1886 



GLEAMS l.NGS IN JJHE CULTUllE. 



169 



are doing nicely. Of ijourse, there is time for them 

 all to die between now and May. 



Inordinary weather I find it best to koei) the traij- 

 doorwido open, the room overhead beii g darkened; 

 but in very cold weather, every thing- is kept shut 

 tight. Once or twice, with the mercui'y outside be- 

 low zero, and a strong wind, the cellar has been as 

 low as 36°. With close attention it might have been 

 kept above this. During the last of December we 

 had a warm spell, the outside air going above 40°. 

 At this time I kept doors and "vindows open at 

 night, and sometimes through the day; but the 

 coal Are was kept steadily going, because, if not 

 needed for heat, it was for ventilation. The hardest 

 time I have found to keep bees ijuiet has l)et'n 

 towai'd spring, in a cloudy, rainy, damp, warm time. 

 The damp air is so light that it does not, by its 

 weight, force its way into the cellar, and the cellar 

 becomes foul. At such a time, would not afire in 

 the collar, even tliough the bees were alreadj' warm 

 enough, make the cellar air lighter, so that the out- 

 side air would take its place"/ My observation leads 

 me toward that belief. A serious objection to 

 heating cellars in this way is the expense and con- 

 stant care. But where a large number are kep:, 

 it may be money and time profltablj- spent, if there- 

 by the dead-list maj' be shortened. What I should 

 especially like, however, is some arrangement by 

 which the bees could be placed in the cellar in the 

 fall, and left without anj- attention till time to take 

 them out in the sin-ing. I have been e.xperiment- 

 ing a little, and thinking a great deal about sub- 

 ventilation, and had intended to write about it 

 when I commenced this nrtiele; but I sea I must 

 wait until another time. How do Ira Barber and 

 others keep their cellars so warm? 'J' wo of my col- 

 onies have starved to death. Poor management! 

 ('. ('. .Mii.LEK, 179—338. 



Marengo, 111., Feb. 2,1, 188fi. 



Friend M.. I grant all your points except 

 the ones about the thermometers in the 

 drugstore. If they varied sinen degrees, 

 they were a poor lot and ought to have been 

 returned to the maker. Perhaps it was only 

 one or two that were so far out of the mark. 

 In that case I should say they were " out of 

 kilter.'" See the instructions we give in re- 

 gard to the use of tiiermometers. on the one 

 we mail you to-day. Am.!, by the way, it 

 would be an excellent way to test the ther- 

 mometers, to t'sk the defiler to show you a 

 dozen. Lay them side by side on the coun- 

 ter; and if they don't all tell the same story 

 within at least two degrees— well. I don't 

 know what would be best to do. Ferhajis 

 the charitable way would be to tell him to 

 show you a dozen higher-priced ones ; and 

 if the higher-priced ones don't tell the truth 

 better, then 1 would complain.— It seems to 

 me that keeping a tire all winter long is very 

 expensive business, and I would try to make 

 .some atitomatic arrangement. A reservoir 

 of water warmed up once a day would do it 

 to a dot, if it didn't keep the air loo damp ; 

 and I am inclined to think that the damp- 

 ness would do good and not harm. What 

 say youV During this past winter, a reser- 

 voir holding perhaps 20 barrels of water, 

 right in the center of our greenhouse, has 

 kept the temperature just as nice as could 

 be, with nothing but sheets of glass inter- 

 vejiiiig bptweeji the outcloor ajr th.at was l") 



degrees below zero, 

 get up nights once. 



AVe have not had to 



OVERSTOCKING A LOCALITY. 



.\I,.S() SO.METHIN(i FaO.M FUIENI) HEUDON IN KE- 



Li.VHU TO SUGAR STORES COMPARED WITH 



NATUHAIj STORES. 



i 



FEEL that I should publicly thank Prof. Cook 

 for his kind words and friendly criticism, 

 ^ai found on page 98. I may as well saj' it now, 

 even if the Professor does see it, that all 

 through our numerous discvissions of subjects 

 ujion which we could not agree. I have been com- 

 pelled to esteem his integrity and judgment as the 

 very highest. I always wish and sometimes dare to 

 hope, that the Professor's opinions regarding 

 "swelling our ranks" are correct; and, as he says 

 in closing his review, that I am " morbid " upon 

 that question, but as yet T can not find the evidence 

 to believe with hiin as I desire. 



I wish it were true that we might multiply the 

 number of honey-producers tenfold; but however 

 much I may desire this, I can not believe that much 

 more increase in our ranks can take place without 

 a suffering on the part of those already engaged. 

 I think I have had letters from five old stalwart 

 producers, in which they have especially compli- 

 mented the part of the little book that friend Cook 

 believes is over anxiously mistaken. 



Another point that seems strange to mo is, that 

 some of our bee-keepers, among whom I may men- 

 tion friend Wright, on the same page, who have 

 never expressed the least fear regarding increas- 

 ing our product by the increase of producers, are 

 now fi-ightened because some who believe that 

 sugar syrup is superior to honey for winter stores 

 ai'e feeding said syrup, thus causing an increase in 

 the honey supply. Surely, these men must agree 

 with me rather than the Professor regarding the 

 point in question. I think Mr. Wright makes a true 

 statement when lie tells us that the sugar we feed 

 increases the market supply of honey, pound for 

 pound, and that the relation between supply and 

 deuuind governs prices, which means our success 

 or failure. 



But right here I think Mr. Wright's argument ends. 

 I know it is natural for any honey-producer to feel 

 just as Mr. Wright docs, wlien he sees his pi-oducts 

 begging for consumers at a price below cane sugar; 

 and no wonder that his judgment tells him that, 

 before we feed our colonies the higher-priced sugar 

 to take the place of the lower priced honey, we had 

 better let at least a portion of theni die. Such re- 

 ports as this of Brother Wright's (and they are 

 more numerous than I wish they were) prevent me 

 from believing with friend Cook, however much T 

 may desire. I have bought, sold, and produced 

 comb and extracted honey in a retail, jobbing, and 

 wholesale waj-, for nearly eighteen years, twelve of 

 which my father has been a wbolegale commercial 

 agent, all of which has given me some advantages 

 in gaining a knowledge of the several points made 

 in Mr. Wright's article, and I will give you my 

 opinion regarding a few of them, to be taken for 

 just what it may 1- c considered worth. 



First, the cry of "adulteration" has very little 

 tendency to deter purchases of our product. A 

 commodity will usually sell upon its merits, judged 

 by i.t§ looks, flavor, and effect. We well remember 

 the wholesale war mftde against glucose in sugar 



