384 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mav 1 



year, if all goes well, full3^ 200 should bear. 

 A very few of those trees are 25 feet hig-h 

 and 8 inches throug-h at the butt, while 200 

 or more of them are over 20 feet hig-h and 

 5 inches or more in diameter six inches 

 above the ground; and since the nuts are 

 worth $2.25 per barrel, and blackwalnut 

 lumber is worth $100 per 1000 feet, the man 

 who failed to care properly for the trees, 

 and his neighbors also, admit that there is 

 some method in mj^ lunacy after all, al- 

 though my tenant does not see whj' I should 

 "fault" him for being careless about the 

 trees, "Kase them trees is g-wine to be 

 wuth a heap course o' ten or fifteen j^ears;" 

 and he "lowed ef they'd a been on his 

 Ian' he'd a plowed every dratted one on em 

 up the fust ear;" and he really thinks I 

 should be well pleased at what he has done, 

 in spite of the fact that, had he lived up to 

 his agreement, I should now have had twice 

 as many trees well on the way to a bearing 

 size and age. This year I planted 400 pa- 

 per-shell pecans and 190 Japan walnuts. 

 J. W. Stebbins. 

 Broadcreek, Va., Feb. 5. 



|T have g^iven the above mainl}' to show 

 how easy it is to grow a grove of walnuts, 

 especially since the lumber is g-eting- to be 

 away up in price; and with the nut-bear- 

 ing trees we can, as you notice in the above, 

 be getting some revenue while the trees are 

 g-etting to be of suitable size for lumber. 

 Our baswood-orchard has many trees now 

 over a foot through; and the yield of the hon- 

 ey from the grove is on the increase year by 

 year.— A. I. R.] 



THE NATURE AND GENERAL CHARACTER OF 

 PICKLED BROOD. 



1. Has pickled brood absolutely no per- 

 ceptible odor? 



2. Will there be absolutely no ropy mat- 

 ter adhere to a toothpick when withdrawn 

 from a dead larva having- had the disease 

 known as pickled brood? 



3. Will a comb that has been rotten with 

 foul brood during June become filled with 

 healthy larvje afterward? Or, will a foul- 

 brood cell produce healthy larva? at times 

 and diseased ones at other times? 



R. C. HUGKNTOBLER. 



Miami, O., Apr. 12. 



[ 1. Pickled brood has no odor like foul 

 brood, nor has it a foul smell — in fact, no 

 smell at all, as a g-eneral thing-. If any 

 odor is present at all it is slightlj' acid, or 

 sour, and heuce the name, pickled brood. 

 In the advanced stages there will be a white 

 mold over the surface of the comb; and this, 

 in fact, is the best evidence that it is pick- 

 led brood. 



2. Pickled brood is slig-htly ropy at times, 

 but it never draws or ropes out more than 

 an eighth of an inch, and, unlike foul brood, 

 does not have a stringy character. 



3. Cells that have contained foul brood 

 may be cleaned out by the bees, and after- 

 ward healthy brood be reared in them; but 



the probabilities are that those same cells 

 containing the spores of the disease will 

 again give the disease to other healthy lar- 

 vae. Yes, cells that have been foul-broodj' 

 at one time may be apparently healthy at 

 another. — Ed.] 



GUESSING AT THE AMOUNT OF STORES IN 

 HIVES. 



Will you kindly explain in your next is- 

 sue one or more methods by means of which 

 the amount of honey in a hive can be deter- 

 mined without weighing each comb? 



John C. McCormick. 



Detroit, Mich., Apr. 12. 



[The best way is to hang the hive on a 

 spring balance, and thus get at the actual 

 weight. If you know what similar hives 

 with empty combs will weigh, and then add 

 about 3 lbs. for the bees, 3'ou can determine 

 pretty accurately the amount ol honey in 

 the hive. After weighing 50 or 100 hives 

 you will then be able thus to determine 

 near enough for all practical purposes by 

 "hefting" or lifting the hives. Practice 

 makes perfect, or nearly so. — Ed.] 



candied comb HONEV — WHAT TO DO WITH 

 IT. 



I had a case of fine-looking honej' of my 

 last year's crop turn to sugar. Can you 

 tell me the cause of it? and can you give 

 me a way to prevent it? If you can, I will 

 consider it a great favor. H. R. Long. 



Columbus, O., Mar. 29. 



[You can give it to the bees or sell it 

 to some of your local customers at a low 

 price. I say local customers, because j'ou 

 can then explain that it is pure comb hon- 

 ey, granulated in the combs. Some take 

 such honey and put it into a solar wax-ex- 

 tractor. The honey will melt with the 

 wax, and rundown into the pan. The wax 

 will be on top and the hone}' beneath; but 

 the color of the latter, when so treated, is 

 affected for the worse, and is usually fit 

 only to be fed to the bees. The cause of the 

 granulation of the hone}' ma}' be due to the 

 fact that you kept it in a cool place over 

 winter. But some honeys, especially some 

 seasons, will candy, even when the condi- 

 tions are favorable for keeping it liquid. — 

 Ed.] 



the california honey crop. 

 Friend Root: — On page 227, Mar. 15, I 

 notice an editorial and quotations from let- 

 ters concerning the honey crop in Califor- 

 nia. It makes me laugh — or it would if it 

 were not so provoking. What fools some of 

 our California bee-keepers are! Eastern 

 honey-producers need not worry much about 

 the big crop in California this year, for we 

 shall not have it unless we get two or three 

 inches of rain yet, and then the weather 

 will have to be just right for about three 

 months yet. I have been in the bee busi- 

 ness here for 19 years, with more or less 

 success ; and if we have much of a crop 



