GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



^^drf^ of ^mifif 



From Different Fields. 



TARRED PAPER FOR REPELLING THE BEE-MOTH. 



^ HAVE a little experience to relate in regard to 

 Jjli preserving combs from the ravages of the mot h 

 — ' during spring and summer months. In the 

 spring of this year I had proDably eight or ten hives 

 filled with combs taken from swarms which had died 

 during the previous winter, and some empty combs 

 besides, from which the honey had been extracted. 

 These frames of empty comb were all kept in a 

 warehouse used for storing sash, doors, blinds, and 

 tarred paper. I examined these frames at intervals 

 during the summer, but could never find the trace 

 of a worm. Fiom this I conclude that bee-keepers 

 need have no trouble with old combs, if they keep 

 in their vicinity some tarred paper, or its equivalent. 

 Adeline, 111., Dec. 14, 1883. W. A. Harris. 



Friend H., I am inclined to think your ex- 

 perience was more accidental than from the 

 presence of the tarred paper, although the 

 latter would be very likely to repel bee-moth 

 as well as other insects. I have often seen 

 combs left exposed in an open place such as 

 you mention, without any detriment, during 

 the warm season ; but either the moth did 

 not happen to tind them, or else the combs 

 were separated so that they didn't find a con- 

 venient lodging-place. It is to be remarked, 

 that having the combs put a little way apart 

 is a pretty sure safe-guard, while sticking 

 them up one on top of another will be almost 

 sure to have them converted into a mass of 

 webs. 



CASH WITH ORDER. 



Friend Root:—l am in your ABC book; I also en- 

 joy Gleanings, and have been but a few months in 

 the society of "queens." It seems presumption, 

 therefore, in me to advise or suggest to you who 

 teach the thousands. Still, I am impelled to ask, 

 why do you n®t adhere strictly to your advertised 

 pay-down system, and save all of the W. W. Kesslcr 

 and like troubles? Joseph CADWAiiLADER. 



Forsyth, Monroe Co., Ga. 



Friend C, if I am correct, our price list 

 states that we require cash with order from 

 those with whom we have had no previous 

 deal. Many of our customers are now per- 

 sonal friends whom we have known and 

 traded with and corresponded with for years. 

 In fact, we know them almost as you know 

 old friends in your immediate neighborhood ; 

 and to refuse to accommodate them as neigh- 

 bors should accommodate each other would 

 be a pretty hard matter, even if it were right 

 for us to do so. Again, the prices of many 

 things are changing so much that the money 

 sent is very often a little more or a little less 

 than the price of the article. If a customer 

 sends too much, to be sure we might return 

 the balance with the goods; but a great 

 many times they would ])refer to have it 

 placed to their credit. At some future time, 

 if their money should lack a dollar or two, 

 it would be pretty hard to refuse to send 

 goods when they were urgently needed, just 

 because the money was not quite enough. 

 Bee-keepers are a friendly and neighborly 

 sort of people, and it has seemed to me, aft- 



er considering the matter 'carefully, there is 

 no other pleasant way of adjusting business 

 than to open accounts with those whom we 

 know to be worthy of accommodation. Of 

 course, this necessitates a vast deal of cor- 

 respondence — the wor?t feature of the whole 

 matter by far being to make those talk or 

 write who won't answer postals of inquiry. 

 I wonder if those who will permit us to write 

 again and again without making any reply, 

 realize the amount of trouble they cause by 

 so doing. If we have other bee-keepers at 

 the same postoitice, we have no recourse but 

 to ask them if they know such a man. If 

 there are none such, we have to write to the 

 postmaster ; and I asstire you, friends, it is 

 not a pleasant thing to do, to be obliged to 

 ask your postmaster if he knows such a man 

 as you are, and whether or not you are re- 

 sponsible. Once in a great Avhile he says the 

 person is dead or has moved away. But in 

 the great majority of cases, the trouble is 

 simply the disease of procrastination. 



ANOTHER EVIDENCE IN FAVOR OF ABUNDANT VEN- 

 TILATION. 



I have wintered without loss for the last four 

 years. My bees in single-walled Langstroth hives, 

 with Js-inch pine honey - board, were placed on 

 shelves in the cellar under my house, with the cover 

 over the honey-boxes taken off, and left off the 

 whole winter, from fall till spring. No honey-boxes 

 were on, but the middle slat on the honey-board was 

 removed during the whole time that they were in 

 I the cellar. From the middle of .January until the 

 I middle of March my family werf away from home 

 all the time, and no fire built in the house during 

 the time. I used to visit the bees evury Sunday, and 

 the mercury was standing at :!2\ with hardly any 

 \'aiiation during that time. I should have been 

 \ K'lad to have it warmer, but the bees came out all 

 right as it was. There were openings at the bottom 

 of the hives, in front and rear both. 



Nelson HriiBARD. 

 South Stratford, Vermont, Dec. 8, 1883. 



In the above case, you notice, friends, that 

 : the bees were saved by abundant upper and 

 ; lower ventilation, even though their winter- 

 ing cellar stood as low as the freezing-point. 

 I It seems to me it is now pretty well demon- 

 I strated, that abundant ventilation will ena- 

 ble bees to go through where they would at 

 least have perished without it. Sometimes 

 they winter when pretty closely packed, I 

 know ; but the evidence is altogether in fa- 

 i vor of large entrances left open, holes left 

 j open above, or something equivalent, 



SOME PLEASANT WORDS FROM THE ABC CLASS. 



j Friend Roof:— You are interested, I take it, in the 

 success of your ABC pupils, and I must tell you 

 I how well we prospered— for beginners. Two years 

 : ago we had a swarm of bees given us. During the fol- 

 lowing winter they nearly all died, so that there was 

 but a mere handful in the spring. But we had the 

 combs, and in this emergency we sent to you for the 

 ABC book, a queen, and half a pound of bees. We 

 followed your instructions implicitly, and in the fall 

 we had six very strong swarms, with hives full of 

 winter stores, and about 30 lbs. of surplus honeyl 

 and bee-keepers here say it was a poor year for bees. 

 Our success this year has given us confidence in our- 

 selves and our guide, and next year we mean to get 



