2-50 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



traction for *' strays," as we sometimes call 

 them. These strays in the spring and fall of 

 the year are often bees that swarm out on 

 account of lack of stores. During the 

 swarming season they come and cluster 

 close by an apiary, for some reason I can 

 not explain. Sfot a season passes but that 

 we have more or less of these strays. They 

 generally cluster on the evergreens sur- 

 rounding our apiary, sometimes on the 

 hedge across the road ; and whoever has 

 charge of our apiary, sooner or later meets 

 these strays and has to be instructed what 

 to do with them. Only one man that 1 re- 

 member of ever raised the question as to 

 whom these bees rightly belonged. A great 

 many times the apiarist declares they did 

 not come from any of ouv own hives, when 

 he afterward finds out they did. — My esti- 

 mate of a man's real worth would depend a 

 good deal on how closely he felt disposed to 

 work for me when he liad sold me his time. 

 If he were employed to work for the bees, 

 and considered it no more tlian fair and 

 right that he should look up from his work 

 to see every team that passes the road ad- 

 joining the apiary, I should think it detract- 

 ed from his money value. If, besides that, 

 he should stop a farmer who had potatoes 

 on his wagon, and buy them l)ecause he 

 needed some potatoes, he might think it 

 was all right, even though the farmer start- 

 ed from home to bring the potatoes to me in 

 answer to an advertisement of mine. Now, 

 there are some hired men who do that way, 

 and some who don't. I do not often quarrel 

 with either class ; but I can well afford to 

 pay the latter kind the best wages — some- 

 times double what I could pay the former 

 kind. I do not care so much about the prof- 

 it or loss in these little transactions, as I do 

 for the fact that it indicates his plan of do- 

 ing business ; for even such straws almost 

 always unerringly indicate which way the 

 wind blows. I quite agree witli you in re- 

 gard to the gold piece.— At the Utica C'on- 

 vention a Mr. Dickinson said he had excel- 

 lent success by fastening the foundation 

 along the top and down one side of the sec- 

 tion. In this case the sheet of foundation 

 was squarely cut, so it nearly filled the sec- 

 tion. To get it in accurately he has a 

 groove cut with a saw along tlie top and 

 side of the section. The square foundation 

 is pushed into the grooves, and fastened 

 with melted wax. 



ENSILAGK. 



FKIENU TERUY ANSWERS THE OB.JECTIONS BKOUGHT 

 FORTH BY I.ANDKETH AND OTHERS. 



TT may be, that some will inquire what we 

 M have to do with ensilage ; but as friend 

 ^t Hayhnrst puts it in his note below, I 

 -*■ thiiik it must be admitted that the ((ues- 

 tion concerns every one who buys milk of 

 our milk-men ; therefore we thought best 

 to give it a place : 



Ed. Oleaniiigs.— Some time since you published an 

 article favoring " ensilage, " by Prof. Cook, if I am 

 not mistaken. At the time 1 felt a strong desire to 

 write him, asking In regard to the effect of the fer- 

 mentation on the cattle; but I was prevented by 



sickness. Ever since I first read on this subject I 

 have had the Impression that the "mash " from a 

 silo was quite as bad as that from the brewery. 

 Many of the dairies about this city use the latter 

 stuff— a most abominable practice which should be 

 sui)pressed by law. 



Here Is a scrap from Landreth's, which 1 hope will 

 have the effect of calling out enough discussion for 

 us to arrive at the truth. I am inclined to think the 

 Landreths are correct. I use the mangolds for 

 winter food for my cows, and find them Invaluable. 



E. M. Hayhurst. 



Kansas City, Mo., Feb. 28, 1888. 



Below is the paper referred to, cut from 

 Landreth's Companion for the Garden and 

 Farm : 



ENSILAGE. 



What Is this about which so much discussion Is 

 held? Is it a new system, and is it one worthy of 

 general adoption? 



We reply, first, it is not new, but is as old as his- 

 tory, practiced by Ciesar during his invasion of 

 France, and since resumed at intervals by all the 

 European nations. And, second, that it is of high 

 value only in sections of country where, through a 

 moist climate, the making of good dry hay is diffi- 

 cult, or in far Southern sections in which good hay- 

 making grasses do not flourish. 



In England, and in countries bordering on the 

 west coast of Europe, where constant moisture pre- 

 vails, the system has been pursued with very great 

 profit; but in the United States, where we have an 

 almost tropical sun, the farmer for profit rather 

 than show, can do without this process, costly and 

 of questionable utility. 



Ensilage is that system of preserving green grass, 

 green fodder of any kind, in chambers where it is 

 compressed and entirely removed from the action 

 of the atmosphere. These chambers may be above 

 or below groiuid; may, for instance, somewhat re- 

 semble an underground ice-house, in which the 

 green material, cut into pieces less than an inch in 

 length, to facilitate compressing, is placed and 

 weighted down with stone or screwed down with 

 jacks. 



The green material, if properly compressed, and 

 if air and water be excluded, will keep for months, 

 and turn out somewhat after the character of 

 sauerkraut. Fermentation soon begins, tlie tem- 

 perature rising to 150° F., at which point, as the 

 chambers are air-tight, the further progress of fer- 

 mentation is extinguished, and the mass preserved 

 with traces of alchohol sufficient often to produce 

 noticeable effects upon the bearing of cattle. 



The action of ensilage upon milch cows is to stim- 

 ulate them to a large jiroduction of milk— straining 

 the producing powers unuaturallj'. as becomes 

 evident upon ceasing to feed it— the animals be- 

 coming languid and limp, the same resultant effects 

 as in the case of a drinking man deprived of his 

 whisky. 



The process is only within the irach of the most 

 wealthy class of farmers; and it 1s well, as we 

 venture to predict that, in a few years, we shall 

 hear much less of ensilage than wo do now. Con- 

 centrated food for wintei'ing catti'' can be best ob- 

 tained by the culture of matigolds. carrots, and 

 turnips, as twice as many tons can be grown to the 

 acre as of green fodder, and the roots can be kept in 

 ordinary cellars or in simple pits behind the barn. 



We advise ordinary farmers to hesitate before 

 building exi)ensive silos, but they need tiot hesitate 

 to cut down the ration of corn arid feed more roots. 



On receipt of the above we forw;irded it to 

 friend Terry, with request to answer. I 

 presume our readers are aware that, through 

 the institute work of the past winter, 

 throughout the different States, friend 

 Terry has had oppoitunities of being per- 

 haps as well or better posted than any other 

 one man in the United States. I think his 

 statements can be received as conclusive in 

 regard to the matter. He says : 



Friend Boot:— I have found that the ones who 

 talked against ensilage were those who have never 



