1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



147 



or some substitute; but I don't think that many 

 of us have supposed the pollen was really fed 

 to the laiviP. We may not have expressed our- 

 selves just as wo intended to do; but I believe the 

 general opinion has leen, that the worker-bees use 

 pollen as a cow uses corn meal, together with her 

 hay, to enable her to give milk for her young. This 

 food that the nurse-bees feed to the larvae so con- 

 tinually has always seemed to me a sort of milky 

 substance, both from the looks and taste. I think 

 somebody has suggested, that, when the larva is al- 

 most ready to be sealed up, it may receive pollen 

 and honey, not digested as fully as that given to 

 the larvpe when they are very small. I do not know 

 whether this was guess in his work, or whether 

 some competent naturalist has given it from ob- 

 servation. From what Prof. Cook says, however, 

 we conclude the latter to be a mistake. Perhaps 

 we have been at fault in using the term partially 

 digested food, when we meant a secretion resulting 

 from the honey and pollen taken by the mature bee. 



SPIDER-PLANT SEED— THE DIFFICULTY IN MAKING 

 IT GERMINATE. 



This has always been a difficult plant to get 

 started; and yet, strangely enough, when the seeds 

 drop from the plant on to the ground in the open 

 air they come up the ne.xt spring in great profusion, 

 and this has suggested the idea that the seed needs 

 freezing. We have usually had no trouble in get- 

 ting it to germinate in the gi-eenhouse, with a cov- 

 ering of sifted moss; but I regret to say, that this 

 spring every bit of seed we have in stock, old and 

 new, acts very much as if it were not going to germ- 

 inate at all— not even a seed. Therefore, if any 

 of the friends have any of the seed of the spider 

 plant that they have tested this present year, and 

 know will germinate, we shall be glad to know how 

 much they have, and what they will take for it. We 

 would therefore ask all who have purchased the 

 seed of us, and have failed to get it to grow, to 

 say so on a postal, and we will send you some seed 

 that wilJ grow. It is a queer plant, any way; but 

 when it comes warm weather we have been in the 

 habit of transplanting them iust as we would to- 

 matoes, any time during the summer. Even in very 

 hot dry weather, the plants grow without a bit of 

 trouble. 



HEAVY FREIGHT BILLS, ETC. 



Expensive freight and express charges is one of 

 the great drawbacks which our customers experi- 

 ence who are very far away from one of the great 

 mainlines; and on this account it is a great deal 

 better, many times, to buy of somebody nearer your 

 own homes than to purchase of us. We always 

 want our friends to buy where they can do so to 

 the best advantage, whether it takes money from 

 our business or not— that is. we feel that way when 

 we don't backslide, and let selfish thoughts come 

 uppermost. Now, in a line with the above idea we 

 want to speak of a sort of branch house for a great 

 part of our goods, kept by our friend J. M. .Jenkins, 

 of Wetumpka, Elmore Co., Ala. Friend .Jenkins is 

 a railroad man, as I may have told you before, and 

 this helps him in the very line of which I have been 

 speaking. He is not only a railroader himself, but 

 he has enough of God's grace in his heart to keep 

 him on good terms with not only the great i-ail- 

 roads, but with almost everybody else. Where you 

 are nearer Wetumpka, Ala., than to Medina, O., it 

 win, as a rule, be best to trade with friend J.; but 



as he does not keep a full line of every thing we 

 sell, it may be best, before sending in your order, 

 to write for his catalogue, then there will be no mis- 

 understanding nor disappointment. 



THE NEXT PLACE OF MEETING FOR THE NATIONAL 

 CONVENTION. 



An effort is now being made to change the place 

 of meeting of the next National Convention from 

 Toledo to Columbus or Cincinnati. So far there is 

 a difference of opinion as to whether it should be 

 held in the one or the other city. Our preference 

 is decidedly in favor of the capital. It is true, there 

 will be an exposition held in Cincinnati, but nothing, 

 we believe, that will compare in mag7iitudeor im- 

 portance with the one which will take place at the 

 capital of the State. The nutional encampment of 

 the Grand Army will be held during the second 

 week of the Centennial Exposition, and it is expect- 

 ed that it will march two hundred thousand men 

 strong. Besides this there will be represented on a 

 grand scale, national industries. It seems to us 

 that the members of the National Bee-Keepers' 

 Association would make a mistake in changing the 

 place of meeting to Cincinnati instead of Columbus, 

 although we feel sure that friend Muth could give 

 us a right good reception in his city. The president 

 of the association. Dr. A. B. Mason, is in favor of 

 moving to Columbus. It is a great railroad center, 

 and there will be low rates of travel. Brother 

 Newman, in referring to the next place of meeting, 

 says: 



So far the votes have been about equally divided 

 between Columbus and Cincinnati. Let the rest of 

 the " votes " be sent in at once, so that the matter 

 may be decided as soon as possible. 



Let all the votes go to T. G. Newman & Son, 

 Chicago, Ills., for Columbus, without delay. Ke- 

 member the date, Sept. 4th to Oct. 19th. See, also, 

 further particulars from Dr. Mason elsewhere. 



MAPLE SUGAR STIRRED OFF DRY. 



It is a great deal more trouble to make it this 

 way, and I believe it is considered that it can not 

 be sold at as low a price as the cake sugar, because, 

 to stir it oft' dry, more water must be expelled than 

 what is contained in the cakes; therefore we seldom 

 get hold of much of it. Our readers, however, who 

 remember the old times on the farm, when the pies 

 and pudding— yes, even the tea and coffee— were 

 sweetened with this old-time home-made sugar that 

 could be dipped out of a bowl with a spoon, will doubt- 

 less agree with me that it beats any other sweetening 

 ever made. When I used to help mother make gar- 

 den, in the days of my boyhood, the dinner that 

 pleased me above every thing else was what was 

 called " bag puddcn." It was made of corn meal, 

 boiled in a bag, and the sweetening was this same 

 stirred-off' sugar, dissolved in cream. Some of the 

 sugar would generally settle to the bottom of the 

 bowl; therefore when the dip dime around to you 

 it you liked a little more sweetening than the res-t, 

 all you had to do was to dip the large spoon to the 

 bottom of [the bowl, and, oh my! wasn't that sugar 

 delicious? Well, a few daj's ago a fanner drove up 

 with almost a barrel full of this dry, fine maple 

 sugar on his sled. The boys said I jiai'l too big a 

 price for it; but any of you who think a* I do about 

 it would be willing to pay 10 cts. a pound I'ur it. If 

 you want to see what it looks like before purchasing, 

 we will send you a sample by mail for 5 cts. Of 

 course, it is sugar made a year ago; but the stirred- 

 off-dry keeps indefinitely without any deterioration, 



