GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr 1. 



crop of hay, or to wheat in the fall, and in the 

 next fall a crop of hay. 



Every other year it resoeds itself ; but If put 

 to cultivated crops a few years it can all be kill- 

 ed out. I made a garden-spot on a sweet-clover 

 patch where there were millions of seeds, and 

 in two years it was all gone. 



CUTTING AND THRASHING THE SEED. 



With us it grows from four to eight feet high, 

 thus making it almost impossible to get it into 

 a thrasher or huller. We cut it with a self-rake 

 reaper, then make a platform on a sixteen-foot 

 hay-rack, placing it on a skid made of poles 

 bolted together with cross-pieces; then hitch 

 three hoi'ses to it, and pull it to the field. With 

 two light poles about eight feet long, and just 

 heavy enough for a man to handle, and two 

 pitchforks, we are ready for business. Now fill 

 your platform, not too full; and if the clover is 

 very dry, a few good strokes will land the seed 

 in the bottom of the platform. Now nimble out 

 the refuse; drive up. put more on. and so ( n 

 around the field. A little experience will show 

 how it should be done. When all is thrashed 

 off. run it through a huller and you have the 

 Bokhara seed. 



AVII.I. THE BLOOM YIELD HONEY EVERY YEAR? 



It seldom fails to yield enough to keep the 

 bees out of mischief, and keep up brood-rear- 

 ing; but we Seldom get much surplus; for bloom- 

 ing, as it does, at a time when very little else is 

 yielding honey, it would take a large area to 

 give us thousands of pounds. 



As to off years, we have them too in this as 

 well as in other honey-producing plants; but 

 onlv once for us in eleven years was there an 

 entire failure; yet it bloomed profusely, but 

 seldom a bee was seen on it, but thousands of 

 large flies, bugs, and what not but bees. 



I have just finished reading the three books 

 lately received of you; namely, Potato, Onion, 

 and Strawberry Culture. They are grand and 

 sound, and to the point. 



Garden City, Mo., Jan. 15. 



[Your article is "sound, and to the point," 

 and we hope many will read it." — Ed.J ^ . .^_ j 



RAMBLE 105. 



MARRIED LIFE IN CALIFORNIA. 



There are doubtless many felicities in mar- 

 ried life, and we meet their various phases as 

 we ramble along. California is often noted for 

 these, as we have often rehearsed; and while 

 this State is, for some reason, noted for the num- 

 ber of divorces, there is also a ma'-ked attach- 

 ment between man and wife that withstands 

 all lesser breezes, and the sacred family circle 

 is never broken. 1 have seen bee-keepers put- 

 ting up stovepipes and putting down carpets 

 and matting, and using not a swearword, whih^ 

 the wife has been indisposed, either real or im- 



aginary. I have seen the husband on his knees, 

 scrubbing the kitchen floor, or cooking the din- 

 ner, tending the baby, washing the clothes, 

 and hanging them out. all as peaceably as a 

 well-regulated Chinaman; and in all of my ram- 

 bles among bee-men I have found not one di- 

 vorced couple. There may be many, but they 

 have not come under my observation. 



The connubial relations are sometimes ap- 

 parently strained, though there is no real anger. 

 As an instance of this strained relation is the 

 case of a young married couple of bee-keepers. 

 Under Vv^ry happy circumstances they had com- 

 menced housekeeping. Celeste was hard awork 

 over the wash-tub. and John, not being very 

 busy that Monday morning, kindly turned the 

 wringer and filled the big clothes-basket. All 

 went as merrily as a marriage-bell, when their 

 heads came close together over the old wash- 

 tub. There was a smack, an "oh myl'"and a 

 laugh. The grass was a little damp out along 

 the clothes-line: and when the basket was full 

 and the pin-basket brought, John offered to 

 hang out the duds, as he expressed it. and 

 proudly marched out with his load to the long 

 line strung from pole to pole. 



Pretty Celeste, all smiles, took herself to the 

 nearest window overlooking the field of opera- 

 tions, and prepared to boss the job. Of course, 

 John knew how to hang out clothes, or thought 

 he did. for he had done the like service for his 

 old mother, away back east, .some of those cold 

 frosty mornings. After a few words of badi- 

 nage about his kindness in saving her little 

 precious feet from getting wet, John made a 

 grab at the basket and pulled out a towel and 

 proceeded to hang it over the line midway of 

 the towel. 





" There, John, that won't do," came from the 

 window. "It won't dry in a dog's age that 

 way. Put the end over about the length of 

 your finger, and pin it there. That's right, my 

 dear: it will dry quick. You see, John, there 

 is as much sense necessary to hang up clothes 

 properly as there is in boiling eggs." 



.lohn fished out some more towels and pillow- 

 cases, and things moved along smoothly until a 

 stocking was quickly swung over the line and 

 pinned by the toe. 



