188^ 



GLt:ANlNGS IN lii:E CULTURE. 



67 



strain. This process gives the honey a little dif- 

 ferent and pleasant tiiivor, and we think it the best 

 of any sweets on pancakes. N. E. Doane. 



Jennings Ordinary, Va., Dec. ~8, 1887. 



HOW TO HARVEST BUCKWHEAT, AND NOT WASTE 

 THE SEED. 



1 send my plan of saving- the buckwheat seed, and 

 I know no better way. When ready for cutting I 

 take my old-fashioned scythe and cradle, and cut 

 and throw two and sonieiimes three swaths in one 

 bunch. We call this bunching. I do this when the 

 buckwheat is damp, early in the morning, or on 

 damp days, when the wheat will not rattle off. 

 When I finish cutting 1 let it lie, say two or some- 

 times four or five days, until dry; then I take a 

 team and wagon, with a good tight body on the 

 wagon, and drive in the tield where the buckwheat 

 is, with one man in the wagon and another on the 

 ground to fork up the bunches. They are lifted 

 into the wagon very carefully. In the mean time 

 the man in the wagon Hails the wheat out. It takes 

 only a very few strokes with a 4 fined fork to take 

 all of the grains out. 1 then dump the straw over- 

 board and leave it in the field, then clean out the 

 grain with a fanning-mill. In this way of cleaning 

 and drying, the grain will do to put in the bin, and 

 will not spoil in the bulk. S. Langford. 



Buckskin, Ind. 



Your suggestions are excellent, friend L.; 

 but I don't think tliat we ever found our 

 buckwheat so dry that we could thrash it 

 with a four-tined fork. We have lately 

 tiirashed our buckwheat, pretty much in 

 the way you indicate, with a Hail. In spite 

 of us, however, more or less is always wast- 

 ed on the ground. 



ASTER AS A HONEY-PI.ANT ; SHOULD IT BE CULTI- 

 VATED? 



Will you please tell me where I can get some as- 

 ler-seed, and what it costs? Is it as good for honey 

 as the Chapman plant? There are but very few 

 who keep bees in Western Nebraska, it being a 

 newly settled country. I was one of the flx-st set- 

 tlers in this county (Red Willow). I came here tif- 

 teen years ago. There were thousands of Buffalo 

 here then. 



A HOUSE MADE OF SODS, FOR WINTERING BEES. 



I have now 33 good strong colonies of Italian 

 bees. I have a part of them in a sod house all above 

 ground. It has not been colder than 4.5° in my bee- 

 house this winter. Those I have outdooi-s have 

 been flying to-day. Comb honey in one-pound sec- 

 tions is worth 25 cents here. I think a great deal of 

 Gleanings. K.F. Loomis. 



Indianola, Neb., Dec. 24, 1887. 



Friend L.. I do not believe that the aster- 

 plant would yield as much honey as the 

 Chapman honey-plant ; for the amount of 

 honey yielded is comparatively small, and it 

 requires acres of it to make any show at all 

 in the honey-vield. I am sure it would not 

 pay to cultivate it for the honey ; and even 

 if it would, the only safe way to do is to 

 first cultivate a small bed of it. If it pleases 

 you, then take a quarter of an acre, and aft- 

 er that a larger tract. Farmers complain 

 that wheat does not pay at 70 cts. a bushel, 

 and, say, 20 bushels to the acre ; but I am 

 afraid that even a good stand of aster would 

 not be worth to you, in dollars and cents, 



one-fourth of the above amount per acre. 

 In fact, we scarcely know that any plant 

 taised for honey aloiie has ever paid even as 

 riiuch as §14.00 per acre. — Your suggestion 

 of making a house of sods, for wintering 

 bees, is quite an idea. Especially would 

 this be practicable on our Western prairies, 

 where tlie winds are terrible, and stone and 

 timber scarce and high. I should think the 

 sods would be just the thing for keeping out 

 the frost. 



The following is from our friend Mr. 

 Ivar S. Young, the editor of the Norwegian 

 Journal of Bee Culture. The reader will re- 

 member that he made us a visit early in the 

 fall. We take pleasure in inserting this 

 short note from our genial fiiend : 



Mr. K(?i/o/;— Will you kindly allow me to ex- 

 press, through your valuable bee-journal, my cor- 

 dial thanks for the friendspip and kind attention 

 which were so profusely shown to me during my 

 long-to-beremcmbered visit among the American 

 and Canadian bee-friends. I will, as long as I live, 

 take delight in thinking of my trip, and never! no, 

 never! forget the Avorld's most able bee-keepers, 

 nor their exceeding liospitality toward me as a 

 stranger. I only regret that my time was so limit- 

 ed that I had no opportunity of personally calling 

 on the many more whose names were so well 

 known and dear to mo from the bee-journa!s. 



Ivar S. Yoitng. 



Christian ia, Norway, Nov., 1887. 

 We congratulate you on your safe return 

 home to that "best wife in'the world." We, 

 on this side of the water, appreciate your 

 genteel compliment. 



BUMBLE-BEES, AND HOW THEY WINTER. 



You say in Gleanings, page 950, to master Elbert, 

 that you wish him to tell yr'u more particularly how 

 bumble-bees pass the winter. When a boy, about 

 8 or 10 years old, my father often called me "Old 

 Tmker," because I kept a little bee-yard with half a 

 dozen bumble-bee hives. I hunted up the nests in 

 the day time, put them in little boxes toward eve- 

 ning, in my yard. In spring, when frost was out of 

 the ground, I had to help break up some moor 

 ground, and I then found nests of five and eight 

 bees from four to six inches deep, in small holes, 

 in a sort of sleep; and when warmed up the bees 

 soon came to life. The holes were worked out nice 

 and smooth inside, but I never found them lined 

 with moss or grass, as friend Elbert said. 



Gerd Wendelken. 

 Marietta, Ohio, Dec. 26, 1887. 



Prof. Cook forwards the following from 

 W. J. Ellison, in regard to the saddle-back 

 caterpillar, or the cotton-worm, as it is call- 

 ed in the cotton plantations: 



THE COTTON-WORM, OTHERWISE CALLED THE SAD- 

 DLE-BACK CATERPILLAR. 



Pro/, roofc.— To-night I feel just like the Irish- 

 man who went to see the panorama of his native 

 land. A piece of scenery very near his own home, 

 including a familiar bridge, was shown, when he 

 exclaimed, " Och, murdther! many is the time I have 

 walked over that same bridge." Now, when I see 

 your cut of the saddle-back caterpillar in Glean- 

 ings, it is such a splendid picture of the gentleman, 

 it is hard to keep from exclaiming about it. In our 



