1886 



(ii.EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



56a 



in new white cases ; in fact, the stuft' for the 

 cases hadn't been a week ont of onr saw- 

 room, probably. The sections were so ch^an 

 and white that one mi<>ht snpywse it hadn't 

 been a week since they left the bnzz-saw. 

 He wanted 15 cts. a pound for it. 1 paid it. 

 althongh I gave only V2 cts. for the former 

 lot. Well, this clean nice bright comb hon- 

 ey is selling at a good rate for is cts. per lb. 

 \Ve just piit tlie case right on the wagon, and 

 the appeai'ance of the honey sells it light 

 along. I might add, there is not a bit of 

 propolis visible anywhere. While I think of 

 it, friend II., perhaps 1 should also add that 

 neighbor Chase, tlie young man who brought 

 us the honey, is using surplus-arrangements 

 like or similar to those you used a year ago. 



BORAGE AS A HONEY-PLANT. 



A GOOD ItEPORT IHiOM IT. 



SHOULD like to say a few words in praise of 

 i^f wliat I think to be one of our best honey- 

 plants; i. e., boi-a^e. I got enougli seed from 

 you hist year to plant about ii acre, but sowed it 

 rather late. However, the bees worked on it 

 until late in November. I did not save the seed, but 

 let it seed itself. It commenced to bloom 

 about the 1st of May, and the bees (mostly blacks 

 and hybrids) have been just ftwdnninij on it ever 

 since, even during- poplar and white clover. The 

 remarkable part about borage is, the bees work on 

 it after a heavy shower. The head of the tlower, as 

 you know, hangs down, and the rain does not wash 

 out the honej'. I wish to put in a large crop of it 

 next season. We have had a great deal of rain 

 here of late, and the bees are getting a very clear, 

 sweet honey, very much like sugar and water. I 

 send you a small sample. Can you tell me what it is ? 

 I have also noticed some of my honey capped over 

 with yellow wax, as described by J. W. Porter, in 

 June Gleanings, p. 480. Italians will utilize wax 

 when they have access to it; and as I had left 

 some fdn. in an old Palace hive, and saw them at 

 work on it, I accounted for it in that way. Am I 

 right? K. R. Cuvleu. 



Kapid Ann, Va., June 37, 1886. 



I am glad to get so good a report from our 

 old friend borage. We have raised it a good 

 many years, but we have such a very lai-ge 

 number of bees working on a small plat of 

 ground that it is dillicult to tell how much 

 honey the plant furnishes, or any thing 

 about it. The sample of honey you send is 

 very nice. I will explain to our readers, that 

 it is just about right to drink. The flavor is 

 a little different from any thing I have ever 

 tasted in the way of honey, but I should call 

 it fully equal to clover, so far as 1 can judge 

 from any thing so much diluted. It is prob- 

 ably borage honey, just as it is gathered. 

 During a very wet season I once had some 

 clover and basswood honey almost as thin as 

 this. It would run out of the combs when 

 they were turned up in taking them out of 

 the hives. If removed by tlie extractor in 

 tliis condition it will (piickly sour; but if 

 left until the bees seal it up iifter their own 

 fashion, it will be nice thick honey. I should 

 be glad of more reports from borage. It is 

 very easily raised, and, as you say, may be 



pnt in quite late. It self-sows, so that, if 

 the seed is not gathered, it may prove to be 

 a troublesome weed ; but not more so, how- 

 ever, than buckwheat or other similar plants. 



EMPTY BROOD-NESTS. 



NEW SWAKMS— EXTKACTED HONEY. 



fES, friend Root, I have tried working new 

 swarms for extracted honey, and I see no 

 diflerence in regard to whether the iirood- 

 cliamher shall be furnished with combs or 

 fdn., or the bees allowed to build their own 

 hnxidcomhs. You say: "Of course, this condition 

 of afl'airs refers to comb honey. When one is 

 working for extracted honey, by all means give 

 thein empty combs." Yes, I would give them 

 empty combs, but not in thu hr<ii)d-nc!<t. I would 

 furnish the frames in the brood-chamber with 

 starters of fdn., put on a (lucenexcluding honey- 

 board, then a super filled with emj.ty combs; or, if 

 I had no combs, I would fill the frames in the super 

 with fdn. The principle of allowing the bees to 

 build the combs in the brood-chamber, and fur- 

 nishing comb or fdn. in the supers, is a broad one, 

 and it really makes no difference whether the hon- 

 ey in the super is to be extracted, or whether the 

 combs of honey are removed in the shape of 

 pound sections. Just stop and think a moment, 

 friend R., and sec if j'ou can't "catch on." 



W. Z. Hutchinson. 

 Rogersville, Genesee Co., Mich., June, 1886. 



I confess, friend II., I don't "catch on'' 

 exactly ; but I begin to suspect that bees 

 will store more honey if they are permitted 

 to indulge their passion for comb-building 

 to a certain extent than if they are given so 

 many combs they have no room to build 

 new combs at all. D. A. Jones says, '' We 

 are fully convinced that full frames where 

 extracted honey is taken is a decided ad- 

 vantage.'' 



HOW^ TO RAISE CELERY. 



friend a. t. cook gives us a plan by which 

 eveity family who owns a patch of po- 

 tatoes may raise celery. 



fHE potatoes, when plowed and well hilled up, 

 will leave just the trench required for the 

 celery-plants. Stir some fine fertilizer in 

 the soil and set out the plants, six inches 

 apart in the rows, pressing the soil firmly 

 about the plants. Set every other i-ow with celery, 

 and this will leave abundance of room for earthing 

 it up after the potatoes are removed. 



After setting the plants, water well; and then with 

 a rake draw the potato-tops over the rows of celery 

 to shade them from the hot sun. After a couple of 

 weeks turn the potato-tops back; and by the time 

 the celery needs earthing up, the potatoes will be 

 ready to dig; after wliich the celery may be plowed 

 and hilled up in the usual manner. I raise celery 

 in this way with hall' the time and troul)le of any 

 other plan. lam unable to see that either crop in- 

 terferes at all with the other— Indeed, the potatoes, 

 as a shade for the joung plants, are a great advan- 

 tage. 



KISIENU cook's method OF REMOVING POTATO- 

 BUGS. 



It may not be out of place to tell my way of catch- 



