 is good for wintering. Last winter my bees had no 

 other honey, and I did not lose a swarm. 1 can fur- 

 nish seed if desii-ed. M. A. Kelley. 



Milton, W. Va., Sept. 23, 1887. 



Prof. Cook replies : 



The plant sent by M. A. Kelley, Milton, W. Va., 

 is an aster. The asters are always to be praised as 

 honey-plants. They secrete abundantly, and afford 

 excellent honey. Indeed, were aster honey as 

 white as that from clover it would rank first or 

 among the most prized of our honeys. I judge, al- 

 so, from the excellent reports of it this year, that it 

 is good in certain regions to stand the drought. 

 I must say, however, that, while our bees are in ex- 

 cellent trim to store honey, still we have secured 

 no honey this fall to speak of, though we have 

 many autumn plants, among which are several 

 species of asters. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich. 



APIFUGE. 



.V GOOD-NATUKED REPLY. 



SEAR SIR:— I am loth to ti'ouble you again 

 with my affairs; but my love of fair play will 

 scarcely permit me to remain quiet so long- 

 as my preparation continues handicapped 

 by your remarks. On the other hand, I free- 

 ly acquit you of a purposed intention of being 

 either unjust or unfair, our esprit de corps as bee- 

 keepers forbidding any such thought for an in- 

 stant. You are prejudiced, though, Mr. Root, 

 without knowing it, perhaps; for you say, " Lest 

 you may think I am prejudiced I take the follow- 

 ing from the pen of one of your own countrymen," 

 pi'oceeding to quote an unfavorable (almost the 

 only adverse and certainly far the worat) testimoni- 

 al which has appeared amongst scores of favora- 

 ble ones. These you totally ignore, though you 

 must have seen them— editorials in the British Bee- 

 Journal, LaEevne Internationale, L'Apicidteur, testi- 

 monials from such men as Mr. Cowan, M. Bertrand, 

 and others. Even the one you quote must be most 

 exceptional, for the writer of it had a stock so 

 Avicked that neither smoke nor carbolic acid was of 

 any use, and even lie says, "That apifuge is useful 

 in some cases, I know; but not with these particu- 

 lar bees." 



fjet me be well understood. Apifuge is a protect- 

 ive only for the surface on which it is rubbed (how 

 you can use the word " smeared," after having 

 used a substance not unlike brandy, I know not). 

 It will not sole boots nor draw teeth; but it has 

 kept and will keep the editor of Gleanings free 

 from the stings of even those " Cyps " who select 

 the spot beforehand through their little telescopes. 

 " Let us do justice, though the heavens fall." 



R. A. H. GaiMSHAW. 

 Crag Hill, Horseforth, Eng., Oct. 3, 1887. 



It may be that I am prejudiced ; if so, I 

 try hard not to be. In either event, let me 

 refer you to the statement of one who, of all 



our correspondents, is singularly free from 

 prejudice. I refer to Prot. Cook ; see page 

 729, Oct. 1st issue. 



OCCUPATIONS TO GO "WITH BEE- 

 KEEPING. 



can other industries be managed success- 

 fully, and not interfere with bees? 



aR. MILLER has chosen a very opportune time 

 to discuss the question of bee-keeping in 

 connection with other pursuits. No doubt 

 a great many of those who have made bee- 

 keeping more or less a business are doing 

 some very hard thinking as to whether the special- 

 ty business may not be overdone. There are not 

 many occupations that are liable to ever prove so 

 complete a failure as bee-keeping was the past sea- 

 son in this locality. It may be well enough for one 

 to make a specialty of bee-keeping if he has the 

 means to carry him over a bad season without 

 hardship; but I think there are not very many bee- 

 keepers who are able to work a whole year for less 

 than nothing, as the past season has showed may 

 sometimes be the lot of the specialist. 



I can agree with Dr. Miller in all that he has said 

 about small-fruit raising, with perhaps one excep- 

 tion. I know that it would take a very exceptional 

 man, unless he had thoroughly competent and re- 

 liable assistants, to successfully manage a large 

 apiary and a large berry-plantation at the same 

 time. I have a brother who raises strawberries. 

 They are not very far from my apiary, but it has 

 been no small vexation to me that I was not able to 

 get into that berry-patch and enjoy the sight of 

 the ripening fruit and the luxury of picking it 

 from the vines myself more than three or four 

 times during the season. I simply could not get 

 away from the bees. Plainly, the combination of 

 bees and berries as a business is scarcely to be con- 

 sidered. One or the other is almost certain to be 

 neglected. 



Nor do I think very much more of poultry-keep- 

 ing. There is this to be said against it, as well as 

 some other industries that might be named, in that 

 it requires a certain amount of at:ention not only- 

 everyday, but several times a day. Rain or shine, 

 whether honey be coming in or not, the chickens 

 must be attended to or they will suffer; and during 

 the honey season, when a man knows that his time 

 is worth several times as much in the apiary as in 

 the chicken-yard, the chickens are apt to be neg- 

 lected. 



I once heard some ladies discussing various 

 household duties, and their preference among 

 them. Dish-washing seemed to have no friends. 

 AH agreed that it was simply an unavoidable evil. 

 The reason for this, I thought, was very aptly put 

 by one of them when she said. " I should not mind 

 it so much, only it's always." Now, one reason why 

 I like bee-keeping is that it is not " always." Of 

 course, there are times when the bee-keeper is 

 bound closely enough at home; but during half the 

 year, and at intervals during the other half, bees 

 may be left to themselves, not only without detri- 

 ment, but to positive advantage. There is plenty 

 of work, to be sure, to be done in these intervals; 

 but as a rule it does not have to be done at any 

 fixed time. The freedom and independence which 

 this gives, form one of the charms of bee-keeping, 



