[)S-J. 



GLEANlNGiS, IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Dec. 



60 to 65 cents, oats at 18 to 30 cents, or to raise and 

 fatten hogs for 2 or 3 cents per lb. And bee-keep- 

 ers are just as likely to quit bee-keeping- because of 

 low prices, as farmers ai-e likely to quit farming, 

 from the same cause. 



Friend Heddou undoubtedly makes beekeeping- 

 pay, for he follows our methods on extracted hon- 

 ey, so far as we know, and bis crops are always 

 large. Our crop this season is 24, COO lbs., and the 

 prospect is that we shall get rid of it without having 

 to crowd it on the large markets, in competition 

 with that of others. C. P. Dadant. 



Hamilton, 111., Nov. 27, 1886. 



Many thanks, fnend Dadant, for coming for- 

 ward at just tliis point, and supplementing 

 my own ideas with the results of your large 

 experience. If it were only the bee-keepers 

 who are In great trouble because the receipts 

 but little more than pay expenses, we might 

 have cause for alarm. Not an hour ago. a 

 neighbor, who is a farmer, made the remark 

 tluit his stuff would not sell for enough to 

 pay the wages of iiis hired help, let alone liis 

 own time and the interest of liis money. 

 Now, I hope he will not feel hurt because I 

 suggest that his attention was given too 

 much to other business to make farming- 

 pay. I am sure that a man who would give 

 his whole attention ta this very same farm, 

 and go into it brain and muscle, would make 

 it pay ; and so it is witli bees. Very likely, 

 bee culture will not warrant one in keeping 

 very much hired help, and neither will farm- 

 ing. _ 



EFFECT OF ALTITUDE UPON" BLOOM. 



DOES THE INCREASE IN ATjTITUDE HAVE ANY EF- 

 FECT UPON THE BLOOMING OF FLOWERS? 



T WISH to give you some observations on the In- 

 j^ fluence of altitude. Two or three times the 

 ^l question has been asked in Gleanings, if, with 



•^ an increase ot altitude, the blooming of flowers 

 is not later, thus prolonging the honey-season. 

 I know tliat this is the general idea, but there must 

 be exceptions. I live about three miles to the east 

 of the crest of the ridge between the Mississippi 

 and Tennessee Rivers, which ru:i3 nearly north and 

 south, and the slope in the direction of my resi- 

 dence lias a fall of about lOD feet to the mile. Now, 

 with this difference in distance and altitude, the 

 crest has had, for the last twelve years, an average 

 advantage in earliness of about two weeks, and 

 the same in lateness of frost in tlie 4'all, thus pro- 

 longing the season nearly a month. I will further 

 state, as I think it has some influence, that our pre- 

 vailing winds are from the southwest and west. 



JAPANESE CLOVER— LespL'deza Striata, 

 Is a plant that I wish to call the attention of bee- 

 keepers to— not as a honr'y-produeer, but as an ene- 

 my of honey-producing- plants. The first mention 

 that 1 have of it is that one Thumberg, a German, 

 saw it growing- in Japan, nearly one luindred years 

 ago. It was first seen in the U. S. in tlia vicinity of 

 Charleston, S. C, about the year lS4il, and has since 

 spread over several States. It reached this section 

 about throe years ago; and from what I have seen 

 of it I can nearly indorse Mr. Pendleton, of Geor- 

 gia, who said, "It hasgreat powers of endurance, and 

 will absolutely root out and destroy every other liv- 

 ing plant in its wide-spread path." This particular- 

 ly includes white clover. You Mill first see it along- 



railways and highways, and then it spreads over all 

 the intervening country. As yet, I know nothing 

 that will stop it, so I suppose it will continue its 

 devastating march northward. W. H. Greek. 



Paris, Tenn., Nov. £2, 18S6. 



Friend G., if the altitude were on a high 

 hill or mountain, I think you would have 

 found the later blooming, as has been men- 

 tiofied. It is well known, that elevated 

 lands are not so liable to be affected by 

 frosts. This is perhaps owing to the fact 

 that the cold air flows by gravity into the 

 valleys, leaving the warmer air on the hill- 

 tops.— I think the Japanese clover has been 

 mentioned before. Will our friends at the 

 experimental colleges tell us if they have 

 found it as friend (t. states— a dangerous 

 weed V Gray's Botany calls it a great beuetit. 



QUEENS' VOICES. 



I»lPlX(i OK (QUEENS NO']' MADE BY TUH WINGS. 



OTICING an article in Gleanings of Nov. 

 1, on rhe above subject, induces me to 

 I'elatc an incident that came under my 

 olser\ation one day last spring; to wit: It 

 was Sunday, and my wife, desiring to g-et 

 along with as little work as possible in her 

 apiary that day, concluded to catch the queens 

 as they came out, and provide places for the colo- 

 nies by the time they got ready to settle. She 

 caught a Carniolan queen and some half a dozen or 

 more workers under a glass, and then transferred 

 them to a wire cage, and brought them in the house 

 for me to admire. She set the ciige down on a ta- 

 ble, and went out to attend to her bees while I was 

 busy reading. Every once in a while I heard a way- 

 ofif sound, as if from a locomotive in distress, and 

 finally was astonished to discover that the noise 

 was made by the imprisoned queen. She would run 

 round in the cage, making frantic efforts to get 

 out, and occasionally stop still and utter her plaint- 

 ive, distressing call, which was along "toot" fol- 

 lowed by two or three short toots, thus: t-o-o-l, toot, 

 toot, toot. The call was so loud that it could be dis- 

 tinctly heard across a large room. I am satisfied 

 that the queen's wings contributed nothing toward 

 the sound, as they appeared perfectly still when she 

 did her piping; in fact, frantic as she was to get out 

 of the cage, she would always stop perfectly sf (7? 

 before making her call. J. F. H.vrner. 



Taylor ville, Christian Co.. 111. 



Friend 11., the tooting you mention is 

 quite a common thing with us. here at the 

 ilome of the IIoney-Bees. When we have a 

 lot of queens piled up on our mailing-table, 

 ready to go off, they very frequently get to 

 calling; and when the room is still, say after 

 working hours, I have often heard them call 

 so plainly that their different notes could be 

 heard distinctly in an adjoining room, some 

 distance away. The matter was written up 

 some years ago, under the title of "Queens' 

 Voices,'" and you will find something about 

 it in the A B C book. Since you mention it, I 

 recall to mind that they usually stand still 

 when they utter this note. It requires some 

 effort of the muscular system, for we can 

 plainly see her little body shake and quiver 

 when she utters the loud calls. We should 

 like to have Prof. Cook tell us if they have 

 studied up this matter at the college. 



