1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



833 



to the home of Dr. Miller, having gone, as near- 

 ly as I could figure it, over 80 instead of 05}.; 

 miles. 



I must not forget to give a " good one " on Dr. 

 Miller. When I reached Marengo I was a little 

 turned around, and had to inquire the way to 

 the doctor's. Approaching a small boy I said, 

 " Can you direct me to the home of Dr. C. C. 

 Miller?" "Oh I yes, sir," he replied. "You 

 go down this road, pass over two hills, and then 

 you'll come to a great big overgrown hedge- 

 fence and a whole lot of weeds and things. This 

 is the place. The house is back from the road, 

 and the yard is all full of stuff. You can't miss 

 .it." 



To be continued. 



CALIFORNIA ECHOES. 



By Till Rambler. 



Glad to see progress on the sting-trowel the- 

 ory. It now reaches the stage of supposition; 

 next stage, 0. 



What Mr. Pfau writes about Costa Rica gives 

 me a desire to ramble in that country. Sting- 

 .less bees and wax production, and various other 

 things, seem to be fascinating subjects. 



That is a dangerous subject you are touching 

 .upon now in Gleanings in relation to feeding 

 sugar upon the absorption plan. It much sim- 

 .plities the steps toward sugar comb honey. 



Mr. Editor, Jr., that's a very true observation 

 of yours about the openheartedness of bee- 

 keepers, or something to that effect. Now try 

 California on the wheel, and you will find the 

 -social frame of mind of the Californians un- 

 equaled by any. 



Those who are investigating the house-apiary 

 plan can find such house-apiaries made accord- 

 ing to nature's plan, and large enough to ac- 

 •commodate a large number of colonies. A hol- 

 low redwood, some twelve or fifteen feet in di- 

 ameter, would fill the bill. 



We shall soon discovoi- who Somnambulist is. 



He came near giving himself away in the last 

 Progressive. He says he chews his cud. Now, 



cows, sheep, and goats do that very thing. 

 •Just one more slip like that, and he will give 



himself away. I bet he is a goat. 



One advantage derived from a failure of the 

 South California honey crop is, that it is a 

 splendid opportunity to try the relative merits 

 of the different feeders. If inventors have any 

 thing new in that line, send samples to any 

 bee-raan. They all want to use them here. 



Mr. Rasmussen must be a very systematic 

 man to carry around all of those things he 

 makes use of in the apiary, and be able to lay his 

 hand on them any minute. Let's see — magnet- 

 ic tack-hammer, spring clothespins, three-tined 



table-forks, and a board that might be termed 

 his anti-boiler, smoker, jack-knife, etc. 



1 note that some one has discovered that the 

 cuiting-off of the stings of two or more queens 

 will cause said two or more to live in harmony 

 in the same hive, and lay eggs all the day long. 

 Well, that's no new discovery after all. The 

 Rambler mentioned the point— I don't say fact 

 —somewhat over a year ago. The idea came 

 from Mr. Williamsou, a live bee-keeper of Red- 

 lands, Cal. 



The Rambler came near having a wheel craze 

 before starting on his tour of the State; but 

 that squelched it for a while. As I near home 

 again the craze seems to come on. But there is 

 one insuperable obstacle, it seems. You who 

 are expert can perhaps explain it away. How 

 can I carry my 6hx8K camera and tripod, 

 plates, etc.? I must carry that camera. I 

 guess the wheel must go. 



We have heard many yarns about the im- 

 mense amounts of honey found in caves in Cal- 

 ifornia; but it seems that the inventor of yarns 

 has never investigated the redwood capabili- 

 ties. There are hollow trees among the im- 

 mense redwoods that would house immense 

 colonies, and an immense amount of honey; 

 but, of course, such colonies are not found here. 

 The bees lake to the little hollows. 



Bloomington, Cal. 



THE NORTH AMERICAN BEE-KEEPERS' AS- 

 SOCIATION ; QUARTER-CENTENNIAL 

 MEETING AT ST. JOSEPH, MO. 



A PKOFITABLE AND SUCCESSFUL MEETING. 



Bu J. T. Calvert. 



A goodly number of bee-keepers were present 

 when the opening session of the convention 

 was called to order by Pres. Abbott. Among 

 the number might be seen the editors of the 

 American Bee Journal, Canadian Bee Jour- 

 nal, Review, and Gleanings: and at the later 

 session, editoi-s Leahy, of the Progressive, and 

 Stilson, of the Nebraska Bee-keeper; Christo- 

 pher Grimm, brother of Adam Grimm, who 

 were both veterans in bee-keeping; the re- 

 doubtable Straw-gatherer, C. C. Miller; J. Van 

 Deusen, of Sprout Brook, N. Y., maker of flat- 

 bottom foundation. Certainly we had the ele- 

 ments of a good bee-convention already. 



The first thing on the program was the call- 

 ing of the roll of members. As each name was 

 called a response was expected, telling where 

 he was from, how many bees kept, how much 

 honey secured, and what other business he fol- 

 lowed in connection with bee-keeping. The 

 answers revealed a rather scanty crop of honey. 

 Those having the big crops of honey were 

 either too far away or too busy taking care of 

 their crops to attend the convention. The 



