Now 1 wish to tell my brother bee-keepers 

 how I got 3 ci'ops from the same piece of 

 land the same year, for the past 8 years.— 

 As soon as I have a piece of grain har- 

 vested, I plow and sow to buckwheat— the 

 past season 1 sowed 10 acres to buckwheat— 

 where I have a good crop of wheat. Owing 

 to dry weather, it did not sprout till the 

 37th of July ; had a yield of 22 bushels per 

 acre, and realized $1 per bushel, by selling 

 the flour. So there is where the third crop 

 comes in. The past fall for buckwheat 

 honey was not a j;ood one, yet my bees 

 gained about 15 lbs. per colony, during buck- 

 wheat bloom. This buckwheat honey was 

 nearly all stored in the brood chamber. I 

 have no idea what amount of honey can be 

 gathered from an acre in a good season.— 

 My bees had access to my neighbor's 11 

 acres of buckwheat, where he harvested a 

 crop of barley ; yet, while my bees visited 

 his, other bees came to mine. I believe it 

 will pay farmers, who are bee-men, to try 

 this plan. 



I said my bees gained 1.5 lbs., per colony, 

 during buckwheat bloom ; let us say 10 lbs. 

 Now 66 colonies would make 660 lbs., or 66 

 lbs. per acre. This certainly will pay for 

 sowing to buckwheat, even if we get no 

 buckwheat cakes on a cold winter morning. 

 Having purchased a few colonies at a sale, I 

 now have 70 colonies in good condition, all 

 on their summer stands, Geo. L. Gast. 



LeClaire, Iowa. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Spring Dwindling, Hives, &c. 



I have just returned from my other apiary 

 of 22 colonies ; all answered to the roll-call, 

 and are gathering pollen in great abund- 

 ance. The roll-call at home is 64 ; 3 having 

 " gone up," by my negligence or oversight. 

 All, thus far, seem to be in good condition. 

 The honey season here will not open till 

 near the 1st of May, and by that time, half, 

 or more of my bees will be shipped off, as 

 is my custom every spring. 



SPRING DWINDLING. 



Here I would recommend to all who wish 

 to understand the Italian bees and their 

 difference from the native bee, to read 

 again the article in the March No., page 74, 

 by I. P. Wilson. His experience, with the 

 exception of " cellaring," is the same as my 

 own. I have had no experience in "cellar- 

 ing" bees— always winter on summer 

 stands, and this last winter I have given the 

 strong colonies no other protection than to 

 contract the entrance of the hive ; for the 

 weak colonies, quilts were spread over the 

 frames, with the exception of the 3 I neg- 

 lected, and that died in consequence. 



As to safe wintering, I will say this: I 

 can take any number of colonies in Nov., 

 and fix them for winter, in such a manner 

 that I can insure every one to winter safe, 

 no matter what sort of a winter. 



It was several years before I could 

 account for tlie Italians being so weak in 

 March. My first discovery of the cause was 

 as follows : One day in Feb., as I came 

 from the tan yard, with a roll of leather, 

 and my overcoat buttoned tight, for 



it was cold. Two bees lit on the leather, to 

 rest. They were both Italians, and nearly 

 a quarter of a mile from the apiary ; they 

 remained on the roll till I threw it down at 

 the shop door, and were so chilled by that 

 time, as to be unable to fly. 



On another occasion, one evening after 

 they had had a fly, I walked out in the 

 apiary, and to my surprise, the fences, tops 

 of hives, &c., were covered with chilled 

 bees, unable to move. I think, on this 

 occasion I lost, at least, bees enough for 2 

 or 3 colonies. I have seen this repeated 

 several times, but never, as yet, have I 

 caught black Ijees guilty of the like. If the 

 Italians would only be as careful as the 

 natives, while the weather is too cold, not 

 to venture out, they would come out in the 

 spring stronger than the natives, but as the 

 ease stands, they are not more than half or 

 two-thirds as strong as the natives on the 

 first of April. Yet, they recuperate with 

 such rapidity as to surpass them when the 

 honey season has fully opened. 



In speaking of the invention of hives, we 

 may well say their "names is legion." I 

 have examined several new patents during 

 the last 6 months, none of which I care to 

 try, even if given to me ; but not to injure 

 the sale of any of them, I will name none of 

 them J but will say, the only men who are 

 qualified to invent a hive, that will answer 

 its purpose successfully, are none other 

 than those who have had close experience 

 with bees for 8 or 10 years, at least ; and 

 such as have a thorough knowledge of the 

 habits and manipulations of the bee. Yet, 

 how few novices there are in the business a 

 year or two, that do not invent a hive !— 

 This injures the bee business as much as 

 anything. Such novices would do much 

 better to follow, instead of trying to lead 

 the old veterans. How forcibly does the 

 present state of things remind me of the 

 lulfillnient of a dream I had a few years 

 ago, while Mr. Clark was editor or the 

 JouuNAL. I wrote the dream and forward- 

 ed it for publication, but friend Clark saw 

 fit to drop it into the waste basket— the first 

 I ever wrote that found that destination. — 

 The dream is as fresh in my memory to-day 

 as the day I wrote it ; and is now being 

 fulfilled to the letter. I will not give the 

 dream here, but give one single instance, to 

 show its fulfillment : 1 saw all these hives 

 and box patents, in the shape of different 

 birds, in one large tree, and when a tremen- 

 dous large gun was fired at them, all that 

 were killed, have lain dead since. The 

 Langstroth hive was wounded in the wing, 

 but her wing healed up and she finally 

 triumphed. 



When experienced men look at a new 

 patent, it does not take long to see the 

 faults ; but novices, having very little 

 experience, are deceived— buying, not only 

 the right, but the county and state, and 

 finally, in most cases, come to grief. I 

 could name not a few such cases. But I 

 must not be understood as discouraging 

 inventions. I am in favor of them ; but there 

 are scores of such inventions never worth 

 patenting, and almost worse than useless. 

 This is the class of articles I object to, and 



mnn 



