47B 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



essary. It may be objocled, that the bees thus left 

 to fill Iheinselvcs will take just so much honey out 

 of the sections. That is just what I like to have 

 them do, for there are always unsealed cells around 

 the outer margin of a section, and the more honey 

 taken from these the better. The bees will not 

 take the trouble to tear open the sealed cells as 

 long^ as they can find these unsealed ones. I know 

 I have seen sections so badly riddled Avith holes 

 which the bees had dug- in the sealing- as to be un- 

 salable; but I have scon very little of it lately. It 

 may be that it is caused by the bees being panic 

 stricken by too heavy a dose of smoke, making- 

 them frantically dig- into the first cells they come 

 to; but 1 think it more likely it is the kind of bees. 

 The blacks are, perhaps, the worst. The obvious 

 reiin dy is to change the strain of bees. I have 

 doubts whether bees addicted to this habit are de- 

 sirable in other respects. 



FIOWORT. 



Once when Prof. Cook honored us with his pres- 

 ence at the Northwestern Convention at Chicago, I 

 spoke discouragingly of my attempts at artificial 

 pasturage. In his mildly deprecating- way. Prof. 

 Cook begged me not to throw cold water upon the 

 project; and although my efforts have mostly end- 

 ed in failure, I am not without hope that some 

 progress may be made. In my last article in 

 Gleanings, I recounted my virtual failure with an 

 acre of flgwort. Well, I have just been down to 

 look over that ground. Neither plow nor hoe has 

 been struck in it since the summer I planted the 

 flgwort. I am very glad now to be able to give an 

 encouraging word. Where the flgwort stood there 

 was no sign of a plant to be seen this time last year; 

 but now a good many plants are to be found, which, 

 although neither large nor strong looking, give 

 hope that a self-supporting stand may be secured. 

 But for the space of three rods east of the flgwort 

 patch, the ground is well covered with strong vig- 

 orous flgworts, which gladden my eyes. These 

 came, undoubtedly, from seed blown from the old 

 plants, and I have some hope of living to see a flve 

 or ten acre fleld well covered with a mixture of flg:- 

 wort and melilot. I bought and gave away this 

 spring several hundred basswoods. 



C. C. Milder, 340-323. 



Marengo, 111., June, 1886. 



Eriend M., your suggestion, that the race 

 of bees has much to do with it, is a vaktable 

 one. I remember of having a colony of hy- 

 brids that I wished to requeen ^because they 

 were so extremely ugly. Well, they had 

 what I considered a very fair amount of 

 sealed stores for winter ; "but after swarm- 

 ing them and looking the hive over two or 

 three times to find their hybrid queen, they 

 liad uncapped and gorged themselves with 

 nearly all sealed honey from the hive. In- 

 stead of putting the honey back in the cells 

 and sealing it up they built new combs in 

 several parts of the hive, and in this way 

 used up and wasted a good many pounds. 

 The kind of hybrids that run all over the 

 combs, then collect on the lower corner, and 

 drop off on to the ground, are the kind that 

 dig open the honey-cells whenever the hive 

 is opened. I do not believe it pays to have 

 such bees in the apiary. — In regard to fig- 

 wort, I have just found one single plant in 

 our plantation, that was covered with blos- 

 soms filled with honey the first of June. 



A VISIT TO BEETON. 



Friend W. F. Clarke Tells us -what is Going 

 on There. 



NO " HIBERNATION " AT BRO. JONES'S. 



TT is four years or more since I was last in Bee- 

 ||F ton, until the other day, when I fulfllled a long- 

 ^l cherished intention of again visiting that now 

 ■^ renowned spot. How rapidly time flies ! Dur- 

 ing the interval I have emigrated to Winnipeg 

 and returned, bringing home with me the rheuma- 

 tism, which is the plague of my life. Our bee-circles 

 have been enlivened with the pollen, reversible- 

 hive, and hibernation theories. A new hive and a 

 new system of bee-manipulation have appeared on 

 the scene. A flt of authorship has seized on "sev- 

 erals" of us; e. g.. Rev. W. Ballantine, J. Heddon, 

 Mr. Alley, Pr. C. C. Miller, and, flnally, on myself. 

 This was the immediate cause of my trip to Beeton. 

 I went there to arrange for getting out my " leedle " 

 book; but as I have disposed of the copyright to 

 Jones, Maepherson & Co., I can leave the Canadian 

 Bee Journal to introduce my literary venture, "A 

 Bird's-Eye View of Bee-Keeping," to the apicul- 

 tural public. 



Beeton has not been at a standstill during- these 

 four years. The village is improving much. More 

 tasty buildings, shade and ornamental tree plant- 

 ing, and the adoption, on the part of the county, 

 by local option, of pi'ohibition, are conspicuous evi- 

 dences of progress. Our friend Jones has not been 

 idle. A better house and larg-er grounds give scope 

 for his own ti?sthetic predilections outside, and those 

 of his wife, who is quite an artist, inside. A big job 

 of evergreen planting was on hand at the time of my 

 visit. I never saw so fine a lot of spruces as those 

 Mr. Jones Avas transplanting, by the hundred, from 

 their native woods, about six miles off. Now for the 

 first time he is fixing up the home apiary; and 

 when it is finished it will be the envy and delig-ht 

 of all apicultural visitors. The shelter will be com^ 

 plete and the protection perfect. It will be the par^ 

 adise of outdoor wintering and— Mhernation! 



Even more enlargement and improvement are 

 visible around the factory and offices. The machin- 

 ery for manufacturing- hives and various bee-keep- 

 ing appliances made of wood seems as near perfec- 

 tion as it can be. Driving- force is furnished by an 

 80-hoi-se-power steam-engine, which is itself a very 

 superior piece of workmanship. I did not know 

 saws could do such fine and smooth work until I 

 saw then} at it the other day. No need of any plan^ 

 ing after the material leaves the little buzzers that 

 run with almost lightning- speed. The accuracy 

 with which the various operations are performed, 

 and the close fitting: of the parts (dovetailed brood- 

 frames, even, requiring- neither glue nor nails) filled 

 me with admiration at the pitch of achievement 

 which has been reached by the ingenuity of man. 

 All hands were busy putting up 500 of the new- 

 style Heddon hive, which is g-oing to get a fair and 

 thorough trial the present summer by Canadian 

 bee-keepers. Fifty had already been shipped to 

 Mr. J. B. Hall, and Mr. Jones intends to use that 

 number, at least, himself. He is making them of 

 thinner material than Mr. Heddon does, and they 

 are certainly a marvel of lightness combined with 

 strength. While retaining the principle' and gen- 

 eral style of construction, some modifications are 

 being: introduoed, which I think the inventor will 



