lt'-2 



(iLEANlNGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



Wc have raised and sold $40,00 worth of melons; 

 $10,00 of early peas, and *5,00 of Corey corn, and 

 raised corn enough to keep our 100 chickens, ever 

 since the corn was ripe enongh for them to work 

 on. We have 20 bushels of potatoes in the cellar. 

 We had an abundance of radishes, lettuce, onions, 

 beans, and cabbage, in their turn ; a tiowei-garden 

 of four square rods, with some forty or fifty differ- 

 ent kinds of flowers, and manj- of these are repre- 

 sented in fifteen or twenty ditt'erent shades of col- 

 or. 



We have five children. The oldest, a daughter, 

 will soon be thirteen. ^Fy wife tips the scales at 

 about 110 lbs., while my average is about 123. Rath- 

 er a small couple, is it not? and y( t we do not feel 

 that we are worked to death. S. A. Shuck. 



Liverpool, Ills., Sept. 6, ls88. 



Friend S., some of our boys a few days 

 ago were lugging Iiome great clumps of but- 

 ton-ball root, in order to cultivate them for 

 the bees. I told them it would be much 

 easier to move their bees to where the but- 

 ton-balls flourished than to move the button- 

 balls to where tlie bees flourished ; and I 

 also added that I felt pretty sure the button- 

 ball was not a very certain honey-plant. I 

 am very glad of the facts you give us. I 

 wanted you to tell us, however, more about 

 the (jualiiy of the honey. Is it tirst class V 

 I agree with you, that it is about as danger- 

 ous to '•'• put your eggs all in one basket " as 

 it is to have '" too many irons in the fire.'' 



CUCUMBE3R HONEY. 



HONEY FltO.M BLOSSOMS OF CUCUMBER-VINES OF A 

 liVUGE PICKLING ESTABLISHMENT. 



T SOWED one acre of Japanese buckwheat, the 

 (^ seed got of you through Mr. Sykes, of this 

 ]|l place; and although it has done verj- fair for 

 '*' such a dry season, the bees have worked very 

 little on it, for the reason they found some- 

 thing that suited them better. A Arm has started a 

 pickle factory. They got farmers to agree to plant 

 from one to ten acres of cucumbers, and they have 

 bought about 10,000 bushels of pickles, and the bees 

 have worked constantly on them since they began 

 to blossom. I think Mr. Sykes will have 1000 

 pounds of comb honey, almost all from that source. 

 The last of July he said that he had not got a pound 

 of comb honey, and that the bees were taking the 

 honej' out of the surplus chamber. He has from 

 forty to fifty stands of bees in the Heddon hives. 

 He contracted the brood-chamber after swarming; 

 and as cucumber honey came on he had swarms ail 

 through August that he had to put back in their 

 hives after cutting out queen-cells. I have 17 stands 

 from 8 in the spring. To one small swarm, June 30, 

 black bees, I gave a virgin (jueen, put on eight Sim- 

 plicity frames of partly drawn combs. Not having 

 sections to put on, I left them without examining 

 until Sept. 1. One frame was full of sealed honey, 

 and in all eight there was not to exceed one frame 

 of brood, nearly all sealed, both honey and brood; 

 all cells had something in them. The honey is very 

 nice, and looks like bnsswood. So far as I have 

 tasted it I think it is equally good. We have had 

 very dry weather since the tirst week iu August, 

 and cucumbers are failing: but they have done 

 bettor than goldcnrod, tvs that is so dried that the 



bees scarcely work on it. 

 ed on it strong. 

 Pinckney, Mich. 



All last year they work 

 Ika V. Reevs. 



OUR EXCHANGE DEPARTMENT OF 

 ADVERTISING. 



SOMETHING ABOUT THE DIFFICULTIES AS WELL AS 

 CONVENIENCES OF THE ARRANGEMENT. 



OK some time past I have been a little 

 undecided as to whether this depart- 

 ment was, in tlie end, one that brought 

 more good to our friends than it did 

 evil. Ever since the department com- 

 menced, there have been more or less dis- 

 satisfied people. For instance, somebody 

 advertises to trade a pair of ducks for bees. 

 A correspondence opens up, and the trade is 

 made. But the duck-man writes to the ed- 

 itor of Gleanings that the bee-man swin- 

 dled him. There were not as many bees as 

 he agreed to give him ; they were not Ital- 

 ians, and they were miseriibly put up, and 

 may be directed wrongly l)esides, and he 

 thinks we should advertise the bee-man as 

 a swindler. Remembering the virtue that 

 "• thinketh no evil,'" we write a kind letter to 

 the bee-man, and he replies that the one 

 who has been swindled is himself. The ducks 

 were not as represented, and were hardly 

 worth the charges, and he says that the 

 duck-man is a mean fellow, untruthful, and 

 dishonest besides. In despair we write a 

 letter enjoining charity to both paitits, and 

 exhort them to settle the matter, if ])ossible, 

 in a way that will be satisfactor.\ . Now an- 

 other case. 



A man had more wagons than he needed, 

 but lie did not have as many bees as he 

 wanted, so he advertised that he would 

 trade wagons for bees. I knew pretty well 

 when the advertisement came that he would 

 dispose of the wagons, without any trouble. 

 So he did. There were not wagons enough 

 to go round. One of our neighbors was put 

 to considerable inconvenience in conse- 

 quence, and thought he ought to have 

 damages. I believe the matter was finally 

 fixed up, but it suggested a caution to tliose 

 having only a limited supply of certain arti- 

 cles to dispose of. Be careful what promise 

 or encouragement you make. Terhaps the 

 only safe way would be to give each appli- 

 cant the refusal of the article or articles till 

 such a specified date as will give him plenty 

 of time to answer. Then if he does not take 

 up your offer you cnn notify the next man, 

 and so on. The worst case in the lot is sub- 

 stantially as follows : 



A Mr. Ed Hitchcock, of Lockport, N. Y., 

 advertised four small Yorkshire and six Po- 

 land-China pigs for exchange. A corres' 

 pondence was opened up. and Mr. Hitch- 

 cock wrote very fair-looking letters. The 

 consequence was. that one of our bee-folks 

 away down in Texas shipped quite a large 

 lot of bees all the way to Lockport, N. Y, 

 Mr. Hitchcock came "and looked at them 

 when they arrived, and told the agent he 

 would come and get them as soon as he 

 could secure the money to pay the charges ; 

 but the bees were left to die at the express 

 ofiice. Our Texas friend lost her bees, be- 



