m^ 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Nov. 



marsb. I have been out on the marsh twice this 

 week, and I know that my bees go from four to six 

 miles. 1. K. Good. 



Nappanee, Ind.. Sept 6, 1888. 



Many tlianks. friend (io d. I have seen 

 this same yellow tlower so thick as to make 

 the ground as yellow as if it were covered 

 with yellow snow; and I have known bees 

 to gather honey with great rapidity from 

 such a source. The fact you give us'is very 

 interesting. After the larjje ditch was cut 

 through tlie wet land, this plant came up as 

 thick as it could stand. How long had 

 those seeds remained in the ground? Cut- 

 ting a ditch through, or chopping down tim- 

 ber, often gives ns some curious results in 

 this line. It has before been stated, tliat 

 bees fly several miles to tind these dense 

 fields of yellow bloom. 



SUCCESS IN PEDOTjING HONEY. 



Friend Root:— I owe a debt of thanks to the 

 friends who advocate peddling- as one of the best 

 methods of selling honey. 1 have sold 4000 lbs. of 

 extracted and 2000 lbs. comb from my spring wagon. 

 The extracted was put up in pails nicely labeled, 

 the pails holding from one pint to one gallon. Comb 

 honey was stored in one-pound sections packed in 

 crates, holding from Vi to 48 lbs. The one-pint pails 

 just suited our Mexican trade. They always want a 

 small quantity at a time, and will take a pint every 

 time I come around. 1 shall not have honey enough 

 this year to supply the demand, so 1 have bought 

 more bees and will start another apiary three miles 

 from home. I shall commence the out-apiary with 

 10il colonies of blacks and hybrids which I shall Ital- 

 ianize. J. P CAT.DWEtjL. 



San Marcos, Tex., Oct. 5, 1888. 



COCKROACHES. 



Mr Hiram Adams, of Waukesha. VVis., sends me a 

 cockroach, and wishes me to state in Gt,eanings 

 whether this insect will survive the Northern win- 

 ters, and become a pest. The cockroaches, like 

 many another of us, like and know how to appreci- 

 ate good things. So sugar storehouses, groceries, 

 house cell rs, and even the kitchen larder, are not 

 infrequently the hunting-ground of these sprightly 

 insects. The cockroach is brown in color, broad and 

 tl it in form, and very swift of foot. They inhabit 

 or infest such places as mentioned above, and are 

 also frequently found under the bark of old trees, 

 under boards and rotten logs. If they become too 

 familiar in kitchen, cellar, or storehouse, they can 

 be easily poisoned. Brown sugar and arsenic, or, 

 better, brown sugar and Paris green, will quickly 

 dispatch these intruders. I say, better, Paris 

 green, as there is far less danger from having this 

 in the house. White arsenic is so like soda, etc., 

 that it is dangerous to have it in our houses. 



Agricultural College, Mich. A. J. Cook. 



MORE ABOUT HRART'S-EASE ; THE QUALITY OF 

 THE HONEY. 



Friend Boot;— After reading one or two articles 

 in last GiiEANiNGS for Oct. 1, about heart's-ease, or 

 smartweed, as a honey-producing plant, I was sur- 

 I)rised to learn that so little seems to be known 

 about it. 1 bad become so accustomed to it, from a 

 residence of :ll years in Illinois, that T thought eve- 

 ry one in every locality lat least every bee-keeper) 

 was well acquainted with it. It thrives best on 



cultivated land, coming up all through the season, 

 but mostly destroyed by cultivation until after 

 corn is laid by, about July 1st. After that time it 

 grows undisturbed; and if there is considerable 

 rain in July the crop is more profuse, it coming up 

 on oat or wheat stubble after the grain is harvest- 

 ed; but it does not grow so tall as in corn, where it 

 reaches three feet or more in height. On strong 

 land the stalk is sometimes the size of a man's 

 thumb, and branches out as large as a common 

 umbrella. The flowers grow in spikes on the end 

 of the branches; the leaves grow on the main stem, 

 where the flower-stem starts from it about the 

 middle of August. If tlie season is favorable, the 

 honey-flow commences and lasts till frost; as there 

 are new plants coming in regular succession, the 

 honey is clear and thick, and I like the flavor about 

 as well as any honey we raise. 



The bees stored very little honey in this vicinity 

 until the heart's-ease came in bloom; then the 

 flow was pretty fair. One stand of Italians I have, 

 made 80 lbs. in 1-lb. sections; hybrids and blacks 

 did not do so well. I do not think there is much 

 surplus in this section. There are some bees, 

 generally small lots, but mostly left to take care of 

 themselves. The poor season last year, and the 

 first part of this, together with the moth and neg- 

 lect, have destroyed a great many colonies. 



J. A. Campbell. 



Deland, Piatt Co., 111., Oct. 8, 1888. 



HEART'S-EASE HONEY— THE GIANT VARIETY. 



On page 764, Oct. 1st, our friend Prof. Cook wants 

 to know if any one else has discovered a good 

 source of honey in swartweed. At Paw Paw Junc- 

 tion, in New Madrid Co., 1 opened up an apiary and 

 ran it four years, and then sold out to Dr. I. X. 

 Illinski, of East St. Louis. It is located in the over- 

 flowed lands along Little River, in the county that 

 was sunk by earthquake in 1811 and '13. Within 

 half a mile of the apiary cominences this wonder- 

 ful plant, called here "giant smartweed," and it is 

 rightly named, for it is a real giant. It grows en- 

 tirely in the overflow, being nearly at all times 

 covered with water to within two or three feet of 

 the top. The stalks are very large, many of them 

 being an inch and a half in diameter at the water's 

 surface, and, when pulled up straight, are from 10 

 to 13 feet tall. The flower-stems are from six to 

 twelve inches long, and the seeds are like small 

 buckwheat, excepting that they are a shiny black. 

 It yields a verj- thick heavy honey of a nice amber 

 color. When new it has a rather strong flavor, but 

 ripens into a very mild and pleasant taste, and so 

 thick in cold weather it will not run. I never saw 

 any of it candied. The last year I was there we 

 kept account. From the 10th of Sept. to the 15th of 

 Oct., every hive that we weighed or measured gave 

 us five gallons of extracted honey (and we extract- 

 ed only what was sealed and capped over), every 13 

 days in good weather, and several made it in 10 

 days. Of course, these were all double-storied 

 hives; but very little was extracted from the brood- 

 chamber— just enough to give thequein plenty of 

 room for brood. So you will see that this kind of 

 smartweed is very rich in honey. 



Walden, Mo., Oct. 15, 1888. Samuel D. Bates. 



Thanks, friend B.,for your excellent re- 

 port in regard to the great big heart's-ease 

 along the Mississippi River. Five gallons 

 of honey in 12 days would be equal to 5 or 6 



