1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



627 



is a great aid. It takes hay right from the winrow, 

 or, in case it is very lieavy, right from the swath. 

 One man drives and two load, and it is surprising 

 how quickly this machine puts a load on to a wagon. 

 In these days of uncertain labor, such machines are 

 a prize. 



You ask in Glbaninos about small silos and 

 sweet corn. 1 have a friend who made very excel- 

 lent silage in a hogshead. That answers your first 

 question. Sweet corn would do admirably; but if 

 you raised larger corn you would get more. 



A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich., May 30, 1888. 



I am greatly pleased, friend C, to find 

 that the Disc liarrow works on your boggy 

 ground just about as I expected it would. 

 1 want to explain to our readers, that this 

 piece of land had been for years a boggy 

 swamp, with springs breaking out here and 

 there. Prof. Cook consulted an engineer in 

 regard to draining the bog. If 1 remember 

 correctly, the engineer said it would cost a 

 large amount of money— couldn't be done 

 with satisfaction otherwise. Friend C, 

 however, hadn't the money to spare, and 

 he wanted to try his hand at doing it in a 

 cheaper way. lie therefore made one or 

 two drains through the wettest portion, 

 proposing to see what the effect would be 

 before he laid out anj- more money on it. 

 To his great surprise and pleasure, just as 

 soon as the drains were opened, out went 

 the water in short meter, and left the land 

 in perfect condition for tillage. The re- 

 sult was exactly the same as in our swamp 

 garden here at home. One single drain, 

 right through the deepest and wettest por- 

 tion, took all the water out of our way, and 

 the whole expense was but trilling. Well, 

 after the water was out of the way, the 

 question with Prof. Cook was, how to chop 

 up the unsightly bogs, and make the ground 

 smooth and level. Almost any common 

 harrow would have tumbled the bogs over 

 and over, and tired out the team without 

 accomplishing mucli. In such a place the 

 Disc harrow proved to be just the thing. — I 

 am very much obliged ipdeed to know that 

 a larged-sized hogshead may be made to 

 answer for a silo. This will enable others 

 like myself to test the matter on a small 

 scale before they decide to go to any great 

 expense. 



HELP IN THE APIAKY. 



HOW MANY DAYS' WORK ARE REQUIRED TO PROP- 

 ERLY CARE FOR 100 COLONIES IN ONE YEAR? 



XN answer to your request to bee-keepers as per 

 jM Gleanings for June 1st, page 43(i, I will say 

 ]lt that a man endowed with common energy, and 

 "*• working less than 150 days in the year, man- 

 ages for us apiaries, numbering about 400 

 colonies; that he finds time also to woik at two 

 other apiaries, one for himself and one for another 

 party, and that he has some time to spare, although 

 some of these apiaries are ten to twelve miles from 

 ours, which is about in a central portion. 



Of course, we give help to our apiarist at the time 

 of extracting, for we raise, moi-e especially, ex- 

 tracted honey. As we e.Ytract, on an average, i;i.50 

 lbs. per day, our crop, when amounting to above 



30,(X)0 lbs., re(|uires 16 days work for two men and a 

 boy, so the average number of days' work amounts 

 to aboiit 300 per year. Good results with so little 

 work can not be attained unless the apiaries are 

 organized for the i)urpose. 



You know, probably, that we use very capacious 

 hives, having adopted, after several years of care- 

 ful comparison, the Quinby suspended-frame hives, 

 enlarged to ten frames, and a partition board. As 

 we enlarge the space just as soon as the crop be- 

 gins, the number of our natural swarms does not 

 exceed two or three per cent, our bees swarming 

 only when they raise queens in the height of the 

 honey season. To enlarge the room we add supers 

 filled with half-frames, provided with combs. Be- 

 fore the invention of comb foundation we used to 

 adjust in these half-frames all the drone combs re- 

 moved from the brood-chamber. We have some of 

 these which are 30 years old, and which have been 

 emptied nearly every year since. 



Having from 1300 to 1.500 of these combs in each 

 of our six ai>iaries, we place successively on each 

 hive as many supei-s as necessary; our rule being 

 never to extract, if possible, till the crop is at an 

 end. In this way we often have three of these 

 supers, weighing about .50 lbs. each, on some hives; 

 yet our spring crop is short, coming to an end with 

 the clover blossoms, for there are very few linden- 

 trees in this part of Illinois. 



When we extract, our man takes out the surplus 

 combs and brushes the bees; another brings them 

 to the extracting - room; another uncaps; a boy 

 turns the machine, and places the empty combs 

 back in the supers. After sundovvn they are re- 

 placed on the hives, to be dried by the bees. 



As we do not extract frorn the brood-chamber, 

 nine years out of ten oui- bees have a large quanti- 

 ty of good honey for winter, and are generally 

 strong in the spring. We are convinced that, but 

 for the capacity of our hives and the strength of our 

 colonies after winter, our surplus crop would be 

 light; since it ceases just when the linden blooms, 

 and yields a crop for apiaries better situated. 



Our surplus-boxes arc left on the hives for the 

 fall crop, emptied again if necessary, then given 

 back again, to bo removed late in the season ; then 

 they are housed securely away from mice, in cold 

 rooms, where the frost kills the bee moths if any 

 are in the combs. 



The floor of the room in which the extracting is 

 done Is covered with painted cloth. The piles of 

 surplus-boxes, in which the emptied combs are put 

 back, are placed in tin pans made on purpose, and 

 the men, while waiting for the sun to set, clean the 

 room. By those means the work is far from being 

 as dirty as you seem to suppose. 



Like our good friend Giimm, we do not manage 

 our bees intensively, convinced, as we are, that our 

 course pays better than the intensive method 

 adopted by most of our best bee-keepers. 



Hamilton, 111. ChaS. Dadant. 



Friend T)., I think that man of yours, al- 

 luded to in your tirst paragraph, must be an 

 uncommonly good one ; but there is a very 

 great difference in people in this respect. 

 One who has worked at farming and gar- 

 dening, and has learned by experience how 

 much it costs to try experiinents, and invest 

 in every new thiiig that comes along, has 

 generally learned that, to make these things 

 pay, we must not spend very much time in any 



