1887 



glp:\nings in bee culture. 



943 



THE JAPANESE BUCKWHEAT INFERIOR TO THE 

 SILVERHULL. 



On page 833 you ask for reports from those who 

 bought Japanese buckwheat of j-ou during the past 

 season. Well, here goes for the Tar-Heel apiarian's 

 experience with the plant. About June 18th 1 

 planted the peck I got of you on something near 

 one-third of an acre, that was highly fertilized with 

 cotton-seeds, kainit, and acid-phosphate. It grew 

 to be about 33 to 36 inches high. It had plenty of 

 blossoms, though it was a rare thing to see a bee on 

 any of them. Very little grain was matured— so 

 little, in fact, that I did not think it worth while to 

 save any of it. There was plenty of rain, and there 

 was no honey being gathered from any other 

 source. 



KAFFIR CORN A.S A HONEY-PLANT. 



By the waj', the much-prized " Kaffir corn," of 

 which I grew about 3'.i acres in the same field, did 

 me much more good in the way of furnishing bee- 

 food, for it supplied them with large quantities of 

 pollen, and they worked it very extensively ; no 

 honey that I could detect. It has a fine quick 

 growth of grain and forage food. It matures grain 

 in about 80 days. 



The half-bushel of silverhuU buckwheat I got of 

 you, and planted early in May, on much poorer land 

 than I did the Japanese, furnished the bees a large 

 quantity of pollen, and quite a lot of honey too, and 

 matured three times as much seed, though it grew 

 only about 16 to 20 inches high. It furnished flow- 

 ers four times as long as the Japanese did, and bees 

 were working on the flowers of it at the time that 

 the Japanese began to bloom. I should say, that 

 for this climate the silverhuU buckwheat is much 

 superior to the Japanese buckwheat as a honej' or 

 grain producer. 



I have put up, ready for winter, 60 colonies. 



Goldsboro, N. C. Abbott L. Swinson. 



Friend S., you should remember that 

 buckwheat does not stand hot weather, and 

 I doubt if you can get either seed or honey 

 of any account from any kind of buckwheat 

 sown so near the middle of June, in your lo- 

 cality. The silverhuU you sowed in May 

 had the benefit of the cooler weather earlier 

 in the season. We are glad to have your 

 unfavorable report nevertheless. 



THE EUCALYPTUS HONEY OF TAS- 

 MANIA. 



SOMETHING FURTHER IN REGARD TO THE M.\T- 

 TER MENTIONED ON PAGE 8V.5. 



a EAR FRIEND ROOT:— Referring to your re- 

 marks upon the great blaqk-honey discovery 

 in Tasmania, in Gleanings for Nov. 1.5, 1 will 

 say that, by reference to the International 

 Cyclopedia, Vol. XIV., page 317, you will find 

 that the blue gum {Eucalyptus globulus, a species 

 of eucalyptus which we frequently use as a medi- 

 cine in this country) reaches g. height of 3.50 ft., 

 with corresponding girth, on the island of Tas- 

 mania. For further information I refer you to an 

 editorial article in June number of the Therapeutic 

 Gazette, which I send you by this mail. 



W. McKay Dougan, M. D. 

 Santee Agency, Neb., Nov. 22, 1887. 



We have read the article referred to by 

 friend M., and will say to our readers that 

 the statement of the Therapeutic agrees with 



what has been already published in Glean- 

 ings ; viz., that as much as 11,000 lbs. of 

 honey was taken from one tree. Although 

 this black honey may never be used for food, 

 if the statements are true it promises to be 

 a valuable article of medicine. I would re- 

 speetifully beg to get something directly 

 from our subscribers in Tasmania, if any of 

 them can give us any light in regard to the 

 matter. 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS, 



A GOOD POINTER FOR THE STATISTIC BUSINESS. 



PRIEND ROOT:— Your supposition as to the ex- 

 istence of a border-land, fruitful in honey, 

 somewhere between the rain-drenched coast 

 of Maryland and the drought-stricken dis' 

 trict of Ohio and westward, is correct. It 

 lies through Central New York, and the contiguous 

 portions of Pennsylvania. To this the wide- 

 awakes of New York city could testify, if they 

 would, since their honey-hawks did, at an early 

 date, sail out, hover over, and scoop from the said 

 section hundred of tons of beautiful honey, at a 

 low figure for this season. This adds weighty tes- 

 timony to the yearly proof we have, of the great 

 need of our bee-journals being enabled to make a 

 correct weekly report from all parts of the field, by 

 way of town and country secretaries of bee-associ- 

 ations. This should be done for a period of at 

 least six months of the year— from June first to 

 December first. It is to be hoped that our editors 

 will take advantage of this season's experience to 

 impress upon their readers the importance of this 

 help in obtaining fair prices for honey. Our bee- 

 associations the coming winter should make it a 

 prominent theme in their deliberations. The or- 

 ganization of all bee-men, wherever practical, into 

 societies, to gather and forward all information 

 pertaining to their interests as honey-producers, 

 should be effected. The burden of the work will 

 fall where it should— upon the producer. 



Three things I have learned this year, which I 

 regard of great value: Tiering up; the use of the 

 slatted honey-board, and the bee-space above the 

 body of the hive. You are enabled thereby to save 

 bees, time, strength, honey, and the good nature of 

 the bees. J. Mekbel. 



Poplar Ridge, N. Y^ 



HOW MANY POUNDS OF HONEY TO MAKE ONE POUND 

 OF WAX? 



On p. 171 of GLEANINGS it is claimed that it takes 

 six pounds of honey to make one of wax. I think 

 it takes more here in our locality. For several 

 years we have had very poor honey crops— so poor 

 that a swarm of bees hived in an empty hive would 

 not make enough to winter on, while one just as 

 good, hived on full combs and foundation, would 

 make 40 pounds of surplus. This would show that, 

 while the swarm hived on empty frames made two 

 pounds of wax, the one hived on full frames made 

 40 lbs. of honey. Chas. H. Timmerman. 



Fayette, Iowa, Nov. 30, 1887. 



The old estimate, as made by experimenters 

 years ago, was that it took twenty pounds 

 of honey to produce one of wax, and your 

 experiments seem to again reconfirm it. 



