26S 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



ArR. 



in cellar; but we missed the anticipated visit, as Mr. 

 S. was absent, and we were obliged regretfully to 

 depart without seeing him. 



I left Hart and my hospitable friends behind, 

 quite inclined to believe a warm cellar the normal 

 winter home of the bee — at least, in the northern 

 portions o f our country. 



At Fremont I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. 

 George E. Hilton busily nailing his favorite double- 

 walled tZry sati'du.st packed hives, in a shop at the 

 rear of his apiary, a pleasant view of which the read- 

 ers of Gleanings have seen. Friend H. is an en- 

 thusiastic, as well as a practical and successful bee- 

 keeper, as his neat apiary of 70 colonies, snug and 

 warm in winter hives, fully attests. A peep into 

 several of these showed tine strong colonies, bees 

 bright and healthy, with plenty of surplus stores. 



As we walked to the depot the following morning 

 after bidding my hospitable entertainers good-by, 

 Mr. P. showed me two nice new uacapping-cans, just 

 received from Medina, Ohio. They were certainly 

 beautiful, as well as convenient, and I am sure will 

 form a portion of my own outfit as soon as circum- 

 stances will allow me to indulge my inclination. 



Now, Mr. Editor, to sum up: Upon leaving my 

 cellar-wintering friends, I Avas decidedly converted 

 to their side; but the visit to friend H.has again un- 

 settled me, and lam still open to conviction as to 

 the best methods of wintering bees. 



Mt. Bliss, Mich., Mar. 17, 1884. L. S. Behham. 



Friend B., I am glad of your report on one 

 account; and that is, I wanted to know 

 how our friend Henry Palmer liked his win- 

 tering cellar. I visited him the first year he 

 built it, and I have asked him for a report, 

 but he does not seem to like to write for bee- 

 journals. If all had so nice a place as he 

 has to make a cellar, I do not know but I 

 might go stronger on cellar wintering. 

 Right at the side of his apiary is a sandy 

 knoll, and the sand of Michigan is a little 

 nicer than that in any other part of the 

 world I have seen. It is perfectly dry and 

 nice and clean, and our friend gets a frost- 

 proof repository without any of the damp- 

 ness and mustiness we usually have in our 

 clay soils. 



0.1L.1FORNIA. 



ITS PIIESENT PROSPECT FOR A GOOD HONEY YIELD. 



fP to the 37th of Jan. we had had only five inches 

 of rain, more than ha4f our rainy season then 

 being past. Many of our people began to dread 

 another dry season; but on the 27th it commenced 

 raining, and since that has given us 1') inches. This is 

 enough to make crops almost a certainly for the 

 coming season; but you may be sure the mails have 

 been any thing but a certainty for the, past three 

 weeks. 



To-day, the 18th, the rains amounted to a real flood. 

 Ventura Creek wont over its banks two miles above 

 our town, and it was a mixture of anxiety and 

 amusement to see it tear away our fences, cut off 

 communication with the hills, some men carrying 

 their women to higher grounds, every one splashing 

 through the water to catch such things as were 

 about to be washed away. I have large quantities 

 of drift wood in my orchard and garden, but my 100- 

 bbl. tank for rain water sat on my wagon close by 



my new house, not being quite able to get it under 

 the spout in time for the nice rain water. 

 San Buenaventura, Cal., Feb., '81. R. Wilkin. 



STILL LATER, AND WORSE. 



Since writing you last, I And that our flood of 

 January 17th was much more destructive than 

 we had thought. Many bees were washed away. 

 My neighbor McKee says he saw his 110 hives 

 all start down stream in five minutes' time. The 

 road to my Matilija apiary of 300 hives, has been so 

 destroyed, and the canon tilled up that I have yet 

 been unable to get to where it stood. It is general- 

 ly supposed to be all washed into the ocean; and if 

 not, that it will cost $3030 to make a road to it. 



At my Scspo apiary, pictured ia your A BC book, it 

 washed away my barn with its contents, a part of 

 Ihedivellinghouse and its contents, the two sides 

 out of my honey-house and shop, taking cans and 

 tonnage for perhaps 40,000 lbs. of houey, many tools, 

 and things storedaway, including 60iJ lbs. of beeswax 

 and the foundation-mill for the L.-S. frame, which I 

 got of you, being the first one of the kind introduced 

 to this country; about $700 loss there. It came close, 

 enough to take only two hives of bees from that 

 apiary, leaving about 703, and now if it were not for 

 the great confusion in swarming, I would leave the 

 whole lot there this season, to test how so many 

 bees would do in one place, with 1200 hives more 

 within two or three miles of them. 



But with all this loss of, say, $3700, 1 would take it 

 every year for the sake of the rain, rather than take 

 chances on no rain. It is remarkable, the force of a 

 mountain stream here like the Sespe, 30 feet deep, 

 dashing worse than the cataract of Niagara. Here 

 it carried a rock that two hundred horses could not 

 haul, and dropped it in front of my apiary. 



Sim Buenaventura, Cal., Mar. 3, '84. R. Wilkin. 



PEA-V INE,OR MAMMOTH RED CLOVER. 



A DISCOURAGING WORD FOR IT, BUT A GOOD ONE FOR 

 ALSIKE. 



^irv^OTICING your offer to send seed of the mam- 

 Jl vl moth clover to all applicants, I thought (for 

 — ' the benefit of bee-keepers) I would give you 

 my opinion of it, having grown both kinds quite 

 extensively, for hay and pasture, also for honey. I 

 want no more of the mammoth. I think one acre of 

 the alsike for hay is worth 3 or 314 of the former; 

 for pasture, 1!.2 or 3 of the former; for honey, 5 of 

 the former. Perhaps results are different in differ- 

 ent localities. Of course, friend Root, it is none of 

 my business; but permit me to suggest, that you 

 offer the alsike the same as the mammoth, free, in 

 small packages, and confer a lasting benefit on bee- 

 keepers and farmers, as well as yours truly, 



N. E. DOANE, 38—00. 

 Pipestone, Mich., April 3, 1884. 



Friend D., the reason we offered samples 

 of the pea-vine free, is because there is such 

 a diversity of opinion in regard to its value 

 for honey, while with alsike there is no di- 

 versity. It has been suggested, that the 

 mammoth in one locality is not the same as 

 in another ; therefore we send out these trial 

 packages of seed. Kecent articles seem to 

 indicate that mammoth has some advan- 

 tages over the alsike. It seems to me you 

 are putting it pretty strongly in favor of the 

 alsike. are you not V It docs seem to be 

 steadily growing in favor, which is good news 

 to bee-keepers. ^ 



