7(U 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



OtT. 



shall have a larg-e crop. It deserves to be placed at 

 the head of the honey-plants of Illinois. The largest 

 yield T ever saw came from it; and the rapidity 

 with which the bees g-ather from it is equaled only 

 during the best basswood yields. Yet to most peo- 

 ple it is ■' only a weed." Perhaps it is only a weed, 

 but it is not a bad weed. In fact, 1 know of no ob- 

 jection to it except that it is a weed. It has no burrs 

 to catch the clothing or the hair of animals, no 

 winged seeds to be scattered far and wide by the 

 wind. It does not grow to an objectionable height, 

 and is very easy to kill. Sometimes it grows a little 

 too freely among small grain; but as a rule it does 

 not make much growth until (he grain is harvested, 

 when it comes up in the stubble. In the .jornflelds 

 the corn gets so large before it grows much that it 

 seems to do little or no damage. But it is of no 

 earthly use save to produce honey, and so its beau- 

 ties and virtues will remain unappreciated, save by 

 the bee-keeper. James A. Green. 



Dayton, 111., Sept. 8, 1888. 



Friend G., I am very glad indeed to have 

 you give us such a testimonial in favor of 

 heartsease. It was Ernest who made the 

 remark that the honey season was entirely 

 over, and he forgot to add, " in many local- 

 ities." As there seems to be a little misun- 

 derstanding in regard to the plant call- 

 ed heart"s-ease, will some of the friends 

 please have a photograph made of a good 

 specimen in full bloom. We would have it 

 done here, but I have not seen any this sea- 

 son. A cut of one of the blossoms enlarged 

 would be desirable. The leaves are quite 

 large enough for illustration — perhaps too 

 large; but they can easily be reduced. I 

 presume we are, of course, to move our bees 

 to wliere the heart's-ease nourishes, rather 

 than to make the plant flourish where the 

 bees are. Nobody would think of raising a 

 crop of it. 



TAILOR BEES AND HEART'S-EASE. 



ARE SMAIITWEED AND HEART'S-EASE IDENTICAL? 



'M. D. KRATZ, Hatfield, Pa., sends some of 

 the tailor bees— three females and one 

 male. These are the Megachile bees. The 

 females have golden-yellow hairs beneath 

 their bodies, which aid them to collect pol- 

 len. The male has a very curiously developed 

 front leg, which is not for collecting pollen, as Mr. 

 K. thinks, but doubtless has some importance in 

 mating. I give a figure of this curious leg in my 

 last edition of " Bee-Keeper's Guide." These bees 

 are called " tailor bees " from their habit of cutting 

 regular pieces, circular or oval, from leaves of trees 

 and plants. 



HONEY FROM SMARTWEED. 



S. L. Perkins, Farragut, Iowa, sends a plant which 

 he calls heart's-ease. He says his hives were emp- 

 ty two weeks ago, but now are full— some with 48 

 sections nearly completed, and others three stories 

 high for extracting. He expects, barring frosts, to 

 have these flowers yet three weeks, and he expects 

 100 lbs. per colony of extracted honey from this 

 plant. Ho says the weed grows on the alluvial soil 

 of the Missouri Kiver in Iowa, and is a nuisance un- 

 til fall, when it is very valuable to the bee-keeper. 

 He states that, for ten years, he has secured from 

 each colony $10.00 worth uf this honey, each season. 



except last year. The plant is one of (he smart- 

 weeds, Pij??y(;o?i?/m Pcnnsulvanicum . I am surprised 

 to find that smartweed has such a good record as a 

 honey-plant. I have never noticed iiees on it much 

 here. We have this same species, but not very 

 common. The smartweeds belong to the buck- 

 wheat family, and so we should not be very much 

 surprised that it is a honey-plant. Dock-sorrel, and 

 pie-plant also, are of the same natural order. Has 

 any one else discovered in smartweed a good source 

 of honey? A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich. 



Friend Cook, are you not in error in call- 

 ing heart's-ease and smartweed one and the 

 same thingV The matter was discussed in 

 our journals considerably several years ago, 

 and we decided that heart's-ease is a great 

 big kind of smartweed. While smartweed 

 is but very little noticed by bees in our lo- 

 cality, they literally swarm on the heart's- 

 ease. It looks very much like smartweed, 

 only the leaves and flowers are on an im- 

 mense scale, and the seeds from it almost 

 pass for small buckwheat. Large crops of 

 honey have been reported from it. in the 

 Western States. It usually comes up in 

 cornfields, after the last hoeing. It seems 

 to require a good mellow soil. Our friend 

 J. A. Green, in the article just preceding 

 this, tells us more about it, and the honey it 

 protluces. 



^ I ^1 



RECEPTACLES FOR EXTRACTED 

 HONEY. 



PAPER INSTEAD OF TIN FOR MAKING SQUARE 



CANS. 



K. ROOT:— Having spent three years in the 

 aj)iary and supply trade, I have given all 

 matters pertaining to apiculture my undi- 

 vided attention. Running for extracted 

 honey, I have been very much interested 

 in doing what I could to lessen the expense of rais- 

 ing and shipping our product. 



While handling about 50 or 60,000 lbs., both in 58-lb. 

 cans, in wooden jackets, and in barrels, I have ad- 

 mired the easy way in which the 58-lb. cans could be 

 handled, still aware of the fact that they are very 

 expensive— too much so for the specialist who sells 

 his crop in lots of from lOtK) to 30,000 lbs. Dreading 

 the awkwardness and leakage of a keg or barrel, 

 but esteeming its low price, I first thought of the 

 new style of package which I describe below. It is 

 to be made of paper, inclosed in a wooden jacket, 

 much like the one used for tin cans. It will have 

 to be made stronger, and must have no cracks 

 large enough to allow any nail or other instrument 

 to pierce a hole through the can. It is to hold 58 

 lbs., but 50 will probably be the desired amount for 

 such a can to carry. 



The following is the method in which the recepta- 

 cle is to be manufactured: Lay a piece of stout 

 manilla paper (large enough to form the bottom 

 and all four sides) on the bench; on this place a 

 form the size of the inside of can when completed ; 

 then wrap or form it to the form, gluing all places 

 where it laps sufficiently to hold it in place, till the 

 cover can be placed and strongly glued on. Now 

 take out the form and place and glue on the cover, 

 which is to be made of a piece of paper, flat, with a 

 rirolprojecting down over the sides of the can. A^ 



