7(5S 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



kiiKliiess of the editors, we are able to give 

 it iieie. The writer in Pfrpular Gardening 

 states that therd are 280 distinct species. 

 Roots of tliis phiut can be obtained, of El- 

 wan j^er & Barry, of Rochester, N. Y., and 

 others. It is certainly a very handsome 

 vine ; and even should it not yield honey 

 like the one mentioned by friend King, it 

 would not be a very great disappointment to 

 tlie purchaser. As some varieties of the 

 plant seem to be found in almost every part 

 of the world, it would be nothing strange at 

 all if the honey-producing bellllower could 

 be acclimated, as friend King suggests. We 

 will take good care to plant the seeds at the 

 proper time, and report through Glean- 

 ings. 



WHA.T IT COSTS TO PRODUCE A 

 POUND OF HONEY. 



CAN THE QUESTION BE ANSWEKED SO AS TO 

 APPLY TO ALL LOCALITIES V 



J HAVE read with interest what has b 'en said in 

 Gleanings with reference to the cost of pro- 

 duction of a pound of honey. Mr. Doolittle 

 and Mr. Heddon appear to agree as to the cost 

 of production, while I see it in a far ditJcrcut 

 light. It does not cost the same to produce a pound 

 of honey in Illinois that it docs in Vermont, as the 

 cost of living is much cheaper here than there. I 

 bought a large watermelon last evening for five 

 cents; and wlien I was in Vermont, five years ago, 

 they were sold there by the pound, and many gar- 

 den vegetables were shipped there and sold at high 

 rates. In Illinois, good corn lands are worth from 

 sixty to sixty-five dollars per acre: and shelled 

 corn at railway stations sold for 28 cents per bushel 

 this summer. Mrs. Chaddoclt says, " Butter sold in 

 my locality for six cents per pound," and 1 was 

 there several years since, and bought, late in No- 

 vember, fine gilt-edge butter ft>r ten cents per 

 pound. Farm products are not worth the same all 

 over the United States, and why should honey beV 



A German grocery-woman yesterday said to me: 

 "Some farmers brought in honey, and took about 

 what they could get for it: you will never see them 

 around with anymore." I'coria has a population 

 of 40,000. Many railroads center here, and bee- 

 keepers think that is the place to sell honey. So 

 they come from every point of the compass, driving- 

 many miles in light spring w'^gons, and could have 

 sold honey faster and for more money, all the way, 

 but they never tried to. They are like the man who 

 went hunting rabbits, and saw plenty of deer, but 

 would not shoot them, for he was not hunting deer 

 but rabbits. They sold their honey for 8, 9, or 10 

 cents per pound, and took their pay in trade, or in 

 part that way. Dealers say they tried to hold honey 

 at 1.5 cents, but they could not do it, for many others 

 were selling at 13'/4 cents. Every groccryman who 

 handles it has a supply, and has bought choice 

 white clover in one pound sections at 10 cents per 

 pound. We are not pushing our honey on the 

 market, and are selling only to old customers in ex- 

 change for needed supplies. It appears to me to 

 be folly to do otherwise; that is, to be paying out 

 money for such things as honey ought to buy. 



Mr. Harrison says when honey will not bring V2'A 

 cents pel* pound, a mail liad better engage in some 

 Other busijiesg. If he has ability to produce honey 



he can make more in some other way. I consider 

 this crop of honey that we now have, to have cost 

 the most of any wo have had, for this reason: 1 

 was sick during the busy season. I have not put 

 on nor taken olf a surplus bo.v. Mr. Harrison has 

 done the work, and his time is worth in the world's 

 maiket more than mine. I know a bee-keeper who 

 has a wife, two daughters, and a little boy eight 

 years old. They all work in the apiary during the 

 busy season. If he worked at his trade, which is 

 shoemaking, the rest of the family would be con- 

 sumers, wlien now they are producers. One of the 

 brightest features in Leo-keeping is this: It can be 

 done at home, and members of the family can be 

 helpers who could not earn a dollar in any other 

 way. What can Mrs. Chaddock or Mrs. A.\tell do at 

 home on a farm, that will pay any better? 

 Peoria, 111., Sept., 18S6. Mus. L. Hahiuson. 



I think your point is a good one, Mrs. 

 11.; and is it not also true that one can pro- 

 duce honey at a less price than another can V 

 Friend Terry estimates that he can raise 

 potatoes at a cost of 20 cts. per bushel, and 

 allow reasonable pay to all hands employed 

 in the work, and six per cent interest on the 

 value of the land. He says, however, he 

 thinks that the way many farmers work, 

 and the inimber of bushels they get per 

 acre, makes them cost fully 40 cts. In your 

 closing remarks you touch on another point. 

 Many people can keep bees and produce 

 honey, who can not very well do much of 

 any thing else. One of our agricultural 

 papers said tlie same thing in regard to 

 raising wheat. Suppose a farmer decides 

 tliat he can not raise wheat for 70 cts. per 

 busliel without losing money, what then 

 shall he do— let his team stand in the stable, 

 let the land lie idle, and sit around and talk 

 over the discouragements of farm life ? 

 Why, it seems to me he had better keep at 

 wcrk — keep his teams at work and use his 

 land, even if he gets but 50 cts. a bushel. 

 Of course, he might raise something else in 

 place of the wheat; but with bee-keepers, as 

 you very fairly put it, are there not a good 

 many who can not very well do much of any 

 thing else V The remedy for breaking down 

 prices, as it seems to me, is for some one 

 to establish himself as a buyer, just as we 

 have wheat-buyers and wool-buyers. Every- 

 body in Medina knows that I am a honey- 

 buyer ; and if there is any honey to be 

 ''fooled" away, it generally gets into my 

 hands. 



EMPTY BROOD-NESTS. 



I 



FOrtMlNG NUCLEI, A LA DOOLITTLE. 



N Gleanings for July 15, page 563, in the clos- 

 ing of friend Hutchinson's letter he said: 

 W "Just stop and think a moment, friend R., 

 and see if you can't " catch on." Now, friend 

 R., it has been easy for me to " catch on " to 

 the honey part, but nice worker-comb I can't 

 "catch on" to. To try friend H.'s plan, I hived, 

 about the first of June, 5 first swarms in as many 

 hives having the brood-chambers contracted by 

 division-boards, giving each swarm .5 frames hav- 

 ing fdn. starters about one inch wide. Upon 3 of 

 those colonies I placed ci'ates whose sections were 

 filled with fdn.; upon the other two I placed the 



