480 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



and buildings, icicles formed an inch in di- 

 ameter and a foot or more in length. This 

 was Friday night and morning, and it kept 

 so cold that those icicles still hung there up 

 to Sunday noon, May 11, it freezing nearly 

 as hard Saturday' night as it did the night 

 before. Monday morning there was a white 

 frost, but Monday night it did not freeze, 

 but rained a little. It turned cold on Tues- 

 day, the 13th, and on Wednesday morning 

 we had ice three-eighths of an inch thick; 

 and this morning, Thursday, May 15, the 

 ice was three-sixteenths thick. The bees 

 have not gotten any nectar so far this year, 

 and, as nearly as I can ascertain, the em- 

 brj'o basswood-blossoms are all killed, for 

 the5^ seem of a brown color at the base of 

 the incipient leaves. Therefore it does not 

 look as if this locality would overstock the 

 honey market the coming fall. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Borodino, N. Y., May 15, 1902. 



Later, May 28. — After our freezing weath- 

 er from May 8th to 16th it began to warm 

 up so that we had fairly comfortable spring 

 weather till the middle of the week begin- 

 ning May 18th, when we had a light frost. 

 This was followed by warmer weather, 

 when it turned hot, Friday and Saturday, 

 May 23 and 24, the mercury reaching 80 

 and 87 degrees respectiveljs followed by 

 fine rains. This set me to hoping that we 

 had seen an end to the cold weather, and I 

 started nuclei for queen-rearing. But with 

 the afternoon of May 26th it turned colder, 

 with clouds and winds, till the night of the 

 27th, when it coinmenced snowing, with the 

 mercury at only four above the freezing- 

 point; and it is still snowing as I write 

 this, at 10 A.M., having now snowed nearly 

 18 hours, and the mercury stands at this 

 minute at only two degrees above the freez- 

 ing-point. The bees in the formed- nuclei 

 have been obliged to draw compactly to- 

 gether to keep warm, which means the 

 sboiling of all the brood given them. As I 

 diagnosed on the 16th, the flower-buds on 

 the basswood were all killed before that 

 time; and it now proves that the larger 

 portion of the new growth of twigs was also 

 killed, so that the trees have the appear- 

 ance of a fire having passed lightly through 

 them, the injury of which will last for sev- 

 eral 3^ears. Unless we get honey from clo- 

 ver again, there will be no white honey 

 this year in this localit}^ G. M. D. 



IS IT A CASE OF POISONING? 



I take the liberty of asking you a ques- 

 tion : Yesterday something ailed one of my 

 hives. All the bees clustered out, and then 

 fell, a good many of them being dead. 

 What is the reason ? 



As to the Spanish names in Gleanings 

 for April 15, I will say that here in Mexico 

 they do not speak the Spanish of Spain, 

 but something like it. The right name 

 for Spanish is Castilian (Castillano, pro- 

 nounced Cahs-teel-j(/«/i-no). The names you 



give to the shrubs are right, as pronounced 

 hei-e. Emilie Astie. 



Tlalpan, Mexico, April 29. 



[Not being familiar with the conditions 

 in Mexico it would be impossible for me to 

 suggest why the swarm of bees should sud- 

 denly fall after having clustered, and the 

 bees died. It may be that they had been 

 poisoned. We are glad to know that the 

 pronunciation of the plants referred to is 

 properly given. — En.] 



OUR 



HOMES, 



BY a; I. ROOT. 



April ig, igo2. — Just as I am about tak- 

 ing my trip to Northern Michigan I have 

 instructed the folks at home to use the fol- 

 lowing kind letter for a Home paper in case 

 any of my communications should be de- 

 tained or delayed, using the text: 



Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the 

 church, and gave himself for it. 



Mr. A. I. Root: — Dec. 1st issue of Gle.^nings has 

 come I have read Our Homes in it, and feel so much 

 benefited hy it that I should be letting a golden oppor- 

 tunity pass if I did not indicate to you the intrinsic 

 merit 3'our article contains. It corues to me as the 

 cooling waters trickling down the side of the 

 great mountain, into the arid plain, laughing, spark- 

 ling, and singing of the great store of the fountain of 

 life which the l,ord has stored up there away from the 

 fouling of carnality, and which he sends in his own 

 good way and time to slake the thirst, not only of the 

 parched earth, but the hungry and thirstj- souls of his 

 creatures. 



The peru.sal of your article has taken me up far 

 above the sordid things of earth into a purer atm s- 

 phere until I feel like shouting from the top of the 

 mountains, " Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ 

 loved the church and gave himself for it," so that all 

 the world might hear. I'm not in any danger from 

 the thing you name ; but being a public man, and go- 

 ing into homes all over this land, mj- ears are pained 

 and my eyes are wearied to hear and see so much of 

 this hated evil until I want to '' cry aloud " against it ; 

 but the conventionalities of the pulpit forbid it, or 

 seem to. 



On tlie evening of the day of Mr. McKinley's first 

 election I stood on Higli Street, in Columbus, readii'g 

 the bulletins as they were displayed on the screen ; and 

 when it was learned that he had enough electoral 

 votes to as-ure his election, they threw on his picture 

 with his wife beside him. I stood there and cried ; and 

 all through his administration the one thing above all 

 others that made him noble was his sincere devotion 

 to her whom God had given him. He was not asham- 

 ed that the world should know how he loved her ; he 

 loved her and eared for her, petted her, and to-day 

 this great nation is better, purer, and safer for the 

 grand exhibition that he gave of the text, " Husbands, 

 love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, and 

 gave himself for it " 



All the glories of conquest by war, the (hollow) hon- 

 ors of politics, fade awaj' before this one grand trait 

 in him. She was frail and weak, and so needed him 

 the more. Here's a text : " We that are strong ought 

 to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please 

 ourselves." This he did. 



Now pardon me while I speak personallj'. 



My wife lost her hearing when she was 15 j'ears old, 

 and became entirelv deaf — does not hear a sound. She 

 took up the " lip language" herself, and goes alto- 

 gether by the motion of the lips. She can talk well, 

 but must see the motion of the lips of the speaker to 



