188G 



GLEANINGS IN \MLE CULTUUE. 



lioy 



AN IMPROVEMENT ON SCREENS FOR 

 KEEPING OUT FLIES. 



ALSO FOMETIIING FOIJ BEE-KEEPERS TO PUT ON 

 THE WINDOWS OF THEIR HONEV-HOUSES. 



El^IRE cloth over llie windows iuitl doors 

 is a grand thing, as everybody can tes- 

 tit'y who has tried keeping house 

 with and without it. But suppose 

 the tiies all get on the window and 

 stick there, what tlienV Over at our house 

 the women-folks take a cloth and beat tlie 

 poor insects to death, and then tumble tliem 

 outdoors, maimed, sick, and wounded. It is 

 hard, I know; but tlien, '" tlies have no busi- 

 ness to be tlies.'' We can not have our furni- 

 ture all spotted and specked up, nor have 

 our ears and noses tickled when we want to 

 take a nap after sunrise on a June morning. 

 Well, our enterprising friends of the Hub 

 Manufacturing Co. have got out a little de- 

 vice that costs only lu cts., whicli lets tlie 

 tlies outdoors just as fast as they want to 

 get out, but it dots not let them come back 

 again. 



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2^. 



HONEY VERSUS SUGAR FEEDING. 



^ JL 



WELLS PATENT WINDOW-SCREEN. 



Figure 1 shows the screen as it is s. en 

 from the outside. Figure '2 shows a sectii;ii- 

 al-end view. Perhaps I might rema.'k Ik re, 

 that the engravings aie not very goo(l,i;nd 

 that they were not made by our engraver. 

 The machine that is offered"^ for sale for 10 

 cts. is showTi by E, 1, and J. It is a strip of 

 wire cloth as wide as the window, and bent 

 as shown above. At J some round holes 

 are punched in the wire cloth, big enough to 

 let a bee or a lly get through; then up at the 

 top edge of the outside screen some more 

 holes are punched at ('. The Hits buzz 

 along up the screens until they get to J, 

 when they crawl through the holes made o!i 

 purpose, and, hnding themselves •' in a box,'' 

 they hasten to get out at ('. We have not 

 yet had an opportunity of trying it with 

 bees, but there is hardly a (lueslion but that 

 it will work all right. We have them in 

 stock, ready to ship, three ditferent widths, 

 26. 28, and oO inches. They can be sent by 

 mail safely for another 10 cts. Printed in- 

 structions, for fastening them to window- 

 screens go with them. 



SOME PITHY REMARKS FROM FRIEND SMITH. 



fKlEND KO0T:-On page 97 of Gleanings, 

 Mrs. Harrison, I think, gives us her honest 

 convictions in rcg'ard to the hon?y and sugar 

 ciucstion; and (allow mc to consider that you 

 arc the president) I would heartily say "aye " 

 to lier article in <j:,ncval, and to her resolution in 

 particular. But the expression, ''Now Ijt us feed 

 our bees the dark, rich, g-ood sweet honey, and net 

 depress the market with it," I object to, and upon 

 these grounds: 



). Because I can not winter bees successfully on 

 late-gathered stores which are composed of this 

 "rich, dark" honey. 



2. I have no difflculty in selling, at good prices, all 

 of my buckwheat and goldenrod honey. In fact, 

 eight out of every ten of my customers prefer it to 

 either clover or basswood honey, even at the same 

 prices. 



She also writes, " Now, it is advocated to take 

 away the honey from the bees, and give them su- 

 gar syrup instead, benefiting the sugar market to 

 the detriment of honey. Are we going to teach the 

 bees that their own production is not fit food for 

 them, thereby?" etc. 



I should like to ask how the purchasing of sugar 

 is to injure the honey market; that is, in the man- 

 ner that Mrs. H. concludes it docs. If you take 

 1000 lbs. of honey from j'our be?s and replace it 

 with sugar ?yrup, to be sure you help the sugar- 

 trade; and if you sell tliis honey foi- home consump- 

 tion, the way that all honey should be sold, why is 

 it not a benefit to the public and to the honey-trade? 

 I think v.'c never shall see the day when honey is to 

 take the place of sugar in the markets. 



As to "teaching tlie bees tiiat their own produc- 

 tion is not tit food for them," how about " honej"- 

 dew"? Does not Mrs. H. advocate teaching the 

 bees that our modern movable-comb hives are bet- 

 ter adapted to their needs than the trees which na- 

 ture provides? Why not the same, then, in regard 

 to their food? When man finds that well-sealed 

 sugar stores are better for the bees than poor hon- 

 ey, why should be hesitate to feed it? 



I bought my granulated sugar at 7 cts. per lb. by 

 the barrel, and, of course, it did not cost me much 

 over C cts. per lb. when made into syrup. I did not 

 sell a single pound of dark honey less than Q'i cts. 

 per lb., and I did not peddle it either. Moreover, I 

 bad to buy several lots of my neighbors to supply 

 my customers. Now, I claim that I received 

 enough extia for my honey to defray the expense 

 of feeding, besides having swarms in better shape 

 to go into winter quarters. 



In the articls following Mrs. Harrison's, Mr. 

 Wright says: " It is very embarrassing to me when 

 I go to the city to sell honey, and begin to show my 

 samples, to have tlie merchant look up, with signif- 

 icant grin, and ask me what I fed my bees." Now, 

 I ha\e had the same question asked me by mer- 

 chants and consumers a score of times; but I can 

 assure you that it did not embarrass me in the least. 

 I always tell them that I make a practice of feeding 

 pure (/r((Hi/(f(fe((-*ii((/ar )<yritp, and that I will give 

 them fifty dollars if they will prove that there is 

 one ounce of said sugar in my honey. My sales of 

 honey, and the prices that I received this season 

 for the same, will bear me out in saying that the 



