962 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



too. It does not rain hard enough to hurt 

 the mud walls here, and it never freezes. 

 The women-folks sweep the floor and walls, 

 and even the roof and dooryard too. Well, 

 papa saw some little bits of " dogs "' that 

 live in mud houses too. They dig holes in 

 the ground and pile the dirt all around the 

 hole, and then they sit on the pile of dirt, 

 and bark at the train when it goes by. They 

 are called prairie-dogs, and they live in vil- 

 lages, as the Mexicans do. Some of the 

 Mexican mud houses are made in the side of 

 ;i hill, and then their house is cool in sum- 

 mer and warm in winter. They have Chi- 

 nese folks here too. The Chinese make 

 nice gardens. As it doesn't rain, they have 

 little ditches to bring the water ever so many 

 miles from the river. As we ride along on 

 the train the mud houses look very funny, 

 for they don't seem big enough for folks to 

 get into at all. They never have any win- 

 dows. Good-night. 



[A note from Ernest.] Just after the last 

 issue of Gleanings had gone out. we found 

 there was a batch of copy, some four or five 

 pages of manuscript, which had. somehow 

 or other, " got left out." As the account of 

 the travels ran along continuously, we did 

 not notice the omission from the reading of 

 the proof. It should, however, have appear- 

 ed on page 943, just before the first para- 

 graph. As it is quite complete in itself, we 

 think our readers will not lose sight of the 

 continuous thread. You know, something 

 always goes wrong when the " big boss " is 

 away. It is not so very bad, but then it 

 would have been better had it appeared in 

 its geographical order. 



CARRYING BEES INTO THE CELLAR. 



r. C. MILLER TELLS HOW HE DOES IT. 



T|p LTHOFGH we had an excellent article on 

 gllk "placing bees in the cellar," from friend Doo- 



j^K little, Nov. 1, the importance of the matter 

 ■*^*' will, I think, warrant me in saying something 

 more about it. it may be late for some (per- 

 haps it ought to be for all), but just now man3' will 

 be interested, even if the bees are all in. For those 

 not physically strong, the wheelbarrow plan may 

 be good. Still, the bees will be shaken up more 

 than by careful carrying, no matter how soft the 

 cushion may be; and. besides, the heaviest part of 

 the work is left unmodified, and that is, lifting the 

 hives from the stand, and lifting them on the pile 

 in the cellar. In many cases it is quite convenient 

 to have two persons carry in the hives, although 

 either or both of them may be far from strong. My 

 own bees were carried in this j-ear by three individ- 

 uals, either one of whom would have broken down 

 before carrying twenty hives alone. My hives are 

 cleated; and one way to carry them is for one per- 

 son to take one side of the hive and another the 

 other, walking side by side, each one holding on to 

 the cleat at or near the corner, front and rear. But 

 a better way is this: Take a rope strong enough so 

 there can be no question about its breaking, and 

 thick enough so it will not cut the hand in carry- 

 ing. We took a long piece of bed-cord, or clothes- 

 line, wound it up so it would be the right length, 

 and then wrapped the two ends around and around, 



and tied them together so that it was much tlie 

 same as a single thickness of very thick rope. It 

 was long enough so that, when carrying, the hand 

 at each side was three or four inches higher than 

 the hive. 



C. C. MILLER S METHOD OF CARRYING HIVES TO THE 

 CELLAR. 



Now both of you take hold of the ropes, one on 

 each side; slip it under the cleat at one cud of the 

 hive, then move the hands along and slip the rope 

 under the cleat at the other end, and then each of 

 you take hold of the rope with one hand, the one at 

 the right holding on with the left hand, the one at 

 the left using the right hand, grasping the rope at 

 the middle of each side, and you will carry it just 

 like a basket between you. You will bo really sur- 

 prised at how light it will n\ake the work. The 

 heaviest part is placing the hive on the pile; but 

 two can do it much more easily than one. 



The great secret of getting the bees in without 

 arousing- them is to handle theiu very gently. We 

 began taking in Oct. "'.i; and although the weather 

 was so warm that a few bees would be flying some- 

 times while we were carrying— I mean they were 

 Qying from hives that were standing undisturbed— 

 yet the hives we carried were scarcely ever aroused 

 at all. We kept doors and windows of i-ellars open 

 day and night, making, as Bro. Dooiittle suggests, 

 the temperature nearly the same as outdoors. 



If hives are to be piled one on top of another, let 

 a newspaper be placed between. This will save the 

 annoyance next spring of having a quill stick to the 

 bottom of a hive, and stirring up the family under 

 it. 



BEES NOT WORKING ON GRAPES. 



For the first cime in my experience, bees did not 

 touch grapes this year. I don't know how to ac- 

 count for it. There were plenty of grapes, and 

 part of the time I had 287 colonies standingat home, 

 with nothing to do, fierce to work upon a sugar-bar- 

 rel or any thing daubed with honey, but they didn't 

 touch the grapes. Against the side of the house, a 

 few clusters were left till after the bees were all in 

 the cellar; but the bees did not disturb them. Un- 

 derstand, that I have bushels of grapes; and other 

 years, unless gathered as soon as ripe, or a little 

 sooner, they were utterly destroyed. Can it be that 

 the insect, wasp, or what not, was lacking that 

 makes the slotted holes? By the way, these punc- 



