1884 



GLEAI^maS IN BEE CULTURE. 



121 



there are not many placRS where honey can be pro- 

 duced and not find a good market. 



It seems to me I should have to be setting an im- 

 mense quantity of extracted honey, if I could not 

 get more money out of it than 8 or 10 cents per lb. 

 Here we have what might be called a poor honey 

 country, and can not average more than 60 lbs. per 

 colony, of comb honey, fair seasons. Last spring I 

 got from 55 colonies, spring count, no increase, 4100 

 lbs., one-half comb in 1-lb. sections, and sold comb 

 honey at 20 cts., and extracted at Iti to 23 cls. This 

 would average 20 cents; but it is not every bee-keep- 

 er who will work his crop off at these prices. Not 

 only my own honey have I sold, but several thou- 

 sand pounds purchased from other producers. 



Friend Fleming speaks of having 98 colonies to 

 begin with, and of their swarming so much, which 

 indicates that the season with him was good; but 

 for his locality, having such an abundance of blue 

 thistle, clover, etc., his crop of surplus should have 

 been, with proper management, much greater. Per- 

 haps that 600-acre farm stood in the way of the bees. 

 Last fall, in company with Mr. K. M. Reynolds, of 

 East Springfield, Ohio, 1 visited some of that blue- 

 thistle region, taking in the Shenandoah Valley, Va. 

 While there we discovered a peculiarity of the bees 

 of the valley. In the town of Winchester there are 

 one thousand colonies of bees, and hundreds more 

 kept within a radius of two miles of that town; and 

 although they all gather enough to keep them, and 

 give perhaps an average of 40 lbs. per colony, sur- 

 plus, the bee-keepers there tell me they seldom 

 swarm. Now, while this seems to be the case down 

 in the valley, on the mountains on both sides of the 

 valley the bees swarm with a vengeance. We visit- 

 ed the town of Front Royal, at the base of the Blue 

 Ridge, and saw some very fine honey that had been 

 gathered there perhaps from the neighborhood of 

 friend Fleming. The honey from blue thistle is of 

 very fine flavor, and the Shenandoah Valley and vi- 

 cinity abounds with this best of all honey-plants. 

 .T. A. BiTcn.\NAN. 



HoUiday's Cove, W. Va., Feb. 4, 1884. 



Friend B., a few days ago we had compa- 

 ny, and my wife picked out a nice section of 

 comb honey. This honey was found over a 

 swarm of bees I purchased in the middle of 

 the winter. The owner was too lazy to take 

 off the honey, I suppose, and so he sold me 

 the colony, bees, honey, and all. The honey 

 was basswood. My wife says she does not 

 like basswood. but she liked this. So did J. 

 The bread was nice, the butter was rich and 

 yellow, and a pitcher of milk and a goblet 

 stood near my plate. After I had taken sev- 

 eral chunks of the comb honey, I dipped up 

 the liquid honey with my spoon. Now. if 

 the extracted comb honey that stood in the 

 honey-cup right near was as good as that 1 

 dipped up with my spoon, it would not have 

 been on the table week after week untouched, 

 comparatively. Is not the extracted honey 

 at 8 cts. generally a little inferior to that 

 from sections that have been allowed to ri- 

 pen over the hive? One would infer from 

 the above, that you are a comb-honey man. 

 I agree with yon, that it does seem as if 

 there were something wrong, when nice ex- 

 tracted honey brings only 8 cts., and comb 

 honey 1.5 cts. It seems to me there must be 

 some misapprehension or misunderstanding, 

 when such a state of affairs comes about. 



IVIRS. I^UCINDA HARRISON OFFERS A 



FEAV SUGGESTIONS AS TO AVHO 



SHOl LD KEEP REES. 



MILK AND HONEY AND SUNSHINE. 



BROTHER ROOT:— Womanlike, I want to put 

 in a word as to " who shall keep bees." Any 

 one who wants to, and who can prevent 

 them? I thought when I read friend Hutchinson's 

 paper (the blue one) that he had dyspepsia. He has 

 been writing a good deal, and the weather has been 

 very cold, so that he could not exercise freely in the 

 open air. I wantto prescribe for him: Abathonce 

 a week, and a diet of graham gems, honey, and 

 fruit, and he'il come around all right. We shall 

 soon hear him whistlmg, as he trundles the twins 

 around his apiary. 



Brother Clarke had a similar attack, but the vet- 

 erans all know what caused it — he got stung on the 

 lip. 



I write some for farmers, and I tell them all to 

 keep at least a few colonies of bees, to provide their 

 families with a pure sweet, wax for their wives to 

 wax their thread to sew on their buttons, and last, 

 if not least, to fertilize the bloom of their orchards 

 and meadows. But I never in my life told a doctor 

 that he could make more money keeping bees than, 

 practicing his profession. Once upon a time I called 

 in the services of an "M. D.," and I found out how 

 they can coin money (not honey). 



if only specialists kept bees (it might be better for 

 that class alonei, who then could afford honey? The 

 bee-master of the London Times, Dr. John Gumming, 

 did a good thing in inducing cottagers to cultivate 

 bees in England and throughout the British empire. 

 Let us imitate his noble example, although we may 

 lose money thereby. Is it not a grand work to show 

 neople how they can provide themselves with a pure 

 sweet, which is wasting at their own doors, " which 

 is to be had, not for the asking, but for the taking" ? 

 And we will also be adding to the wealth of our na- 

 tive land, of which we all feel proud. 



The supply dealers, who are furnishing good im- 

 plements for the apiary, have my hearty thanks. I 

 should like to see good movable-frame hives, and 

 other fixtures of the apiary, hawked around the 

 country by wagon loads, stopping at every farmer's 

 door. I know I don't like to see supply dealers at 

 bee-keepers' conventions getting a resolution passed 

 to give a vote of thanks to Mr. So-and-So for his 

 smoker or drone-trap; but let them bring their 

 wares, the more the better, and give plenty of re- 

 cesses, so they can button-hole everybody there, 

 and fill their pockets with circulars. 



As old men, women, and invalids, are not consid- 

 ered proper persons to keep bees, I should like, if 

 there are any such, that they would " speak out " in 

 meeting, and relate their experience, for the benefit 

 of doubting Thomases. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Peoria, 111. 



Well, I declare, my good friend Mrs. II.. 

 I have thought several times before, that 

 you had the peculiar gift of hitting things 

 right squarely, and doing more in a few 

 words than some of the veterans do in whole 

 columns and pages. And it seems to me 

 this is a good stopping-place ; for if we do 

 not stop. Gleanings, both old and young, 

 will be occupied, during the year 1884. with 

 essays on " Who shall Kee]) iieesV 



