1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



S71 



pajiBUGg MD Dwindle? 



PERTAINING TO BEE CULTURE. 



We respectfully solicit the aid of our friends in conducting 

 this department, and would consider it a (avor to have Iheiu 

 Bend us all circulars that have a deceptive appearance. The 

 grt-atest care will be at all times maintained to prevent injus- 

 tice being done any onp. 



J SUPPOSE you are all glad, as well 

 as myself, to see that this depart- 

 ment has of late been uncalled for, and 

 I am glad to say now that we have noth- 

 ing pertaining directly to the bee busi- 

 ness. There is one matter, however, to 

 which I have called attention before, which 

 I wish to speak of again. It is the electric 

 and magnetic and other appliances for the 

 cure of diseases. One of our old friends 

 and subscribers wrote not long since, that he 

 was paying all his money to some sort of an 

 electrical institution in Chicago for doctoring 

 him. When I remonstrated a little he said 

 they were going to pay his money all back, 

 if it did not do him any good, and I could 

 hardly convince him that his money was 

 thrown away. We copy the following from 

 the American Agriculturist: 



MR. HART'S EXPERIENCE WITH "MAGNITIC AP- 

 PLIANCES." 



Mr. S. N. Hart, of Southlngton, Conn., writes us, 

 that in December last he received from a concern in 

 Boston, Mass., "a belt and insoles. Their circular 

 says: ' Hear in mind, we guarantee a cure, and will 

 cheerfully refund the amount paid when tlu'y fail 

 doing- all that is ehiimed after reasonable trial.' ( )n 

 Nov. i;ith, they wrote me: ' Yes, we will guarantee 

 a cure, or will take pleasuie in refunding the mon- 

 ej'.' On Nov. 19th the>- wrote me: 'We guarantee 

 to effect a cure, or ri'luml the inonej.' On Dec. 4th 

 ,1 commenced wearing the belt and insoles, and used 

 them faithfully for ninety-nine days. Neither my 

 wife nor myself were able to see the least advantage 

 from their use, and on March .5th I wrote them to 

 refund the money {ten dollars). March 12tli 1 mailed 

 them another letter, stating that I shouhl send a 

 sight draft. I returned the belt ami insoles on 

 March 12th, and can truthfully saj- tliat I have had 

 no reason since to think that they ever did me a 

 cent's worth of good. The draft was returned, 

 marked 'refused.' "—We lui\-e examined numerous 

 so-called "Magnetic," " (ialvanic," and "Electro- 

 magnetic" appliances; and though some make a 

 great display of " hardware," we have never yet seen 

 one that could produce any electric, g-alvanic, or 

 electro-magnetic curative influence. Any form of 

 electricity, to produce any effect, must pass through 

 the diseased portion of the body, and act on the 

 nei-ves. None of those we have seen do any thing 

 of the kind. The appliances we have seen con- 

 sist of 



DISKS OF COPPER AND ZINC, OR OTHER METALS, 



riveted to Tndia-rvibber eloth. That they have some- 

 times Ix'eii useful, we do not doubt, as a strii>of 

 rubber eloUi aiiplied closely totlu- skims oltcu very 

 bencfieial in rheumatic and other alleetious, and 

 probably none the less so, if it has some metal disks 

 attached. Very likely the alleged curative power 

 claimed for the various " appliances " is due to the 

 cloth and not to the various metals attached to it, 

 which may serve as ornaments, and aid the imagin- 

 ation of the patient, as they look "scientitlc." As to 

 our correspondent's failure to get his money back, 

 what can he expect from one who will propose the 

 impossible— "guarantee to elleet a cure"? 



We commend Mr. Hart's e.\aiii]ile to others. He 

 has a Charge to make, and makes it boldly, without 

 adding, " please do not use my name." We can un- 

 derstand why, in many cases, persons should not 

 wish to have their names appear; but in instances 

 like the above, where there is a direct failure to 

 comply with an agi'eement, and there is nothing of 

 a delicate nature idvolved, cori-espondents should 

 be willing that their names be given. A warning-, 



substantiated by a name and address, has far more 

 influence than when initials only are published. 

 Still, where our correspondents indicate a desire to 

 avoid publicity, their wishes are respected. 



This whole matter of curing diseases by 

 the use of such things as mentioned above 

 is ridiculous, and a disgrace to modern civ- 

 ilization. Any one conversant with the laws 

 of electricity or magnetism can tell you that 

 the idea is as absui-d as the old superstition 

 of nailing a horseshoe on the door to insure 

 good luck. Electricity has its place in med- 

 incine ; and in the hands of a skillful and 

 intelligent physician may no doubt prove 

 beneticial. Its value in medicine has, how- 

 ever, been greatly exaggerated, even when 

 used intelligently; and, if I am correct, 

 shocks of electricity have just al)out as much 

 of an effect on a rliemiiatic patient as would 

 rubbing or pounding, or any oilier form of 

 starting circulation. The whole business is 

 a swindle from beginning to end ; and yet 

 thousands of people are wasting or handing 

 over their hard-earned money from day to 

 day to unscruiuilous swindlers. Newspa- 

 pers and journals are giving place to their 

 advertisements that ought to be ashamed of 

 themselves. 



HOW I LOST MY BEES. 



ARTIFICIAL HEAT FOR WINTERING. 



OSTof the readers of Gleanings are doubt- 

 less aware that I usually winter half of my 

 bees out of doors, packed in chaft', and the 

 other half in a bee-cellar, built especially 

 for wintering bees. Last fall, as usual, 1 set 

 half of my full colonies in this cellar, together with 

 about 20 queen-reai-ing nuclei, which were small, 

 the most of them (nuclei) having but three combs 

 each. The full colonies were strong, and had at 

 least 25 lbs. of honey each, as all were weighed in 

 October. Those left outside had the same amount 

 of stores; but before March 1st, I found one starved 

 to death— a thing which has happened with me but 

 once before since I kept bees. During March, one 

 of those out of doors died with the dysentery, which 

 was the only one that showed any signs of the 

 disease. This colony was a Cyprian, the queen 

 having- been sent me from Texas last June. They 

 persisted in breeding- all winter, which I think was 

 the cause of their death. One other starved during 

 a cold snap in March, with honey in the opposite 

 side of the hive, they having- a Hill device over the 

 frames; so I lost three, all told, of the half left out 

 of doors. Most of the i-emainder are in good con- 

 dition. 



But my heavy loss was in the bee-cellar; and to 

 tell how it came about is the object of this article. 

 The cellar was dug in a side hill, so that it could go 

 deep into the ground, thus securing an even tem- 

 perature, which was 42° winter after winter hereto- 

 fore, not changing at all, no matter if the mercury 

 went to 20° below zero, or stood for a week at 6(.° 

 above. Leading- into this cellar were three doors, 

 inclosing between each two doors a dead-air space 

 of two feet, which kept the cold, or warmth, as the 

 case might be, from reaching the cellar. In this 

 cellar I have been quite successful in wintering my 

 bees, till the past winter; and I think I should have 

 been this, had I been contented to let "well enough 

 alone." 



