1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



167 



REPOKT OF 1887. 



Although this has been the poorest year for bees 

 since we kept bees, yet we have no reason to be 

 discouraged. They paid us for all labor put upon 

 them, and expense, unless we except the interest 

 on the money expended on the bees and fixtures; 

 but good years they will pay all that back with 

 compound interest. Taking one year with another, 

 bees pay better than any thing else on our farm, 

 either live stock or grain. Mrs. L. C. Axtell,. 



Roseville, 111. 



Mrs. A., 1 am afraid a great many will be 

 tempted to say, that, if this man and wife 

 could not stir themselves enough to get 

 some old clothiug, or even some old news- 

 papers, and snug up their beds, they ought 

 to suffer. But how about the poor helpless 

 children V And, again, has not the Master 

 said, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 

 of the least of these ye have done it unto 

 me"V We certainly ought to alleviate, in 

 the best and wisest way, suffering of any 

 kind. I can not afford to sleep cold. It 

 does not pay ; and if when I am at home, or 

 when away from home, I hnd that I am 

 getting the least bit chilly in the night, I get 

 hold of every thing available to enable me 

 to warm up. Newspapers will do tiptop if 

 you can't do any better. Tuck them under 

 you and over you. In our own home we 

 have some spare quilts upon a shelf in a 

 neighboring clothes-press, and I often skip 

 up to that shelf and tumble over the bed- 

 clothing at any time during the middle of 

 the night or close to morning, when I feel 

 that lam in danger of taking cold. It is 

 true, poor people have not all these comfort- 

 able conveniences ; but surely they can pick 

 up old horse-blankets, coats, dresses, over- 

 coats, or something of that sort, and, as you 

 suggest, large bolsters or bags of straw." If 

 they have not straw, let them get some of 

 their neighbors. Perhaps I am not very 

 familiar with the destitution out West; but 

 I am sure that / could hunt up something 

 to keep out the frost, no matter where you 

 put me. 



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RECORD-BOOKS FOR THE APIARY. 



DR. MILLER DEFENDS THEM A LITTLE. 



ON page 931 of Gleanings for Dec. 1.5, friend 

 Hyde tells us how to fill empty combs by rub- 

 bing the hand over the comb. I have tried 

 this, but it was such slow work in my hands 

 that I gave it up. Moreover, in order to fill 

 the last comb it was necessary that there should 

 be a surplus of syrup, which was objectionable. 



SUGGESTION ON SMOKER. 



Friend Hyde's suggestion reminds me that, for 

 the last two seasons, instead of using wet shavings 

 or grass to put on top of shavings in the Ringham 

 smoker, I have used a circular piece of tin, large 

 enough to fit loosely in the smoker, and filled full 

 of %-inch holes. A wire handle is attached to the 

 middle of it, bent into a ring at the end. This 

 handle serves the double purpose of lifting out the 

 cover and of holding the cover tight down on the 

 shavings. It works well. 



PINE CONES AND LEAVES FOR SMOKER FUEL. 



The mention of "pine straw " on page 954 re- 

 minds me of our practice at the Belden apiary. 



This apiary is in a beautiful little evergreen grove 

 of firs and pines, and the ground is covered with 

 leaves and cones. Last summer was very dry, so 

 that all we had to do was to reach down to the 

 ground and fill up our smokers with leaves or 

 cones, generally cones, and we had a good and 

 lasting smoke. To those who can easily obtain 

 them, I recommend dried cones. 



RECORD-BOOKS. 



On page 886 friend Swinson gives his plan of keep- 

 ing records, and in your reply, friend Root, you 

 give your objections to books. 1 suppose you much 

 prefer tacks and tablets, and probably friend Swin- 

 son couldn't do so well with them. Often it hap- 

 pens that a man's own plan is for him his best plan, 

 and he should have charity enough to believe that, 

 for some one else, some other plan may be better. 

 For 30 years or more I have kept record-books, and, 

 of course, am prejudiced in their favor. One year 

 I tried tacks for keeping record of queens, but con- 

 cluded I liked the book better. I never tried slates 

 or tablets, but there are some reasons why I don't 

 care to try them. Some years ago I hung some 

 heavy paper cards on my hives, and one day I 

 found every one of them torn off. I never knew 

 whether some animal did it, or some mischievous 

 person; but Idon't want any way of keeping a record 

 that allows the possihilitii of being so easily disar- 

 ranged, although such disarrangement might never 

 occur. 



But I will give you a ranch stronger reason for 

 my preference. I like to have all my work planned 

 ahead. In fact, it is often quite necessary that I 

 should so plan it. Now, in laying out ray plans I 

 must have in view what is to be done in all four 

 apiaries, and I can hardly see how I could do that 

 without having a record of all before me, and this I 

 could not have with the tack or tablet plan. Again, 

 suppose I have only one apiary, and a rainy day 

 occurs so that nearly all the work for that day 

 must be postponed. No matter how hard the rain 

 pours down, I can sit or lie in the house and look at 

 the condition of every hive in the apiary, and de* 

 cide what demands attention the most imperatively 

 and what can be postponed. But I need not enu- 

 merate all the advantages that obtain from the 

 ability to sit in the house and see just exactly what 

 you would see by going around and looking at the 

 tablets in four different apiaries. Now for your 

 objections, friend Root. "You have always got to 

 carry the book with you." Yes, but it never oc- 

 curred to me that that was an objection. The book 

 is part of my regular " kit " that I always have in 

 my tool-box, and, instead of objecting to its com- 

 pany, I find it exceedingly convenient, if I happen 

 to find a queenless hive, to reach for ray book, with- 

 out rising from my seat, to see just where I can get 

 a queen, without running to several difl'erent hives. 

 Yes, the book does " become soiled with honey, 

 propolis, beeswax, etc.," but not so as to become il- 

 legible, and don't know that it is objectionable, ex- 

 cept that sometimes two leaves will be glued to- 

 gether. I don't like that; but as I have a new book 

 every season it doesn't get so very bad. 



" Second, the book is liable to get lost." Oh, nol 

 it is 13 by 6 inches (costs 3.5 cents), and is always 

 kept in the tool-box when not in use. 



"Third, with your book system the condition of 

 the hive can not be told at a glance some distance 

 away." Yes, sir; I have often told it at a distance 

 of five miles away. Can you do any better with the 



