GLEANIJS^GS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Sept. 



lie has learned just how to do it, and so it 

 becomes as simple as many other things 

 which we do daily, and think nothing about 

 it whatever. 



"My friend, how about fertilizing the 

 blossoms y Where you raise cucumbers or 

 melons under glass, you are obliged to carry 

 the pollen from one flower to another, are 

 you not V " 



" Why, bless your heart, Mr. Root, we 

 don't carry the pollen — the bees do that." 



I was all attention all at once, you may be 

 sure ; but he seemed to take it so much as a 

 matter of course that 1 began wondering 

 whether he really knew what he was saying, 

 so I ventured — but while I spoke, my mind 

 ran vividly over my experiments with bees 

 in a greenhouse years ago, and this is what I 

 said : 



" But do you keep bees all winter long in 

 these greenhouses V " 



"• Why, yes ; to be sure, we do." 



"• But where are they now V I don't see 

 any." 



" Oh ! we take them outdoors as soon as it 

 is safe to have all the doors and windows 

 open." 



Perhaps he thought it took a good deal to 

 satisfy my curiosity, so I ventured to ask if 

 1 might see the bees where they were now. 

 Sure enough, there were seven hives of bees. 

 They were in old-fashioned tall box hives, 

 and set on a bench side by side. They did 

 not get any honey from them ; in fact, he 

 said they did not pay any attention to that 

 part. All they keep them for is to make the 

 cucumbers bear, and I tell you they do bear, 

 judging from the specimens I saw hanging 

 on the trellis, even as late as the 28th of 

 July. I walked up to the extrance, scanned 

 the bees closely to see if there was any Ital- 

 ian blood ; but they were just common black 

 bees — nothing more. He said they bought 

 them for Italians, and I promised to send 

 him our bee-journal, to post him on bees in 

 return for the way he had posted me on cu- 

 cumbers. 



" But, my friend, do the bees not die some- 

 times? Don't they fly up against the glass, 

 and worry themselves to death, and then 

 fall on the ground V" 



" Oh! they do to some extent when we 

 first bring them into the house ; and some- 

 times a colony does not seem to work well 

 on the cucumber-blossoms. In that case we 

 try another. The price of a colony of bees 

 is not much compared with the product of 

 our greenhouses. As a general thing, after 

 the little fellows get to work ojj the blossoms 



they find their way back to the hive as well 

 as if they were out of doors. And what a 

 humming they do make, some of the coldest 

 winter days, when the sun comes down so 

 as to brighten up every thing !" 



I asked him if the cucumbers did not re- 

 quire a very high temperature. He said 

 they did better with a temperature between 

 70 and 80 degrees ; but he did not think it 

 was a matter of so very much importance 

 after all. Of course, they grew faster when 

 the temperature was just right. 



While my friend was talking I could not 

 help smiling at the recollection of an inci- 

 dent related by Mr. L. C. Root at our little 

 bee - convention at Versailles, N. Y. He 

 said, during his speech, that a lady living 

 near him complained about his keeping so 

 many bees ; but when asked to tell just 

 where they inconvenienced her, her princi- 

 pal grievance was that she was unable to 

 raise a single cucumber in her garden since 

 he ha<l been keeping so many bees in the 

 neighborhood. Just think of it, friends ! I 

 do not mean to be hard on the poor lady ; 

 but it is well worth our while to stop a min- 

 ute and consider how much foolish super- 

 stition is passing current among people, in 

 place of real science. As I stood in front of 

 that row of seven box hives of black bees, I 

 stood for a moment in silent wonder, to 

 think how two such great industries were 

 moving along in our nation, and yet the 

 busy brains of the one industry knew hardly 

 any thing about the busy brains of the oth- 

 er. My friend by my side knev/ all about 

 cucumbers, but he did not know a thing 

 about bees. I am not sure he knew there 

 was such a thing as a movable-comb hive in 

 existence, and yet he was a bee-Aeeper. He 

 could not raise cucumbers without being a 

 bee-keeper. I knew all about bees, and 

 could have pulled all his old box hives to 

 pieces— could have shown him the queen, 

 and talked for days to him without having 

 exhausted the subject of bee culture, and yet 

 I knew comparatively nothing in regard to 

 his industry. 



Now, another point comes in right here : 

 On one of the benches I saw about a dozen 

 of the most beautiful cucumbers, it seems to 

 me, that were ever produced since the world 

 began. May be the ancient Egyptians used 

 to have some that would compare with this 

 lot, but I hardly think they did. They were 

 not only larger than any thing I ever saw 

 before, but they were beautifully symmetri- 

 cal in shape, and of a pearly whiteness that 

 made them wonderfully attractive to the eye. 



