NOVEMBER 15, 19i: 



719 



SIFXINGS 



J. E. Crane, Middlebury, Vt. 



That field of buckwheat on the cover 

 page for August 15 looks refeshing to us 

 who never calculate on getting any thing 



from the crop. 



» * * 



Nothing in the number for Aug. 15 set 

 my blood circulating so fast as the temper- 

 ance columns on the last two pages. When 

 will our great political i:)arties progress far 

 enough to dare this hydra-headed monster 

 and smite it to death? 



* * * 



The weather liere in the'East was, during 

 August, the coolest for nearly thirty years. 

 It has also been quite wet, making it ideal 

 weather for clover, and we shall go into 

 winter with more clover on the ground 

 than for many years. 



After inspecting for two years I am not 

 suri)rised at the great variety of opinions 

 in I'egard to foul brood, for there appears 

 to be a great difference in the virulence of 

 the disease in different localities, and even 

 in the same locality in different yards. 

 Sometimes even in the same yard one colo- 

 ny seems much better able to cope with the 

 disease than another. 



Somehow bees have seemed to be crosser 

 this year than usual. In some instances, 

 wliile trying to inspect bees 1 have been 

 actually driven out of the yard. I have 

 found the bees that have been handled 

 most are the gentlest as a rule, and those 

 liandled least are the worst. In one case 

 I was driven ten or twelve rods from the 

 bees of a single hive, and still they came 

 at me until I sneaked through a cornfield 

 into an old ice-house where I got rid of 

 them. I never saw the like of them. 



* » * 



On page 525, Aug. 15, in footnote to N. 

 F. Gardner, the editor of Gleanings quotes 

 Cheshire as authority for bees removing 

 cocoons from cells of old combs Avhen they 

 become too small. Now. I will not say they 

 never do this, but I have never seen combs 

 wliere it looked as if they had; but I have 

 seen many combs where the cells were 

 lengthened to give more room for rearing 

 larvse. :^ ,^ .^s 



Mr. P. C. Chadwick, of Redlands, Cal., 

 ■ is trying to solve the problem of how to 

 reach those who don't take a bee journal. 

 ! will tell you, Mr. Chadwick. Our foul- 

 brood laws are reaching them pretty fast, 

 and a good many of them will go out of 



business pretty soon if they don't wake up. 

 And yet they say in actions, if not in 

 words, "A little more sleep, a little more 

 slumber, a little more folding of the hands 

 to sleep." Their business as beekeepers is 

 almost sure to pass to others who will care 

 for their bees and learn how to contend 



with foul brood. 



* * * 



When Mr. Lundgi'en was in tliis country 

 last spring, from Sweden, I met him in the 

 State of New York and also in Washing- 

 ton. I told him how both the farmers and 

 beekeepers were greatly indebted to Swe- 

 den for a very valuable plant, alsike clo- 

 ver. He did not at first know what I meant, 

 as I had pronounced the name so outland- 

 ishly. Then he told me politely how it 

 should be pronounced — all-si-kee — in tliree 

 syllables, accent on the second. It is doubt- 

 less too late to change the pronunciation 

 now in use, but it was a satisfaction to me 

 to know how it is used in its home land. 



* * * 



On page 331 Mr. Doolittle tells how to 

 foretell swarming by examination of the 

 queen-cells of the hive, but adds that "for 

 the apiarist with from 100 to 500 colonies 

 this task is seldom undertaken." Hold, my 

 gjod friend; that is just what some of us 

 Green Mountain boys do. It is mighty con- 

 \enient, where you can visit a yard only 

 on CO in eight or nine days, to open in and 

 know for sure just what is going on; and 

 if preparing to swarm, check it in some 

 waj. Where the bees are used for extract- 

 ing honey it is not so necessary. In large 

 J aids bees do not seem to follow swarming 

 rules very closely, I suppose this is be- 

 cause they get a great deal mixed. 



5if * * 



Mention is made on page 417, July 1, 

 of bees being a nuisance during strawberry 

 time as well as during raspberry and 

 blackberry han-ests. I do not believe that 

 bees often do harm to strawberry-pickers 

 Or the berries; but as I have raised a good 

 many raspberries I know they will not 

 only work on them but store the juice in 

 their hives for honey; and yet they do 

 little harm to raspberries except to those 

 overripe. But we should remember the 

 value of bees in the growing of raspber- 

 ries in fertilizing the blossoms. Imper- 

 fectly fertilized raspberries are a ragged- 

 looking lot of fruit, and the bees do far 

 more good to the raspberry-grower than 

 harm. [See statement by Wililam Bel- 

 shaw, p. 740.— Ed.] 



