116 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Nov., 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Still they Come! 



MORE QUESTIONS FOR "NOVICE." 



Dear Novice :— Will you please answer the 

 follo-wiiig questions tbrougli the Journal. 



What method of artificial swarming did you 

 adopt in 1869, when you increased eleven stocks 

 to forty-six? 



How do you shade your stocks in summer from 

 the rays of the sun ? 



Do you paint your hives? And if so, what 

 color, and how do you mix the paint? 



Does the Peabody extractor work as well as 

 you expected? 



Are the (lueens you purchased from Mr. Grimm 

 last fall as good as the queens you raised from the 

 original one you piirchased of Mr. Langstroth ? 



Some of the above inquiries ra;fy have been 



answei ed by some of your articles in the Journal ; 



but if answered again in full you will greatly 



oblige many readers of the Journal, as well as a 



young. Beginner. 

 ♦•■♦ 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Linden and Buckwheat, 



I agree entirely with Novice as to the value 

 of the linden tree as a honey producing plant, 

 and before perusing his article in the August 

 number of the Journal, I had devised a plan to 

 secure the planting of linden trees around my 

 farm . 



1 have resolved to sow linden seeds and plant 

 linden sprouts, in order to start on an acre of 

 ground a nursery of linden trees. These lindens 

 will be planted in rows four feet apart, and 

 twelve or fourteen inches in the row, making ten 

 or eleven thousand to the acre, and will be culti- 

 vated the same as an acre of corn. 



As soon as some of the young trees will be 

 strong enough to resist cattle, I will offer them 

 for nathin'! to the farmers owning land adjoining 

 my tract, to be planted as avenue trees around 

 these farms. Every section of land has four 

 sides, three hundred and twenty rods in length, 

 and with trees planted on the boundaries, two 

 rods apart, there will be six hundred and forty 

 trees to each section. My section, and the eight 

 around, nine in all, will furnish room for 5,760 

 trees— none of Avhich will be any further than 

 one and a half miles from my apiary. These 

 trees will begin to yield honey in less than from 

 ten to fifteen years, and for ages the harvest will 

 go on crescendo, for the linden is' a very long-lived 

 tree.* 



Besides, all my neighboring farms will have a 



* We have doubt whether the honey crop from the 

 European linden is certain yearly, or whether the tree 

 furnishes a permanent resource, except in soils and a 

 climate peculiarly adapted to its growth. In the 

 Capitol ii'rounds and in the public avenues of Wash- 

 ington, we have known this species to fail in yielding 

 Loney twice in seven years, and some of the trees die 

 annually, apparently in consequence of tlie drouth 

 usually prevalent here after July 1st. The American 

 linden blooms later, yields honey in seasons when the 

 other fails to do so. and appears to be a hardier tree, 

 in this vicinity. — [Ed. 



better appearance than the naked prairie pre- 

 sents, and travellers will, in summer, be grateful 

 to him who has kindly prepared so umbrageous 

 a road. In France, nearly all the trees in the 

 avenues and squares in ancl around the cities are 

 lindens. In my former home, the city of 

 Langres, some thousand of lindens, five or six 

 hundred years old, were the delight of the in- 

 habitants. But, alas ! in consequence of the 

 war, nearly all of them have been cut down, and 

 the poor bees — innocent victims of human folly — 

 will starve amid the devastation. 



Do you not think, Mr. Editoi-, that it would be 

 well for the Beekeepers' Conventions to petition 

 the Legislatures for an act requiring every road- 

 side to be iilanted with linden trees? Such a 

 measure, aside from the delightful shade it would 

 provide, would add millions of dollars every year 

 to the wealth of the nation. 



When I first came here, all the farmers around 

 me were persuaded that buckwheat was an in- 

 jurious crop, and of course none was raised. 

 Yet, as I wanted some for my bees, I sowed one 

 or two acres and got some bushels of seed. Next 

 year I offered portions of that seed to all my 

 neighbors gratuitously. Three or four of them 

 accepted it, and I have made the same ofier every 

 year since — always with some success. The re- 

 sult is that now there are more than twenty acres 

 of buckwheat around my apiary, altliough I 

 have this year given away only five or six bushels 

 of seed. I got this result at a very trifling cost, 

 for half a bushel of seed is enough for an acre. 



As there are here also, in the woods and 

 meadows, plenty of Spanish needles, golden rods, 

 and asters, to intervene with and follow the 

 buckwheat, and as the Italian bees do not work 

 on buckwheat when they can find anything 

 better, my summer crop is nearly as good as my 

 spring honey, and I sell it yearly without differ- 

 ence of pi'ice. Ch. Dadakt. 



Haiiiilton, Ills., Aug. 10, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Bee-culture in College. 



Mr. Editor : — In a recent lecture Mr. Quinby 

 said — "It is time that all our agricultural col- 

 leges had a pro lessor of apiarian science." I 

 would state that we have in College a class of 

 twenty-five who get the theory and practice of 

 bee-kee]3ing this term. 



All who take any course, get not only the 

 science of bee-culture, but have practice in all 

 the operations of the apiary. The students 

 handle the bees with as much ease as veterans, 

 and take great interest in the Hruschka, the 

 queen nursery, and all the various experiments. 



Last year we had black bees which were very 

 cross. Many of the students were afraid of 

 them, and with excellent reason. Now we have 

 none but Italians, which are very gentle, so that 

 over one hundred and forty students go in and 

 out anrong them with entire freedom. 



We noticed early in the season that the 

 Italians worked largely on the red clover. 



Agricultural OoUege, A. J. Cook. 



Lansing, Mich.,, July 21, 1871. 



