GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



J. E. Crane 



IFTTINGS I Middlebery, Vl 



Bees here in Vermont are in 

 most excellent condition this fall, 

 and the ground is better covered 

 with clover than for many years 

 past; but our next year's crop of 

 honey will depend on the coming- 

 months. 



Editorial entitled- " The Abuse of Bait 

 Sections," page 831, Oct. 15, is timely and 

 to the point. To my sorrow, I have been 

 caught once or twice by using them. 

 Who can tell why it should granulate in 

 such combs sooner than in newly made 

 combs? and why should comb change to a 

 dirty yellow by standing empty for eight or 

 ten months? and why should honey fed 

 back to finish sections be darker than when 

 fed? Who can tell? 



In giving his treatment of foul brood, 

 Mr. Greiner tells us, page 751, Sept. 1.5, 

 how he saved his hives but burned all his 

 frames and combs. It was well to save the 

 hive, but why burn all the combs? Why 

 not make them into wax worth, perhaps, 30 

 cents a pound, or quite a dollar's worth of 

 wax to the hive, and then burn the slum- 

 gum? The heat will kill all germs of foul 

 brood, and you save just so much. 

 * * * 



On page 742, Sept. 15, the editor says of ' 

 fall-united colonies that " for some reason 

 they do not seem able to get together as one 

 working unit like a regular colony," which 

 reminds me of a yard I visited a few weeks 

 ago. I found the colonies nearly gone with 

 foul brood, and advised the owner to break 

 all up. He was anxious to save some bees, 

 and united five into one colony, putting 

 them into a large oblong hive Avithout 

 frames. When I called on him again I 

 found these five small colonies had clustered 

 in the top of his hive as three distinct 

 colonies — three of them going together at 

 one end and the other two occupying each 

 of the two opposite corners, and each of 

 the three building separate sets of combs. 

 « * • 



That article by Allen Latham, beginning 

 on page 887, Nov. 1, is to my mind one of 

 the best, if not the best, in this number of 

 Gleanings. Mr. Latham is a typical Yan- 

 kee, and never does things because some 

 one else does, but does his own thinking, 

 and takes the path that is most likely to 

 accomplish his ends without regard to wliat 

 otl'ers think, or the difficulties in the way. 



That the rules he lays down will work 

 where there is a good flow of honey I have 

 not the slightest doubt, for I have produced 

 tons of non-separatored section honey my- 

 self. But I wanted to call attention to the 

 fact that the rules he lays down are of as 

 great value in the production of honey with 

 separators as without them. 

 * « # 



It does one's soul good tliese frosty morn- 

 ings to look at those photographs of flow- 

 ers by J. M. Buchanan, of Franklin, Tenn., 

 on pages 842, 843, Oct. 15. I notice, how- 

 ever, one is not named correctly. It is a 

 boneset, sure, but not Eupatorium perfuU- 

 atum. There are sixteen species of the 

 boneset family. Mr. Buchanan says the 

 species his illustration represents gTows on 

 high lands, and furnishes a good crop of 

 surplus honey of fair quality, light amber 

 in color, while E. perfoliatum grows on low 

 lands or in swamps, and the honey, while a 

 light amber in color is quite bitter. Gray 

 says of it that the " leaves are lanceolate, 

 united at the base around the stem;" i. e., 

 they are without any peticle or leaf-stalk, 

 and the stem perforates the leaves; hence 

 the name, " perfoliatum." It is generally 

 known here in the East as thoroughwort. 



How beautiful are the lines of Grace 

 Allen on page 881, Nov. 1, " The Lament of 

 the Drones"! How often has a feeling of 

 sorrow and sadness come over us as we have 

 seen the drones driven from the hive to die 

 of cold and hunger! And the workers, too 

 — how brief is their life — not much if any 

 longer than that of the drones, except those 

 which come on to the stage in late summer 

 or early autumn ! They may live througli 

 the winter only to perish in the spring. 

 But such is life on this earth. The flowers 

 bloom and quickly wither. The leaves that 

 have clothed the earth with beauty through 

 the summer at the approach of autumn 

 drop to earth and turn to dust. And man. 

 even, opens his eyes upon a world of life 

 and light and beauty, and in a few brief 

 years closes them in darkness. What does 

 it all mean? Surely life is the great un- 

 solved problem, until our hearts are touched 

 by the Spirit of the Most High, and we look 

 up and recogTiize our kinship with the in- 

 finite, and hear the words of the Master, 

 " Because I live ye shall live also." Isn't 

 it just grand to think we may live on 

 through the ages while material things per- 

 ish? 



