1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



489 



folks (but we did not include you) copy poet- 

 ry from books, and send it in as original 

 with themselves, perhaps without thinking 

 of what they were doing. Your card shows 

 that you would not be guilty of such a thing. 

 Perhaps we may have some original lines 

 from you again. 



POLLEN FROM HAZEL AND CEDAR. 



The bees first began carrying in pollen Feb. 14, 

 from the hazel. The pollen was chrome yellow. 

 Feb. 28 they began carrying in pollen from the ce- 

 dar. It was of a yellowish orange color. TUeyare 

 now carrying both pollen and honey from Sirvlsh 

 plum, and willow; the pollen is yellow. 



Snohomish, W. T., March 36, 1888. Lois Allen. 



GRANDPA'S BEES. 



My grandpa keeps bees. He has !!• stands. One 

 stung him in the eye. He came into the house, and 

 my sister picked the sting out. Mamma found one 

 swarm in the woods on a tree, and grandpa and 

 Orella put them into a box. They made lots of 

 honey. Grandpa made some big boxes this winter, 

 and put the small boxes in them. Grandpa Crock- 

 well sent you a nice book, and you sent him a lot of 

 Gleanings. Gi"andi>a wintered his bees on sum- 

 mer stands, and he had no cellar to put them in. 

 We are living on a new place, and we have not got 

 it fixed up yet. 



Oakland, Iowa. Minnie A. Reed, age 9. 



railroads AND BEES. 



We live in Uvalde County, about 50 miles from 

 Mexico. We have 56 hives, and 4 new swarms on 

 the 31st inst. Our bees are about 300 feet from the 

 railroad. I think the trains bother them a good 

 deal. We have two cows and calves. Our bees 

 are all in good fix for gathering honey. T love to 

 read Gleanings. 1 help papa with the bees when 

 mamma doesn't need me. 



Cline Station, Tex. Ebfie Lee Bond, age 10. 



We are glad to get the facts vou furnish 

 about the railroad affecting the bees, but 

 are you sure the rumbling of the train has 

 any tiling to do with ItV The most of the 

 folks who report on this matter seem to 

 agree that it has no bad effects. 



HOW THEY GROW SWEET POTATOES DOWN SOUTH, 

 AS DESCRIBED BY A BOY 9 YEARS OLD. 



Here in this cold climate we set the plants in 

 ridges, made up like a beet-row, ridges 10 or 13 inch- 

 es apart. After the plants begin to grow, pa takes 

 a small wooden trowel and bursts the baked earth 

 loose from each plant, and then he sprinkles un- 

 leached ashes around each plant, an inch or two 

 from its stalk. He then covers the ashes up with 

 loose pulverized earth, and in a few days you ought 

 to see the plants grow. Pa drives broad pieces of 

 boards down in each row between the plants, some 

 6 feet apart. This keeps the moles from running 

 through their tunnels, as they run their heads 

 against these boards, and this turns them out to the 

 light of the sun, and they do not like to he l)Othered 

 in this way. This is a good pre\cntive against 

 moles following this kind of ridges. 



Pa has eight hives of bees. He commenced with 

 two last spring. It was a poor season lor honey 

 here last year. Pa has a buzz-saw that Mr. H. A. 

 Davis bought of you. We run it by water-power, 

 and he makes hives for bis neighbors. He transfer- 



red some bees last season for his neighbors through 

 instructions from your ABC book, with good suc- 

 cess. Well, Uncle Amos, 1 have a little blue-eyed 

 brother. You ought to hear him crow and laugh at 

 me. Charley G. Hodges, age '.). 

 Sands. N. C. 



LOTS OF GOOD THINGS, AND ONE NOT SO GOOD. 



As I am just 15 years old, I do not expect a premi- 

 um; but I thought I would write anyhow. My father 

 keeps bees, and 1 like to help him attend to them. 

 I help him transfer bees for other people. We 

 make our own hives. We use Simplicity hives. My 

 pa takes Gleanings, and I like to read it. 1 read 

 your ABC book through, and liked it very much. 

 Last spring as 1 was helping pa to saw out hives, 1 

 got two of my lingers cut off, so I was not able to 

 do any thing for a long time. LTp to date we have 

 got drones Hying. Our bees are getting some hon- 

 ey from fruit-blossoms now. Pa is going into the 

 bee and poultry business. We are digging a hen- 

 house on a hillside. The name of our apiary is the 

 Modern. Oliver Rouse. 



Santa Fe, Mo., May 3, 1888. 



Well, my young friend, you have told lots 

 of good things, and one not quite so good — 

 that Is, you cut off two of your hngers. 

 Little boys and girls should be very careful 

 around buzz-saws. Some boys are natural- 

 ly careful, and have very few scars on their 

 fingers, wliile other boys will have their fin- 

 gers marked up with scars. Such a boy is 

 pretty apt to get his fingers cut off if he has 

 very much to do with a machine that would 

 just as soou cut off a finger as to scratch it. 

 I do not mean to say that you are careless, 

 but I do want to caution those of you little 

 folks who help papa around a buzz-saw. 



A valuable suggestion from a little girl; 



A BUGGY-WHEEL, AND HOW IT MAY BE 

 USED DURING SWARMING. 



My father's queens are all clipped, and I some- 

 times catch the queen for him and put her in the 

 cage and put the cage on the pole, and then the 

 bees cluster on it. When the wind does not blow, 

 we have an old buggy-wheel that we put the pole 

 in; but when the wind blows 1 hold it for him; and 

 when two or three swarms are out at once, and the 

 wind doesn't l)low, we have more wheels than one. 



Once when pa went away, ma and I had to do it 

 alone. Ma had to go up the tree and get them in 

 her apron, and then she came down, and they 

 stung her. She had to go around the house, be- 

 cause there was a wall all around the apiary; but 

 there was a gate in the wall on the other side of the 

 house. Violet Fowls, age 9. 



Oberlin, Ohio. 



Thank you, Violet. You have given us a 

 valuable idea. Coming, just as It does, at 

 this Lime of year, it will probably be put 

 into application forthwith. When I was at 

 your papa's one time he showed me his bug- 

 gy-wheel, and I at once saw that it was put- 

 ting into practical use what otherwise 

 would be lying around doing nobody any 

 good. 15iit I liad almost foigotten it till 

 now. Around almost any farm, I suppose 

 there is some old uuuseil buggy-wlieel or 

 wagon-wheel that can be utilized in the way 

 you suggest. A good many times during 

 my younger days, when I used to catch 

 swarms with a rake, to which was attached 



