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them through the cold winters without 

 losing a colony for years, unless they 

 were queenless in the fall. 



As further proof that I am right, I 

 have photographs here to show, of a 

 l)lot of ground 30 feet square, that jiaid 

 me ?283 a year. 



I found that under the shade of my 

 fruit-trees notliing would grow, as all 

 plants are sun-worshipei's, and would 

 not thrive without its life-giving rays ; 

 this led me to make the acquaintance 

 of the honey-bee. I accoi'dingly built 

 attractive little homes under my trees, 

 so that ever3' inch of space sliould pro- 

 duce. 



I soon discovered that the bees had 

 laid out liighways to and from their 

 flowery fields miles awaj' ; then I found 

 that wliile near them, their highways 

 were so low, that when returning with 

 a heavy load of honey, tliey would 

 sometimes bump their heads against 

 my hat, and in that case they would 

 deposit their honey, and return in a 

 minute, to chastise me for obstructing 

 their right of way. 



To obviate this difficulty, I con- 

 structed all around my bee-yard, a 

 wire trellis 10 feet high, and covered 

 it with grape-vines, which ga\ e a great 

 amount of grapes, and completely 

 obviated the bees flying so low as to 

 come in contact with any one in the 

 garden ; and it was a sight to stand in 

 their little yard, and see tiiem fall 

 down lilie drops of rain when they 

 came directly over their hives ; and 

 though my neighbors and their chil- 

 dren were frequently within a few feet 

 of the bee-yaixi, I never heard of one 

 case of bee-stings in ten jears. So 

 quiet and unseen were thej-, that I be- 

 lieve if I had closely applied dividing 

 colonies, I could have kept bees in the 

 city for years, without a dozen persons 

 knowing it. 



But my mistake was in inviting all 

 my neighbors and friends in to see my 

 little workers. I will relate what dif- 

 flcultj- this lead me into. 



Bees a,n<l Fruit. 



One evening I was in the house of a 

 distant neighbor, and while in conver- 

 sation with him, his good wife came in 

 and held up a partlj-ealeu |iearin her 

 hand, and said, " See ! Mr. Hand, how 

 your bees are eating up our pears !" 



The neighbor then said: "Yes; 

 your bees have injured my pears for 

 several years, and this year they drop 

 off worse than ever." 



Had this been some ignoramus who 

 had not yet found out that be(!s had 

 no teeth, and could not eat pears, nor 

 anything but what was in nearly a 

 liquid state, I would not have been so 

 surprised ; but he was no le s a per- 

 sonage than an editor, and -lust have 

 printed or read a thousand times about 



the little moth that deposits its egg in 

 the blossom of the ])i'ar, and before the 

 fruit is ])erfected, causes it to drop ofi'. 

 To charge this to the sting of the 

 honey-bee Is simply ridiculous. 



This same editor had published in 

 his paper, a short time previous to this 

 occurrence, a very interesting account 

 of the United States Government Bee- 

 E.Kperimental Station at Aurora, Ills. 

 From the store of information I will 

 only (|uote the following : 



" Do bees injure fruit ? is a question 

 which interests e\ery one in the coun- 

 try who owns fruit-trees or grape-vines. 

 A part of the exiieriments has been to 

 establish the truth in regard to the 

 matter, and the agent declares that the 

 little creatures an; innocent of all the 

 destructiveness popularly laid at their 

 door." 



I felt that I must convince him that 

 my bees were innocent of this charge, 

 or that I must remove them. I ac- 

 cordingly called on him, armed with 

 the highest authority coming from the 

 Government, and published in his own 

 ])aper, thinking that it would be suf- 

 ficient to convince him. 



When I called at his house, and sent 

 in my name, that I would like to see 

 him, he rushed out to meet me like a 

 lion from his den, in a great rage, e.\- 

 claiming in the most angry manner : 



"Mr. Hand, have you come here to 

 talk bees ? I have no time for th,at 

 purpose ;" and pointed me the way out. 



This is the lirst time in mj' life that 

 any inhabitant of this globe has ever 

 " tired " me oft" from his premises. We 

 had been acquainted for a third of a 

 century, and he knew if I was a bee- 

 man, I never was known to •■ sting" 

 any one. 



I have no ill-will against this editor ; 

 neither do I wish to make money by 

 Tom Moore's suggestion, who says : 



"The best speculation I know of for a man nf pelf. 

 Is to buy such an Editor for what he is worth. 

 And then sell him for the price be sets on himself." 



Perhaps I should say as further 

 proof, that I still entertain the kindest 

 feeling toward this editor ; that I re- 

 moved my bees, which necessitated the 

 purchasing of land two miles away, 

 and erecting a bee-house, the whole at 

 an outlay of nwve than $1,000. 



The only object I have in referring 

 to this matter is to urge upon those 

 engaged in this industry, the necessity 

 of convincing the ])iiblic of the impos- 

 sibility of bees to injure fruit. I speak 

 of this man as an editor, to show you 

 that, notwithstanding his intelligence, 

 he was, or seemed to be so much in 

 need of knowledge, that I think it is 

 the duty of all the bee-societies to sow 

 broadcast over the country, and avoid, 

 as far as possible, these unpleasant oc- 

 currences among neighbors. 



Svraciisp, N. Y. 



EXPERIMENTS. 



Having but Few IJnvappcd Sec. 

 tions in the Fail. 



Written for tJie American Rural Home 



BY a. M. DOOLITTLE. 



How to manage our bees so as to 

 secure the greatest yield of comb 

 honey, is a question of great impor- 

 tance to all those who are engaged in 

 producing such honey for market, 

 hence we often have articles on this 

 topic giving us instructions regarding 

 it. But comb honey is of little value 

 unless thoroughly sealed or capped 

 over, so that " How to manage our 

 bees so as to have few uncapped sec- 

 tions in the fall," is a question of 

 nearly as much importance to us as 

 the first. 



For years I was troubled by having 

 from one-fourth to one-half of the 

 combs in the sections not fully sealed 

 at the close of the honey harvest, 

 which were oiilj* salable at a reduced 

 price ; but of late I have a few of such, 

 even in a poor season. 



After experimenting for a year or 

 two regarding the matter, I became 

 convinced that the cause of the trouble 

 was in giving the bees too many sec- 

 tions, and especiallj' conducive to this 

 was the plan of tiering up sections late 

 in the season. How often have I, years 

 ago, spoiled a promise of an abundant 

 yield of comb honey by tiering up four 

 or five days before the honey harvest 

 closed. To tier up sections profitably 

 requires considerable tact, and es- 

 pecially do we want a thorough knowl- 

 edge of the honey-resources of the field 

 which we occupy. 



I think that there is too much inju- 

 dicious talk in some papers regarding 

 not allowing the bees under any cii'- 

 cumstances to cluster on the outside of 

 the hive, the idea being generallj' con- 

 veyed that when bees thus cluster out 

 they need more room. Now, it de- 

 pends when this clustering-out occurs, 

 whether more room is needed or not ; 

 and hence I say " injudicious talk." If 

 the clnstering-out occurs at the com- 

 mencement, or in the height of the 

 honey harvest, then more room should 

 be given, while if at the latter part of 

 the honey harvest, or in a time of 

 hone^'-dearth, no more is needed ; for 

 more" room at tills time results in the 

 one case in many unfinished sections, 

 and in the other an absolute waste of 

 time used in enlarging the hive. 



To illustrate : During some seasons 

 we have but a very few days of honey 

 secretion, and that often after the 

 flowers which produce the yield are 

 rather past their prime. At such times 

 we often do not have on the hive one- 

 half of the capacity which we would 



