8^)2 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Dec. 



rained from June until the first of October. Father 

 has one of your extractors, and it does very well, 

 except when the honey is thick, and then it throws 

 it out at the top. Cora Long, ag-e 13. 



lola. Clay Co., 111., Nov. 2:?, 1884. 



.Vre you sure, Cora, your bees could spare 

 lOoO lbs. of honey in October? Of course, 

 they don't gather" any so late in the season. 

 Tell your father, when he is ordering some- 

 thing from lis, to mention something about 

 tlie extractor, and we will put in a rim with- 

 out cliarge that will stop all tlie honey from 

 living f)ver. 



STET.L.l'S SECOND liETTER. 



I have written you one letter, but I thought f 

 would write you another. I was eig-ht the 18th of 

 Nov. I go to school, and love my teacher. I read 

 in the Second Reader. We cleaned up last Friday, 

 and were so late that our folks grot scared, and sent 

 for me. Another little g-irl was not well, and she 

 worked so long and hard that she was nearly laid 

 up. Her apron was wet as it could be. Her folks 

 were some fretted too. I should like to g-o into the 

 Third Reader. Some in my class are much older 

 than I am. There was a little boy that came to 

 school, who was much older than I, and he could 

 not read well, and was in next to the last class al- 

 ready, and she put him back in the word class, and 

 it made him mad, and he didn't come to school. 



Stella N. Menpenhai.l. 



Sylvania, Ind., No\-. '£i, 1884. 



dogs generally consider it a sort of disa- 

 greeable job, and I don't know how anybody 

 can blame them very much. 



ARTHUR'S LETTER, JUST AS HE WROTE IT. 



I aM A liTTLe BoY SIX YcaRs oLd I Havc A 

 siSTer, A.JLice, AND i g-o to scHool anD I HAve a 

 sHeep ouT to DoBale I SAVed ThE moNcY uiy 

 PlY to BY TUeM MY paW Has 13 HiTes oF BceS 

 Ann We HAa 6oo PoA'Ds oF HomcY iN coMb My 

 Pa TAKes gLcANiXgs My bIRtHDaY Was on The 

 8 oF This moNTH i CaSSv Bees i\ mY HA^JUs and 

 THat DoMt StING me 



Coboconk, Out., Can. .i Ames ARtHcR Ha3/. 



Well, Arthur, that is a pretty good letter 

 for a small boy ; liut you got in "some letters. 

 T guess, you didn't mean to have : and then^ 

 again, you left some out you did mean to 

 have. For instance, you say your pa had 

 iiOO ponds ot honey. I guess you must have 

 been thinking of carp-ponds, "were you not V 

 A pond of honey would be an awftil big lot, 

 and 600 ponds would be so much I do not be- 

 lieve all the world could use it. Now, if 

 you just had a letter U in your "pond," it 

 would have been (iOO po?<7jf?,s-, and this would 

 be a pretty decent crop for 1.3 hives of bees. 

 You see how much difference just one little 

 letter makes. 



LETTER FRON A L.\.ME BOY ABOUT THAT GRAPE- 

 VINE APIARY AWAY DOWN IN FLORIDA. 



I thank you for that picture that you put in 

 Gleanings, of our grapevine apiary. We have 

 been bothered with skunks. They bother our bees; 

 they scratch on the hive, and the bees come out to 

 see what is the matter, and the skunks eat them 

 just like a pig eating corn. The way to tell when 

 they go to a hive of bees is, they scratch a little 

 hole right in front of the hive. We catch them in 

 steel traps. Chas. Leyvraz, age 11. 



Francis, Fla., Nov. 18, 1884. 



Thank you, Charley. Seems to me a good 

 smart dog ought to be able to chase skunks 

 ont of your neighborhood ; but I suppose the 



THE THREE BOYS, 0.\RFIELD, .ARTHUR, AND NOV- 

 ICE. 



My pa keeps bees, and this morning he took a load 

 of honey to Albany to sell. We have a pair of 

 twins. Their names are Garfield and Arthur. They 

 were tmir years old the l.'ith of this month. Gar- 

 field is not at home now. My cousin was here on 

 their birthdaj-, and she took him home with her. I 

 am sick now with the earache, and so is Arthur. My 

 eldest brother is at school. His name is Novice. 

 Edno a. Boo.mhower, age 10. 



Gallupville, N. Y., Nov. 17, 1884. 



Why, friend Edno, I should think proba- 

 ble your papa and mamma must have had 

 politics and bee-journals both in mind when 

 they named their boys. We remember your 

 l)ai)a as one of Gleanings' old and "very 

 earnest friends. 



A .TUVEMLK LETTER FROM AWAY OFF IN NEW 

 ZE.VLAND. 



Papa has 11 stands of bees. He had 12, but oiu^ 

 died during the winter. One day he went to look at 

 his bees, and he felt siu-e one of the eleven was 

 dead. A few days after, he put the hive on a box. 

 Last Sunday, however, lie went to look at it again, 

 and the bees were all alive, though they had but 

 little food. Papa came in, and got a cui) of sugar 

 j and water to feed them with. 



Last summer papa sold more than 130 lbs. of hon- 

 ey, besides what we used in the house. We have 

 some of it left yet. Our bees are very fond of buck- 

 wheat. Pajia usually sows some for them. Last 

 year, when it was in bloom, there were a great 

 many bees on it. The winters are so mild out here 

 that we do not need to pack the bees in chaff or any 

 thing else. Mary E. Wallts, age 10. 



Papakura, N. Z., Oct. 4, 1884. 



THE if SWARMS OF BEES THAT TOOK A NOTION TU 

 LIVE IN .4 HOUSE. 



Last spring a big swarm of bees went into my 

 uncle's house over the door, and went in between 

 the plastering and upper floor. This was on Satur- 

 day night. On Monday, while they were working 

 at them to get them out, another swarm came and 

 went in with the first one, and a little later another 

 small swarm came and went in with the other two. 



My brother takes Gleanings, and keeps bees, 

 and uses the Simplicity hive. 



Perl Cranston, age 12. 



Woodstock, Ohio, Nov. :\ 1884. 



Why, Perl, this is indeed wonderful. I 

 think, however, you do not mean in the 

 spring, for bees seldom swarm out unless 

 they do so from starvation. If these were 

 starvation swarms, your uncle must be pret- 

 ty careless with his bees, to have three 

 s'warms start out in that way. I suppose 

 you mean the two last went in there in one 

 day, do you not V Perhaps they caught the 

 swarming mania, and, hearing the first one 

 hum as they crawled in, joined in with them, 

 as bees often do. May be you can tell us a 

 little more about it in your next letter. 



ANNETTE'S LETTER ABOUT "BEES AtfTt HONEY." 



Father has about 60 stands of bees. I watch for 

 the swarms, and get ten cents apiece for all that I 

 find. Last summer we had a great many swarms; 



