800 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS, 



THE CARDINAL FLOWER. 



K. ROOT:— You will remember that our 

 friend President Geo. E. Hilton had some 

 very fine honey at the Saginaw meeting of 

 our Michigan Association last December. 

 He told me that the honey was from the 

 Indian pink. From his description 1 supposed the 

 plant was the great willow herb, Epilobium Angusti- 

 folium, which is beautifully illustrated in the new 

 edition of my Manual, page 380. I thought this 

 because T knew that this plant often abounds in 

 profusion in our northern counties, that the honey 

 from it is white and delicious, and that Mr. Case, of 

 PetosKy, and the Wiikins sisters, of St. Clare Co., 

 had received bountiful harvests from this source. 



To-day I received from Mr. Hilton the "Indian 

 pink," as he calls it, and lol it is our beautiful car- 

 dinal fiower, Lobelia CaixUnaUs. I am rather sur- 

 prised to find that the beautiful honey is from the 

 cardinal tlower, as that is a not very rare flower in 

 this region, and I rarely have seen bees about it, 

 though the more common blue, Lobelia Kalmii, I 

 have seen visited by bees. Here, then, we have 

 another valuable honey-plant; and this plant is 

 doubly welcome. It is handsome yer se, and hand- 

 some in accomplishment. A. J. Cook. 

 Agricultural College, Mich. 



Friend Cook, can't yoti tell us where we 

 can find a picture of' Lobelia Cardinalis ? 

 When you pronounced that honey from wil- 

 low-herb, at the Saginaw meeting, I felt at 

 the time a little undecided about it. If bees 

 visit the common lobelia, I should have more 

 faith in that honey as a remedy for distress- 

 ing coughs than any hoai hound or any thing 

 else. If any of the friends can give me some 

 lobelia honey that has lobelia enough about 

 it to produce sickness at the stomach, as 

 lobelia does, I will give 25 cts. a pound for 

 it. Now, I do not want some ordinary honey 

 with lobelia tincture added. I wantnature's 

 genuine product; and if what I ask for can 

 belfurnished, may be I shall go into the med- 

 icine-business. I feel a very great friend- 

 ship for the common blue lobelia— the kind 

 that nauseates by chewing the pods. If any- 

 body has a cough on his lungs that keeps 

 him awake nights, I think lobelia will give 

 him rest; at least it did your humble ser- 

 vant, when he wasa very small boy. 



A QUEEN WHICH CAN NOT DEPOSIT EGGS. 



I see something said in Sept. 1st Gleanings 

 about supersedure. I received a queen from J. T. 

 Wilson that laid right along, but could not deposit 

 licr eggs. I have seen her with a pile or bunch of 

 eggs on top of her, the bees following and taking 

 them off. She seemed to have power to lay, but 

 none to deposit; yet she kept her colony up pretty 

 well, and for the past six weeks or more she has 

 had a daughter helping her, and the two are still at 

 work, and have a fine hive full of nice yellow bees. 

 I have seen the two within one inch, laying. One 

 seemed not to care for the presence of the other. 



Cumberland, O., Sept. 39, 1888. J. H. Daniel. 



You have furnished us a very important 



fact, friend I). Although you do not say so 

 directly, we are led to suppose that the 

 strength of the colony was kept up by the 

 eggs which the worker-bees took from the 

 queen and deposited in the cells. No won- 

 der they decided to have another queen 

 reared to help her mother, for it must have 

 taken a deal of traveling to take these eggs 

 and carry them from cell to cell. One can 

 imagine that, during the height of the 

 brood-rearing season, they were obliged to 

 sit up nights to take care of the eggs, and 

 see that none were lost. 



is proximity to salt water detrimental to 



THE flavor of HONEY? 



The inclosed item I clipped from the New York 

 World. Can you let us know if the statement is 

 true? Thos. Rothwell. 



Austinville, Pa., Sept. 18, 1888. 



A singular experience WITH BEES. 



Geo. O. Lmcoln, Orange Farm, ia.— Having read 

 in your paper an article from O. Barrows, Marshall- 

 town, la., relating his "experience in placing bee- 

 hives," without taking up too much of your space 

 I will give him some of my experience with bees. I 

 am on an orange grove of l:i,000 bearing trees, 

 whose crop annually sells in the blossom for f20,000. 

 Some years ago theowners of this place conceived 

 the idea of turning the sweets of the blossoms of 

 these 13,000 orange-trees into dollars by means of 

 bees. They secured 300 colonies of Italian bees at a 

 cost of $3,000. The hives used were the movable- 

 frame " Dixie hive." Now, this place is right on 

 the bank of the Mississippi River, with fresh water 

 within 100 yards from where the hives were placed. 

 In the rear, five miles distant, is the salt water of 

 tlie Mexican Gulf. The first season the honey was 

 all that could be desired, having the flavor and 

 odor of orange-blossoms; but the year following, 

 and until the bee-business was given up as a miser- 

 able failure, the honey made by these bees was 

 salt, and by analysis gave one pound of salt to the 

 gallon of honey, and was totally unfit for use of 

 any kind. These bees had the best care and atten- 

 tion. Can Mr. Barrows tell me why our bees left 

 the fresh, pure river water and used the salt water 

 five miles away, when the river was at their doors? 



Our impression is that there is no truth at 

 all in the statement. Were it so, we think 

 we should have heard of it before. Can any- 

 body tell us if there is such a place as Or- 

 ange Farm in Louisiana? Bees are fond of 

 salt, as almost everybody knows; but that 

 bees should gather salt to such an extent as 

 to make it appear in honey, I can hardly be- 

 lieve without better testimony. 



CARNIOLANS AND OPEN SIDED SECTIONS. 



As there has been a great deal asked about the 

 Carniolans, I will give my experience with them. 

 I purchased of Dr. Morrison, of Oxford, Pa., in 

 July, one untested queen, and gave her to a weak 

 colony of Italians. At present writing her hive is 

 full of nice large steel colored bees. As to disposi- 

 tion, I think they are all that can be desired. I do 

 not use smoke in handling them, and have not been 

 stung by one of them. I consider them a valuable 

 improvement in the bee-family. 



OPEN SECTIONS. 



I began using them last season, and was so much 

 pleased with the result that I would not think of 

 using any other. They do away entirely with divid- 

 ers, and I am certain that it is a great saving of 

 time to the bees to have free passage through the 

 section-case in all directions. I agree with Byron 

 Walker in regard to having only three entrances in 



