1888 



GLEANINGS IN BE^ CUL'TURE. 



687 



them three or four combs of good healthy 

 hatching brood. After 24 hours they will 

 usually receive a queen, or a queen - cell 

 either. 



ONE OF THE DOG-BANES. 



Friend Roof .-—Please tell by card or Gleanings 

 what the inclosed tiower is. J. C. Capehart. 



St. Albans, VV. Va., July 17, 1888. 



Prof. Devol says: 



A. I. Bo'jt:-The plant from J. C. Capehart Is one 

 of the dog-banes, Apocynum, probably A. ca7inabi- 

 num, L. It is closely related to the milkweeds, and 

 possesses many of the qualities of these plants, 

 among- which is a poisonous principle residing 

 chiefly in the seeds. They flourish along streams, 

 in alluvial soils, and are common in fence-rows. 



Columbus, O., Aug. 7, 1888. W. S. Devol. 



i 



NINE COLONIES AVERAGE 76 LBS. EACH ; HOW A 



LONG-FACED LETTER MAY MAKE A SHORT 



FACE. 



fHIS has been a poor bee year; but not, ac- 

 cording to accounts in Gleanings, as poor 

 as some parts further east. We began the 

 season with 30 colonies. We had 15 new 

 swarms. The first swarm came out May 11. 

 We have prevented swarming so far as keeping on 

 sections and extracting would do so. We have 

 run nine colonies tor extracting. These, up to 

 Aug. 5, averaged 76 11)S. to the colony. They have 

 not been strictly attended to. The others, run for 

 comb honey, have averaged 30 lbs. to the colony; 

 but this is scarcely a fair estimate, as many of the 

 weak colonies have yielded nothiog. The season 

 has been so dry that about the only honey the bees 

 have had to gather was from alfalfa; and as less of 

 that than usual has been allowed to go to seed, the 

 honey-supply has been lessened. There is quite a 

 growth of the Rocky-Mountain bee-plant, but the 

 bees have not seemed to work on it much this 

 year. The quality of honey has been very fine, 

 the comb very white and delicate, and the extract- 

 ed honey very thick and white in the early part of 

 the season; later, a little darker. We receive 15 

 cents for comb in 1-lb. sections, and extracted in 

 small pails. If Mrs. Chaddock's letter was long- 

 faced, the illustrations were so amusing that some 

 of us were short-faced while reading it. We appre- 

 ciate Gleanings, and should be sorry to be de- 

 prived of it. Mrs. J. N. Bacon. 

 Longmont, Colo., Aug. 12, 1888. 



BEES putting IN GOOD TIME. 



I began with five hives, spring count, in the " Gold- 

 en" hive. I increased to 13. My bees have not 

 made as much honey as I expected. No surplus 

 yet, on account of dry weather. About ten days 

 ago rain began. The bees are putting in good time. 

 Bolivar, Mo., Aug. 13, 1888. A. J. Lower. 



A GOOD CROP EXPECTED. 



It looks now as though we should get a fine crop 

 of honey from buckwheat. It has been In bloom 

 about ten days, and the honey is coming in freely. I 

 have extracted about ,50 pounds per colony from 

 it already, and expect to get as much more. 



Leslie Stewart. 



Jefferson, N. Y., Aug. 13, 1888. 



BEES HAVE DONE WELL. 



My bees are doing well. I have some that have 

 made over 100 lbs. of honey since the last day of 

 June. I am well pleased with the queens you sent 

 to me in September. Thos. Oberhitner. 



Deshler, O., Aug. 21, 1888. 



Report an off season to date. A 16; B 14; C 1.50; 

 D over 1400 from .50 colonies. About 600 pounds on 

 hives almost all capped. There are immense pros- 

 pects for buckwheat. There are over 300 acres in 

 easy reach of my bees. Season so far Is good, with 

 prospects of best honey-run to come yet. 



William W. Case. 



Baptisttown, N. J., Aug. 11, 1888. 



LOTS OF HONEY FROM SWEET-CLOVER. 



This season has fully tested the qualities of sweet 

 clover. It has yielded a good crop when every 

 thing else has failed. All the white honey we 

 have is from that alone (nearly); and after seeing 

 how wonderfully good it is, I am gathering large 

 quantities of seed. A. Snyder. 



Coeymans Hollow, N. Y., Aug. 4, 1888. 



A LITTLE MORE ENCOURAGING. 



The Reports Discouraging in the last few num- 

 bers of Gleanings have been so very discourag- 

 ing that we feel we should send you the following 

 report for the sake of variety, and in hopes that it 

 will add a little cheer to the general gloom which 

 seems to affect so many. 



We keep but a small apiary; and as it is merely 

 what you might call an " aside " with us, the bees 

 get no more care than is necessary to keep them 

 well behaved and out of mischief, so you must not 

 expect any extraordinary results. 



Our old colonies got a little touch of the swarm- 

 ing mania, and have made but a little surplus in 

 consequence; so we will confine ourselves to the 

 doings of four young colonies, which have proved 

 themselves the smartest, this year, among the lot. 

 These four colonies were swarmed June 6th and 

 7th, and put into lii-story Simplicity hives. Up to 

 date we have taken from these four hives 170 one- 

 pound sections of white-clover honey, and there 

 are now in the hives 112 full and partly filled 

 pound sections, with buckwheat and fall flowers 

 yet to hear from. Learned & Miller. 



Newton, N. J., Aug. 9, 1888. 



18,000 LBS. OF honey FROM 200 COLONIES, IN CAL- 

 IFORNIA. 



We got only about 18,000 lbs. from 300 colonies 

 this year, and I do not suppose any of my neigh- 

 bors did any better. They are offering from 5'" to 

 6 cts. now, but I think it will be higher when they 

 find out how short the crop is. We do not feel in 

 any way discouraged yet, for Southern California 

 is surely the home of the honey-bee, for there are 

 but very few days in the. year when the bees can 

 not be out in some part of the day, and we do not 

 have to plant for a honey crop, as our hills and 

 mountains are covered with all kinds of bee-feed. 

 Neither do we have anj' winter to hurt them. The 

 wild sage is our best pasture, also the wild buck- 

 wheat. I gathered some sage seed, and I am going 

 to send some to you to try, and see if it would grow 

 in your country. I think it would. 1 see by 

 Gleanings you are going to visit California. If 

 .\ou do, you must be sure to come here and see Los 

 Angeles County. The best time to come Is in the 



