830 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Nov 



they are set on the other hives, so as to come over 

 this space between the hives below, they resting on 

 the edges of the hives below, as I said at first, the 

 next tier sitting over the empty spaces between 

 the last, and so on till the top of the cellar is reach- 

 ed. To keep the dead bees, etc., from soiling the 

 cushions and hives below, newspapers are spread 

 over them before the next tier is set on top. I be- 

 lieve this is something similar to the way friend 

 Boardman winters his bees. In any event, I like 

 the plan very much. 



Third, he asks, " Is it best to carry them in in the 

 day time or after dark?" As to this matter, I do 

 not know that it makes any difference with the 

 bees. The only thing to be considered is the con- 

 venience of the operator and the prospect of what 

 the weather will be on the following day. I have 

 frequently carried in my bees on a moonlight eve- 

 ning, when I feared it might rain the next morn- 

 ing, for I consider it a great advantage to have the 

 hives set in the cellar when dry. At other times I 

 have risen at 4 o'clock in the morning and set the 

 bees in before daylight, getting them in just as it 

 was commencing to rain; still, the most of the set- 

 ting-in has been done by daylight, this having the 

 advantage as far as seeing is concerned. 



Fourth, he asks, " Should the weather be cold or 

 warm, when the bees are set in?" I used to think 

 that the weather should be cold, in order that the 

 bees need not fly out of the hive if they were dis- 

 turbed, fearing that they would disturb easier in 

 warm weather than in cold; but after an experi- 

 ence of the past five years, I now say, set them in 

 when the outside air is nearly or of the same tem- 

 perature of that in the cellar, if possible, and never 

 when the hives are full of frost, and frozen down, 

 if it can be avoided. Where hives are frozen down 

 to the bottom-boards, and the outsides of them 

 covered with snow and ice, it is the worst time pos- 

 sible to carry them in; while getting them in at 

 such a time without disturbing them is out of the 

 question, for each hive will come up from the bot- 

 tom-board with such a shock that all the bees in 

 the hive are at once aroused. The "proper tempera- 

 ture in which to set them in is from 35 to 50°; but 

 as this can not always be obtained, from 30 to 35° 

 will do very well. 



In closing, I will say that the time of year in 

 which to set bees in the cellar is from October 2.5th 

 to November 30th, according to latitude, and not in 

 December, as used to be advocated. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Borodino, N. Y., Oct. 16, 1888. 



Well done, old friend. I have thought of 

 a sort of neckyoke, or wire, to put over my 

 shoulders, but I never before thought of 

 having something made of leather just 

 right. From what experience I have had I 

 am sure it would be worth all it cost to me 

 to put 100 colonies in and set them out a 

 single time. The wheelbarrow is tiptop, 

 but you have to lift the hives from the 

 wheelbarrow to their places. If I under- 

 stand it, your arrangement for placing the 

 hives is like the one figured on page 90, in 

 our issue for Feb. 1st, a la Boardman. It 

 has always seemed to me, however, that the 

 bees would get out of their hives a great 

 deal more where the whole bottom of the 

 hive was taken away entirely. I like your 



glan of putting a newspaper on top of the 

 ive, just underneath, to prevent soiling. 



At our last convention, reports favored 

 strongly putting the bees away as soon as 

 October. 



HEART'S-EASE HONEY. 



AI>SO TUPELO HONEY IN FLORIDA, ETC. 



a BAR MR. EDITOR:— I am more than willing 

 to take back what I said about the heart's- 

 ease honey. My friend J. A. Green, of Day- 

 ton, 111., thinks it quite a mistake to call this 

 smartweed, and I guess he is right. The 

 *' heart's-ease " looks much like the smartweed, 

 though the flower is brighter, and the leaves are 

 not pungent. It seems that there are two species 

 of this heart's-ease — PoJj/{/onw>n Penngylvanicum 

 and P. Persicaria, while the real smartweed, which 

 causes the mouth to smart when we chew the 

 leaves or stems, is P. acre which grows from two to 

 four feet high, and P. hydropiper, which grows 

 fiom one to two feet high. Both of these grow on 

 low wet soils. The other two species of the heart's- 

 ease grow on uplands and bear rose-purple flowers 

 which are very pretty. P. PrnnsylxHinicum grows 

 from one to three feet high, and P. Persicaria only 

 one foot high. This last is introduced from Eu- 

 rope. 



Surely heart's-ease is a very appropriate name, 

 especially this year, for these two plants. The on- 

 ly possible objection to it is, that it is often applied 

 to violets or pansies, though this use of it is not so 

 common but that we may use it safely, I think, for 

 this polygonum. 



TUPELO HONEY. 



I was very glad that Mr. J. Y. Detwiler was pres- 

 ent from Florida to speak a good word for the 

 black-mangrove honey, and very glad that the 

 North American Association voted unanimously 

 to lend its influence toward having this excellent 

 honey reported under its own name as black-man- 

 grove honey. I believe Mr. Muth said at the Cin- 

 cinnati meeting that he knew of no better honey 

 than this from the mangrove of Florida. Those of 

 us who have tested its qualities will all coincide 

 that, for excellence of flavor as well as for appear- 

 ance, it ranks with clover and basswood. Surely, 

 then, it Is due the Florida bee-keepers that this be 

 quoted in the market reports as black-mangrove 

 honey. 



I now have evidence that this is not the only 

 honey from Florida that is No. 1 in quality. I have 

 just received from J. L. Clark, Apalachicola, Flori- 

 da, some very excellent honey, which he sends 

 under the name of ogeechee-lime honey. This 

 honey is white, and of most excellent flavor. Mr. 

 Clark sends a twig of the tree, which furnishes 

 the nectar for this honey. The tree is from 30 to .50 

 feet high. The leaves are of the form of apple- 

 leaves, but smaller, and glisten as if waxed. They 

 form tufts at the end of the twigs. The twigs also 

 bear berries which are blue and sour, but not edi- 

 ble. This tree is Nyssa multiflora. The common 

 name is tupelo, or sour gum. I like this name tu- 

 pelo, and suggest that we call the honey tupelo 

 honey. I am sure tupelo honey will equal man- 

 grove In giving Florida a reputation for flrst-class 

 honey. These dry seasons are surely doing one 

 thing: they are showing us the sources of our hon- 

 ey. 



Mr. F. J. M. Otto, of Sandusky, O., who complain- 



