416 



GLEANIN^GS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



June 



and has a girl to do the housework; but in winter 

 the salt-rheum comes out, and then she g-oosdown in 

 the ccllt.r und lets a bee sting- her. Papa and Mr. 

 Thompson made their own hives until last fall, 

 when there was a tornado that blew the windmill 

 down which ran the saw, and now they have to buy 

 them already sawed. Papa has a lot of material in 

 our back room. There is a lot of dead bees on the 

 cellar floor. Maude Morris, age 9. 



Ti'skilwa, 111., March 1, 1884. 



Very good, Maude. We are glad to get the 

 valuable facts you furnish in regard to bee- 

 stings for the cure of diseases. We are very 

 sorry that your wind-mill blew down ; but I 

 suppose a tornado is too much for even the 

 best-behaved wind-mills. 



ASA'S RED-STAR APIARY. 



My pa has 19 stands of bees. I have 4 stands. I 

 painted a red star on each of them, in order to dis- 

 tinguish them from pa's, and I call it the " Star 

 Apiary." Asa Wright, age 10. 



Reagan, Falls Co., Texas, Feb. 29, 1884. 



MAKING HIVES BY HORSE-POWER. 



Pa has 50 stands of Italian bees. They have win- 

 tered well. Pa has his bees packed in chaff. He 

 has a little horse-power that runs a circular saw, 

 that he uses to make his bee-hives. He is making 

 chaff hives now for his bees next summer. 



Mary L. Sesleh, age 9. 



High House, Pa., Feb. 29, 18S4. 



georgie's letter verbatim. 

 WE-HAvE-SomE-BEEsJ-I-H ave-SeE.v-tHe-qUEEn 

 -ShE-Is i.oNGEE-t-HaN-T H E-WoEKEr-I-H aVe-A 



PeT-GaT-^MoSES-tHKE-vEaRS-oLD-nd-PLsEnD- 

 — ME-sHeEE-ofF GEoHGiK RoUSE 



Now I suppose Georgie is tVcliii,^; l);ully l)e- 

 cause lie doesn't get a book accovdiiig to our 

 promise; but, dear little friends, how can 

 we send him a l)Ook when we haven't an 

 idea where in the world to send itV You 

 see, he doesn't tell where he lives, " nor 

 nothing." Tell us where you live, Georgie, 

 and we will send the book. 



HOW TO raise celery, ETC. 



As I found out how to plant celery, thyme, and 

 sweet majoram, I thought I would write and tell the 

 juveniles how to plant all such light seed as those. 

 Well, they require scarcely any covering at all; and 

 when the ground is fine, and not too dry, sowing on 

 the surface, and gently pressing down with a board, 

 is sufficient. Mary M. Graham. 



Homer City, Ind. Co., Pa., March 3, 18*;3. 



BERTIE TELLS HOW HIS FATHER MOVED THE BEES 

 SUCCESSFULLY. 



This is the first time I ever tried to write a letter 

 for a paper. My father has about 1.50 swarms of 

 bees ; part of them are Italians. He moved our bees 

 last October to Highland, a small place on the west 

 side of the Hudson River, near New York. There 

 are great quantities of fruit raised there. When pa 

 moved his bees they went splendidly. He closed 

 the entrance and gave them ventilation from the 

 top. He went in the car with them. My brother 

 and I helped him take care of them last summer. 

 Pa got about three tons of honey last year. 



Bertie Alexander. 



Camden, N. Y., March 6, 1884. 



magazines FOR CHILDREN. 



Do please tell us, through Gleanings, where 

 those two magazines are published, and at how 

 much per year, that you speak of in March Glean- 

 ings, page 173— Blue Eyes and Caddie. They are 

 novel names for magazines, and I am just going to 

 tease pa to take them for me. I know they will be 

 full of fun. I wish I had a book. 



Oberlin, O., March 4, 1884. Ruby Jones. 



Why, bless your heart, my little friend 

 Euby, Blue Eyes and Caddy aren't maga- 

 zines at all ; they are just live little girls. 

 May be some day they will publish a mag- 

 azine, they two together, and I suppose it 

 would likely be a little-girls' magazine too. 

 The magazine I was talking about is T. S. 

 Arthur's, and this is the one that Caddie 

 and Blue Eyes are fond of reading. 



are bees always trying to sting some one? 



My grandpa has five colonies of bees, and I got 

 stung twice last summer. I like bees, only they 

 are always trying to sting some one. I am afraid 

 of them. I have run a long way for grandpa to hive 

 a swarm of bees. Martha Baker, age 13. 



Vail, Iowa, Feb. 28, 1884. 



Friend Martha, I am afraid that is just a 

 little bit of a slander on our friends the bees. 

 Bees sometimes get naughty, like children, 

 and then they seem to delight in making 

 trouble and getting into quarrels. Do you 

 know what makes them naughty V It is 

 leaving honey around so they get a chance 

 to steal ; and'wlien they get to stealing they 

 get unliappv, just as 'folks do when they 

 steal, and tlieu tliey go buzzing around, cross 

 and cral)be(l, instead of working in the 

 lields with a merry, happy luim. So if you 

 doift want them around trying to sting 

 somebody, don't tempt them to bad liabits 

 by having honey daubed about. 



the old-fogy bee-keepers, etc. 



I am a small boy, though I am 11 years old, and 

 I like to read your paper, and see how many little 

 girls and boys Avrite to you. My grandfather and 

 one of mj' uncles, and my father, have about 200 

 stands of bees ; they are all old-fogies but my father ; 

 he uses the Simplicity-Langstroth. I want to ask 

 you a question. In opening a hive yesterday, the 

 two back frames were full of honey that was 

 smeared over with some milky-white substance. 

 Can you tell us what it is ? John W. Rouse. 



Shepard, 111., Feb. 28, 1884. 



Now, John, aren't you a little rough on 

 your grandfather and uncleV It seems to 

 me tliev are not very old fogies, if they 

 count their colonies by the hundreds. May 

 by they will '' go for" you when they come 

 to see "yoiu- letter in print.— Your question 

 is almost a stumper. I do not know what 

 there should be in a bee-hive that is milky 

 white, unless it is brood that is almost ready 

 to cap over ; but it seems to me that would 

 hardlv answer to your description. If any- 

 body had been cutting out the drone-brood, 

 it might be that the milky juice ran out on 

 to the honey. But as you describe it, this 

 was found when the hive was tirst opened. 

 Perliai>s your father can give us some mt)re 

 liglit on the subject. 



