1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



101 



would appear, while I j'Ct stood wondering at the 

 thing' of lite, a beautiful and complete wild blossom 

 standing- just in the edge of snow. From these 

 wild blossoms bees gather large stoi-es of honey, 

 some of whieh I will send by mail in a small bottle. 

 This honey was deposited in old combs carried from 

 here in the winter, wherein were some grains of old 

 honey, a few of which you can see in the bottle, so 

 it is not entirely wild lioney, but enough so that it 

 shows the peculiar llavor which I wish you to taste 

 and examine; and, if you have no objections, g-ive 

 me your ojjinion as to its salaijie rjualities among' 

 those well used to choice honey. T'erliui)S what is 

 pleasant to us is not pleasant to others afar off, 

 reared in a difl'erent climate. 



o. IV Huntington. 

 Springvillo. TTtah, .July 30, 1S8(). 



Friend J I., tlie thivor is certainly pecaliur, 

 and to me it is very pleasant indeed. I 

 should think llie hoiiey would command a 

 ^ood price just on account of this tlavor. 

 Tile same, or sometliing (ptite similar, has 

 been submitted to me once before. If yon 

 will send ns, say. a cmple of the plants, we 

 will have onr botanist name it. 



A CARD FKOM H. CHAPMAN. 



Mr. KdU(ir:—lt lias not been my purpose to say or 

 write much about or otter anj* seed of my honey- 

 plant for sale until after the report of the. commit- 

 tee appointed by the Noitli-American Bee-Keepers' 

 Association to e.vamiiie and determine its value as 

 a honey-plant. The conmiitteo met at my place 

 July ~8th (all but Mr. Manuni. of Vermont, who was 

 prevented by unforeseen circumstances). The com- 

 mittee present were A. I. Hoot, of Medina, Ohio; 

 L. C. Root, of Mohawk, N. Y.. and N. W. McLain, of 

 Aurora, 111. They will make their repoit as a com- 

 mittee at the next annual meeting- of the Associa- 

 tion, to be held at Indianapolis, Ind., Oct. l^ith, ]3lh, 

 and 14th. But since the meeting- of the committee 

 at my place, members of it have written so favora- 

 bly of the plant in the bee-journals "that I have re- 

 ceived a large number of letters of inquiry, requ'i'" 

 iug- so much of my time to answer that I deem it 

 proper, through the bee-journals, to say, T have no 

 seed but the present season's growth, which will 

 not be ready to send otit until about the ;^Jth of 

 October next. I purpose to advertise in the bee-jour- 

 nals after the report of committee at Indianapolis. 

 Seed will be sold in half-ounce, ounce, two-ounce, 

 and four-ounce packag-es. The price will be deter- 

 mined after the report of the committee. All de- 

 siring seed are referred to my advertisements, 

 which may be found in all the leading bee-journals 

 in America, after the report of the committee at 

 Indianapolis. H. Chapman. 



Versailles. Catt. Co., N. Y., Aug-., 1880, 



HATTLESNAKES AN UNEMV TO BEES. 



Dear Broiler;— The bee-moths got into the weak 

 swarm T had, and they are aboiit used up. 1 have 

 just put the old combs in t4ie solar extractor, and 

 now have a nice cake of wa.x. In lifting the hive to 

 move it, the bottom-board stuck to the hive and I 

 found a big rattlesnake coiled up under the hive. 

 The sudden daylight surprised him, and he sur- 

 prised mi: too; but I recovered myself first, and 

 killed him. I have taken off lUO lbs. of comb honey 

 from my two hives, and the bees are working- yet. 



THE SIMPLICITY SECTION IN CALIF'ORNIA. 



I took 74 sections into town. Harbison honey is 



selling- at .') cts. per lb. One of the leading honey- 

 buyers offered me 7'/4 cts., and said if mine had 

 been whiter he would give me more. One objection 

 is, that on or near the coast the honey is darker 

 than further back. The style of your section is 

 the first they ever saw. Even Mr. Harbison thought 

 they wore nice. lam g-oing to hold it for a higher 

 price. 



There was a swarm of bees went over the barn to- 

 day. I thought it was too late for them, or I would 

 have had out some more decoy hives. M. S. Root. 



San Diego, Cat, Aug. !t, 1880. 



JJrother iSIarsh, excuse me for thinking 

 that it was the rattlesnake instead of the 

 moths that injured your weak swarm. We 

 liave had several reports of snakes getting 

 under bee-hives and catching the honey- 

 laden bees as they came in, until the swarm 

 was too much depleted to take care of itself. 

 Yevy likely the moths would come in as a 

 consequence. No wonder you were a sur- 

 prised lot of you. — I am glad to hear that 

 you are beginning to make modern bee cul- 

 ture " go "' a little; but I am greatly sur- 

 prised to know that so large a city as San 

 J)iego shoidd be unacquainted with the one- 

 pound Simplicity section. — I should think it 

 would pay to save absconding swarms in 

 any montli of the year in your mild climate. 



A SOI.au WAX-E.\TKACT0R for A NICKEL. 



I think I must describe my wax-e.xtractor. it 

 works to perfection, and is cheap. It is taken from 

 your 5 cent counter— a tin wssh-basin. Punch the 

 bottom full of 'a-i'ich holes; set it in top of a stone- 

 ware butter-jar, and put a glass on top. Throw in 

 the wax scraps. A wooden frame around the glass 

 would keep it from sliding- ofi' or breaking easily, 

 but it is not necessary. T also have a wooden cover 

 to the jar, with a beveled hf)le in the top, which al- 

 lows the extractor to be tipped toward the sun. 



James Evans. 



Schaghticoke, N. Y.. Aug. 24, 1880. 



Very good, friend E.; but it seems to me 

 that your stone jar and pane of glass ought 

 to count something in footing up the expense 

 of the apparatus. Wouldn't one of our 1-5- 

 cent strainers answer better than the wash- 

 basin V They aie about the size of the basin, 

 with an opening at the bottom, covered with 

 brass strainer cloth. The polished sides of 

 tlie basin would help to retlect the sun. 



CARBor-ic acid. 

 In Ihe British BeeJonrwd for Aug. ll', 188G, 

 we tind tlie following : 



1 have just made my first experiment with car- 

 bolic acid, in order to remove a super, and have 

 been any thing but successful. I made a square 

 cage of iron giiu/.e, inserted in it pieces of sponge 

 saturated with the acid, and placed it inside my 

 Bingham smoker, then i)roceeded to dri\e the 

 fumes into the super, at the loj), but it produced 

 not the slighlcst etfect so far as I could see, for the 

 bees rushed out as fast as they could from between 

 the sections: and when, after" waiting a short time, 

 I removed the super, my hands, though perfumed 

 with Calvert's No. h. received more stings than they 

 have enjoyed for a long time. I had on a veil, or I 

 should hardly have been able to see to write this. 

 T am greatly disappointed, as I had looked forward 

 to getting i-id of the trouble of the smoker, with the 

 inconvenience of its frequent extinction. 



J. COVE Jones, Loxlcy, WarwUk. 



This accords very well with Mrs. Chad- 



