1000 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUBTURE. 



Aug. 15 



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TOWNSEND S ^ ARD IN KALKASKA COUNTS, MICHIGAN. 



thus be divided into iliree or four groups of hives. 

 I prefer to have the hives placed facing the south 

 or southeast. But in the majority of our yards 

 we can pay but little attention to the direction, 

 and the hives, therefore, face every way except 

 the north. We see no difference in results, and 

 it is possible that the colonies would do as will 

 if the entrances were toward the north ; but we al- 

 ways avoid that direction, perhaps from the force 

 of habit. 



Parallel with the lay of the ground we level 

 pieces of ground 20 inches wide and 4 feet long, 

 which is large enough for two hives placed side 

 by side. Two 2X4"s 4 feet long are laid down 

 flat, and leveled. In this way the foundation is 

 made for two hives. The front of the hives 

 should preferably be '4 inch lower than the back 

 so that water will run out of the entrance. We 

 formerly laid great stress on having our hives in 

 rows all facing the south; but we find that this 

 plan, in the majority of instances, was not satis- 

 factory, on account of the lay of the ground. 

 Furthermore a greater percentage of young queens 

 were lost on returning from their mating-flight, 

 and the bees themselves mixed up much more. 

 Now the groups may be placed five or six feet 

 apart one way and ten or twelve the other. On 

 this plan the groups are really in rows which are 

 not straight, perhaps, but irregular, to conform to 

 the ground. Possibly some might think that 

 this arrangement would not be plea-ing to the 

 eye; but there is really hardly any other plan that 

 would look well on rough ground. The wlieel- 

 barrow may be run between each group of hives 

 and also between each row; and it is an easy mat- 



ter to load the honey very close to one of the 

 main paths leading to the extracting-house. 



In renting ground for bee-yards it is not always 

 possible tosecureadesirable place to set the hives. 

 Our Kalkaska \ard, as shown in the second en- 

 graving, is located on a side hill. However, we 

 first made four terraces on which the rows of 

 hives might be placed. Since the hill slopes to 

 the southeast, the hives face in all directions be- 

 tween south and east. The honey-houses were 

 set about midway at the lower side. A path was 

 made across the terraces in the middle, dividing 

 the yard in two parts. When extracting we work 

 from the sides of the yard toward the center in 

 order to shorten the distance to the honey-house. 

 If we set this house at one side of the yard it 

 would be necessary to wheel the honey, or at 

 least the greater part of it, twice as far. 



Remus, Mich. 



MOTH AND LARV^ DESTRUCTIVE 



TO BASSWOODS AND OTHER 



SHADE-TREES. 



BY PROF. H. A. SURFACE. 



[chancing lo go down through some streets in the residence dis- 

 tricts of East Cleveland a few weelcs ago we observed that many 

 of the tmnks of the trees had sticky fly-paper tied around them. 

 On looking above at the foliage we noticed that the leaves, es- 

 pecially of the basswoods, were beingeaten, and in some cases the 

 trees were entirely defoliated. Having heard of the fearful ravages 

 of the gipsy moth in Massachusetts, and hearing something to the 

 effect that they might visit Cleveland at almost any time, we 

 wondered as we walked down the streets whether the pests had 

 not already reached our city. We observed that many of the 

 trunks of the trees had cocoon masses much lik? those illustrated 



