454 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



oil- or PKPPEKMINT AS AN INSECTICIDE. 



We clip the following from the Boston Cultivntor: 

 Oil of iX'ppL'rniint in vapor, diluted evfn to a part 

 in 10(i,0iXl, will kill cockroaches in an hour, they dy- 

 ing in convulsions. One drop of the oil placed un- 

 der a bell-jar covering- a cultivation of cholera 

 bacilli will kill both bacilli and spores in forty-eight 

 hours. It is also regarded as among the best surgi- 

 cal antiseptics, and of great value in phthisis and 

 diphtheria. 



Now, if this diluted vapor would not kill the bees 

 also, it might help our friends in the South who 

 ha\'c complained so much about cockroaches at 

 different times; and why shouldn't it kill foul-brood 

 bacilli, and may be green Hies in the greenhouse, 

 etc y It would not be a very difficult matter to till 

 a greenhouse with a very diluted vapor of the oil 

 of peppermint. Can Prof. Cook, or any of the ex- 

 perimenting professors at our various experimental 

 colleges, give us any light in regard to the matterV 



MIXING MATTER FOR FUBl^lCATION WITH BUSI- 

 NESS LETTERS. 



We must again remind readers that we should 

 be very greatly obliged to them if they would sep- 

 arate the matter they intend for print from that 

 really pertaining to business matters. Where the 

 two are put together on one sheet, those matters 

 which demand most immediate attention must be 

 attended to first. For instance, John Brown sends 

 in, we will say, iJia.OO— one dollar to be applied for 

 a queen, and the rest for bee-supplies in general. 

 On the same sheet of paper containing these orders 

 will be a Report Encouraging. Well, this matter 

 must first go to the subscription clerk. After she 

 has finished her part of it, it goes to the queen 

 clerk, and the next, and so on, until the clerks of 

 the different departments have attended to the 

 necessary business. By the time each clerk has 

 made his or her memorandum on the different por- 

 tions of the letter the report has been delayed, and, 

 moreover, has been more or less marked up with 

 various business signs and clerks' initials. If our 

 cf)rrespondents will take pains to put matter for 

 Gleanings on a separate sheet, it can go direct to 

 the printers' hands, if acceptable. Some feel a 

 little modest about marking their communications 

 "For Gleanings," and they conclude by saying, 

 '• This is not necessarily intended for print, but for 

 your own personal instructions." Do not be too 

 modest about it, but come right out and say you 

 have written it for the pages of Gleanings, and 

 put it on paper hy itself. 



PARIS GREEN ON THE FRUIT-TREES — WILL IT 

 HURT THE BEES? 



I PRESUME that most of our progressive bee-men 

 are aware that modern science in this present year 

 of 1888 has demonstrated that we can grow nice 

 smooth apples, pears, cherries, peaches, and we 

 hope plums too, without spot or blemish, wrinkle 

 or giiarl, by the timely use of arsenical poisons. 

 We have already been all over our plantation with 

 a f:i.").(M) machine, manufactured by The Nixon Noz- 

 zle & Machine Co., Dayton, O. The pump and Nix- 

 on nozzle will throw a li(juid in such a fine spray 

 that it floats like a cloud through the top of an ap- 

 ple-tree, covering every leaf and twig, upper side 

 and under side. This is usually done just as the 

 petals are falling from the most of the blossoms, 

 and a second time when the fruit is of the size of 

 peas or a little larger. We use about half a pound 

 of London purple to 50 gallons of water, and this 

 quantity of poison will go pretty well over a sroall 



orchard one time. I feel pretty sure that it answers 

 the purpose, for our cherries for the first time in 

 years are perfectly free from the marks of the cur- 

 culio or any other insect, while cherries on trees 

 belonging to our neighl)ors are badly punctured. 

 Now, then, will it hurt the bees? So far, I can only 

 say that I have not been able to discover any harm. 

 I have looked under the trees, but no dead bees 

 were to be found. Then the question arises, "If 

 the bees are poisoned, can the poison act quick 

 enough so we should find them under the trees?" 

 If the bees were worlting on the trees at the time 

 the poison was applied, I think it might poison 

 those which were not driven away by the spray. 

 Possibly it might kill those that came immediately 

 afterward; but even if it did, the number of bees 

 destroyed would be so few that I don't believe it 

 would be noticed by the apiarist. The poison dries 

 down on the foliage and on the immature fruit; 

 but the honey that exudes, say the next day after 

 the spraying, I do not believe would be poisonous. 

 Only the insects that feed upon the leaves or sur- 

 face of the green fruit are injured. Can others 

 give us any further light upon the subject? 



SECTIONS EXACTLY SEVEN TO THE FOOT. 



Quite a number of the friends have their cases 

 so made that they take exactly so many sections, 

 no more no less; therefore in order to give them 

 just the width they want so that a ceitain number 

 may come out just right, we have to work to a 

 hair's breadth on each section; tor if there is 

 the slightest variation in the pieces it becomes 

 greatly magnified when quite a number are placed 

 one against another. Well, we could easily get 

 this hair's breath— that is, if basswood would nei- 

 ther shrink nor swell. All wood-workers know that, 

 no matter how perfectly lumber is seasoned, when 

 we come to cut it up into thin pieces it will always 

 shrink more or less after cutting up; therefore, in 

 order to have seven sections, when side by side, 

 measure just 13 inches, we must cut them so they 

 will measure a little more. Now, the worst part of 

 it is, that this shrinkage and swelling is never uni- 

 form. Sometimes it will be a great deal more than 

 v/e expect, and sometimes a great deal less. Anoth- 

 er thing, it is our custom to make sections the 

 year round. As soon as orders are filled for one 

 season we begin making them for another. Well, 

 this process of seasoning still continues for per- 

 haps a whole year, so that sections just right in the 

 fall will be too small by another season. We have 

 made this explanation simply to show how difficult 

 it is to please you in this respect, and not because 

 we are going to stop trying. I would suggest, how- 

 ever, that cases and arrangements for surplus 

 honej' be so made as to allow a little space for this 

 shrinking and swelling. One good friend accuses 

 us of giving scant measure, in the same way that 

 we complained of the barrels of apples that did not 

 hold three bushels. Why, bless you, friends, the 

 quarter-inch of basswood that is saved on seven 

 sections does us no good whatever, and it would 

 not cost us a copper more to make them all a quar- 

 ter-inch too larye. In the above ca.ee we got a pret- 

 ty severe letter because seven sections, side by 

 side, lacked a quarter-inch of measuring a foot. 

 Divide '4 inch into seven equal portions and you 

 will see that each section was only .V of an inch too 

 narrow, and it takes a pretty smart wood-worker to 

 work as closely rs within ,'s of an inch. 



