1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



839 



Florida to Cuba, has very thoroughly impressed on 

 me the truth of the saying, that no one can 

 achieve the highest success in bee culture until he 

 has a thorough understanding of the peculiarities 

 of his location. 



A NEW BEE-KSCAPE EASILY MADE. 



In the answers to query No. 63, on page 533, I see 

 that Dadant & Son recommend letting the wire 

 screen run above the window on the outside. I 

 found exactly that arrangement on the shop here ; 

 and although the screen runs at least a foot above 

 the top of the window, the bees very quickly learn 

 how to get in as well as out, and I have had to 

 make it moi'e effective, which was very easily done, 

 and, as now arranged, makes as cheap and effec- 

 tive a bee-escape as I know of. I simply nailed 

 some small square sticks of wood between the 

 screen and the side of the house, so each two sticks 

 would be in the form of A. with the top end of the 

 sticks sharpened, and just far enough apart to al- 

 low one bee to pass at a time. This has worked 

 perfectly. 1 inclose a very rough diagram, to as- 

 sist you in understanding the arrangement. 



I think if you had had very much experience in 

 trj ing to save combs from the moth in as southern 

 a climate as South Carolina, you would have ans- 

 wered Mr. C. L. Baddy's question on page 646 some- 

 what differently. Moths are much more difficult to 

 control in the South than in the North, and re- 

 quire a great deal more work to do so. Should I 

 ever have any quantity of combs to protect, I 

 would build a moth-tight room, with proper racks 

 large enough to hold all the combs that would need 

 protection, and so arranged that sulphur could 

 readily be burned in the room, and sulphur should 

 be burned in there as often as once everj' week or 

 ten days, as long as any combs were in it. This 

 makes much more thorough treatment than is 

 needed in the North, but no more than I think is 

 necessary in a Southern climate. 



In referring to question 49, on page 652, friend 

 Drumright suggests that, by an examination of 

 the Cuban bee-hives, I could tell your readers 

 whether bees prefer ends or sides of combs to the 

 front. The question was not what the bees prefer, 

 but which way is best for the bee-keeper. Where I 

 had plenty of room between hives, as in Iowa, I 

 prefer the end of combs to the front; but where 

 hives lire necessarily crowded close together, as 

 they arc here in Cuba, the other way makes easier 

 work. 



In your remarks on queries 76 and 78, on page 

 695, September 15th issue, you assume that I, 

 with others, am not interested in the making of 

 apiarian exhibits at fairs. So far as T am concern- 

 ed you are mistaken, as I have been interested in 



this line ever since becoming a bee-keeper. Cir- 

 cumstances have been such that I have oftener 

 been an officer of the society than an exhibitor. 

 The society to which 1 belonged was in a new and 

 not thickly settled county in the West; and what- 

 ever experience I may have had there, would be 

 little or no guide to the very large majority of so- 

 cieties in the country, and I answered accordingly, 

 without going into details. Three or four years 

 ago the Rev. O. Clute and myself were intrusted 

 with the duty of arranging a premium list for the 

 apiarian department of the Iowa State Fair. The 

 amount of premiums was limited to an aggregate 

 of *175, and the principles on which we arranged 

 the list were brietly given in my reply to query 78. 

 The premium lists for 1889 will nearly all be ar- 

 ranged at the annual meetings in January; and 

 would it not be a wise thing for you to obtain all or 

 nearly all the principal lists in the country, and 

 publish a few of the best ones as guides to such of 

 your readers as may be interested? Such lists 

 would have helped us very much. i( we could have 

 had them when arranging our own. 



Friend Heddon and myself differ in opinion on so 

 many points in bee culture that it is very pleasant, 

 to me at least, to find one on which we do thorough- 

 ly and heartily agree. I refer to what he says 

 about Prof. Cook, on page 687. Many things, which 

 are right and proper in a small experimental apia- 

 ry, will not work in large practical apiaries any 

 more than methods which are good in small shops 

 with one or two hands are not good in large ones 

 employing hundreds. For this reason, differences 

 of opinion will always be coming up between such 

 men as Prof. Cook and practical bee-keepers, and 

 well will it be for us all if we coula have the ability 

 and disposition that he lias, of correctly judging 

 and adopting correct views and ideas, without ref- 

 erence to whether they are his own or an oppo- 

 nent's. There are other men whose loss would be 

 deeply felt by the beekeepers of America, but 

 none more so than would that of Prof. Cook. Long 

 may he live to aid, by his knowledge and example, 

 the thousands of men like myself who depend 

 largely on the little busy bee for the ordinary com- 

 forts of life. Some of us who know hitu perj^onally 

 value him for other qualities thiin those dliectly 

 connected with bee-keeping. O. O. Poppletun. 



Havana, Cuba, Oct. .5, 1888. 



Many thanks, friend P., for yoiii' very in- 

 genious suQ^gestion in regard to a chfap 

 method of making bee-escapes. .\ flat i)itH'(! 

 of wire cloth, and some sticks ot wood 

 about a quarter of an inch squaie, will easi- 

 ly arrange a bee-escape for any room, I 

 should think, more effectively and much 

 cheaper than the wire cones. But if I un- 

 derstand you, friend P., the sticks should 

 meet each other at the boltnyn, so that the 

 bees, in crawling down between the wire 

 cloth and the house, would find themselves 

 baffled. — I presiniie very likely it is a more 

 difficult matter to combat moths in tropical 

 or warm climates.— I am very glad indeed 

 to know that you are in the habit of helping 

 the fairs in your locality. May God bless 

 you and all the other brothers in this work 

 of looking after our local fairs. We have 

 already given lists of awards, as a sort of 

 outline for the managers of the fair to make 

 up their premium-lists from, but we are 

 quite willing to give more if need be. 



