74G 



GLEAKiKGS IK BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



moving about among tlie bee-men and bee- 

 women, and she laughingly told me she had 

 200 gaUonfi of beautiful clover honey this 

 season. She had it stored in stone crocks, 

 and til? (M'ocks were making her a deal of 

 trouble by bursting open as the honey begins 

 to candy. Did youever hear of such a thing? 



Mr. Earl Flickinger also made a very fine 

 display ; and one thing that pleased me 

 about" his exhibit was. that his good wife 

 stayed behind the railing, and answered 

 (luestions and explained things. 



Our old friend Aaron Benedict was a little 

 in the background, talking bees to people 

 who were carious, while a swarm of nicely 

 marked Italians hung from his whiskers. 



One pleasant part of it to me was, tliat the 

 comb honey was stored in sections of our 

 make, and the sections were mostly neatly 

 incased in briglit new cases of our make. 

 Much of tlie liquid honey also was exhibited 

 in jars, pails, and tumblers bought from our 

 establishment. 



I have not space here to tell of the many 

 khid friends whom I met, and who seemed 

 rejoiced to see me, even for only four hours. 

 Have I any riyht to let business keep mc 

 away from seeing these nciuhbors at least 

 once a year — these Ohio neighbors of mine V 

 A bevy of ladies expressed a desire to shake 

 liands"with the editor of Glkanixos; and 

 after we had had a pleasant talk, one of 

 them made a remark that carries witli it 

 something of a moral. Siie said, in sub- 

 stance, " Mr. Hoot, much as we prize (i lean- 

 ings, I am ashamed to tell you that we care- 

 lessly omitted to renew our subscription, 

 and we are not having it this year at all. It 

 was allowed to stop through pure neglect.'' 



In the last Prairie Former, (Jrange Judd 

 speaks of meeting old friends in the Far 

 West, during his travels, and lie .says he 

 met hundreds of people who said the same 

 thing about letting the American Agricultu- 

 rist drop when he was editor. They really 

 valued the paper, and had no idea of letting 

 it stop coming ; but it was put off, month 

 after month, and finally they didn't have it 

 '•at all anymore.'' Wow, I didn't feel like 

 urging tliese good friends of mine to hand 

 me a dollar just then and there, under the 

 circumstances, that I might send them our 

 journal again ; but it occurr^l to me that 

 the proper way was to have some friend of 

 (}lp:anin(js go over every neighborhood, 

 take the money and forward the names ; 

 and, of course, the one who does thi.s ought 

 to have pay for it. Accordingly, we furnish 

 (J LEANINGS to such an agent for only 75 

 cents each ; that is, for collecting the names 

 of all those who would be likely to subscribe 

 at i/our postoffice. The supply-dealer of the 

 neighborhood would be, obviously, the party 

 lo do tills. How shall we get this started V 

 Well, now, dear friends, I do not know any 

 better way than to ask you to agree among 

 yourselves who shall be the agent at your 

 postotlice, and let him look up all the parties 

 who really want Gleanings, but don't like 

 to write "a letter, etc. One-fourth of the 

 amount of money received would, I think, 

 pay well for the trouble of visiting them in 

 their homes, and making a neighborly call. 



At our Abbey ville Sunday-school, a few 



weeks ago, the j'lttendance during the hot 

 weather got down to as low as 17, I think. I 

 gave the children a little talk, and asked 

 them how many would really try to bring 

 somebody else to Sunday-school the next 

 Sabbath, in order to keep our school from 

 '' dwindling" — not from sjhing dwindling, 

 but from mid-sumnter dwindling. Up went 

 a lot of hands, and I knew by the smiling 

 faces that the work would be done. Next 

 Sunday our seventeen had increased to forty. 

 No\\\ friends, I do not often urge you to 

 help to inciease the subscription - list of 

 Gleanin(4s; but the larger the list, the 

 more money can we afford to expend in en- 

 gravings, and in traveling to hunt up valua- 

 ble facts for you. ]5esides helping your pa- 

 per, you will get liettcr acquainted with 

 your '•'neighbors" by going round among 

 them in the way I suggest ; and what is 

 there more more important in this world 

 than i>leasant relations between "ourselves 

 and our neiglihors " / 



FULL SHEETS OF FOUNDATION, VER- 

 SUS STARTERS, FOR BROOD-COMBS. 



EXPERIMENTS IN REGAKD TO THE SAME, AS RE- 

 POHTEU «Y A JUVENILE. 



E got only 303 lbs. of comb honey, and in- 

 creased from 34 to ,53. We followed Mr. 

 Hutchinson's plan in hiving 16 swarms; 

 viz., on five empty frames with narrow 

 starters, a queenoxelnding honey-board, 

 and a case of 28 sections filled with foundation. 

 We should have had better results if the season 

 had been good. All the swarms went at once to 

 work ill the sections, and the combs in the brood- 

 chambc;:; are nice and straight. Nos. 7, 11, 14, and 

 16, had no drone-comb. Nos. 2, .5, 10, 13, 13, and 15, 

 had each from three to si.\ inclics square of drone- 

 comb. No. 3 had nearly all drone-comb; lost their 

 guecn, and had fertile workers. Nos. 4 and 8 had 

 each about one-half of drone. Nos. 1, 6, and 0, had 

 each nearly one whole frame of drone-comb. We 

 don't know the age of the queens. Papsi wishes 

 some way could be found out to prevent the bees 

 from building so much drone comb. Would drone- 

 fdn. in the sections prevent it? Coka Major. 



Cokcvillc, Pa., Sept., 188G. 



The report of your experiments is valu- 

 able indeed, as it is just the point at this 

 time we are all eager to know. Your ex- 

 periments seem quite favorable lo friend 

 Ilutchinson's position of the limited or non- 

 use of fouiulation in the brood-chamber. 

 Still, from I'esults as above recorded, 1 

 think i should prefer full sheets of founda- 

 tion, unless something can be done to ex- 

 clude, or at least more nearly exclude, the 

 drone-comb. Perhaps the difference in 

 tieatment of the several colonies might ob- 

 viate, the (lilliculty. Well, supposing we 

 can obviate saitl dilliculty, how are we to 

 prove that the exclusion or partial exclu- 

 sion of foundation in the brood- chamber 

 will be any cheaper than full sheets of 

 foundation, since al»le experimenters dis- 

 agree so widely as to the original cost of 

 wax, as adduced from the consumption 

 of honey. The result of your experiments is 

 socarefullv given, friend Cora, that we will 



