1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



9fi7 



SIMMINS NON-SWAIIMINO SYSTKM. 



Not deslriug: much increase at present, we also 

 adoi)ted the " Simiiiiiis non-swarming- system." 

 This consists in setting an empty story with frames 

 containing "g-n ides" underneath the brood-combs. 

 Of course, a colony will not swarm with so much 

 vacant space in the hive. But I am not sure it is j 

 jfood policy. However, it certainly worlis the de- 

 sired result. 



APICULTURAL, E.VHIISITS IN HAKCEIjONA, SP.\IN. j 



Even thoug-h Americans are not, as a general 

 thing, so partial to Spanish affairs and men as they 

 should be, for the good book tells us to love our 

 neighbor as oursolf, and chivalrous Spain has more 

 than once returned us good for evil, I can not but 

 think some of your readers must have found their 

 way to rJarcelona the past summer, where the bril- 

 liant World's E.xposition has been so successful, and 

 been visited by crowned heads and " sovereigns" 

 without number. The rendezvous in that harbor of 

 the most powerful sqiiadrons in the world has als" 

 given eclat to that imposing spectacle in the real 

 but not royal capital of Spain and Spanish industries. 



1 am happy to inform you, that, thanks to our un- 

 ceasing propaganda, modern apiculture was there 

 honorably represented by over a dozen e.xhibitors, 

 and that our house was honored with one of the 

 only ten gold medals awarded to Spanish industries, 

 by the unanimous decision of the judges. You 

 will understand, that, though we are Americans, 

 our industry on Spanish soil is considered a nation- 

 al one, of which Spaniards are justly proud. One 

 or two of our i)upils also carried off lesser prizes. 

 We presented, among other notable products, some 

 beautiful sections, diamond-shaped, which, placed 

 together in a glass ease, in the foi-m of a crown, or 

 a star, produced a pleasing effect. This was origi- 

 nal with us. but I would hardly advise imitation by 

 your readers, for they are a great bother. We also 

 presented some very elegant glass pots, made in 

 Paris for us, and filled with such pure and transpar- 

 ent honey as made one's mouth water. (Now, 

 friend Root, don't imagine i am trying to have you 

 publish a l)ee advertisement for me. I am simply 

 relating facts, "all of which 1 saw, and part of 

 which T was," as the classic has it.) 



.MINOIICAN VUEENS. 



As you may have read in the BritMi Bee Journal, 

 we have this summer had half a dozen Minorcan 

 queens introduced into the apiaries of Messrs. Ab- 

 bott, Simmins, Blow, and others, in England, for 

 trial; also one in Mons. Bertrand's, Mr. Cowan's 

 friend in Switzerland, the able editor of the Revue 

 Internationale. Tf you road this Revue, or our own 

 Revista, which T send you regularly and hope you 

 receive, you will know that Mr. Bertrand says our 

 queen is very prolific, it still keeping up two frames 

 of brood when all his other hives have stopped 

 breeding. He also calls attention to the fact that 

 our bees, all born in Switzerland, have nevertheless 

 barricaded their entrance door in the peculiar way 

 they all do here. "It is the only hive that has so 

 proceeded," he says; "was it done to defend itself 

 against the sphynxes and beetles uetoines) that 

 abound in Southern countries '/ This instinct of 

 self-defense has been transmitted in the egg, ac- 

 cording to V'ogel, as an immaterial quality." Vou 

 also know that Vogel is a great European authority 

 on apiculture, is President of the Stuttgart Society 

 of Austrian ^nd Gevman Apiculturlstg, anc^ editpr 



of the Bienrn Zeituny, the oldest bee publication 

 known, and which saw the light for the first time 

 44 years ago. 



I inclose one or two photos of our apiaries, the 

 first ever seen in Spain. I will also send you a .Mi- 

 norcan queen ne.\t spring, if you desire it. 



F. C. Anukeu. 



Port Mahon, Island of Minorca, Nov. 1.5, 18HS. 



We are gltid to hear from you, friend A. 

 From various allusions which you make in 

 your article, it seems evident "that you are 

 pretty much of an American in feeling, 

 though your home is on the other side of 

 " the pond."' and you an editor of a Spanish 

 bee-journal besides.— Yes, we have noticed 

 the items concerning the Minorcans. Tiiat 

 these bees, though born in another climate, 

 should still contract their entrances where 

 such precautionary measures were not nec- 

 essary, is an interesting fact indeed. Don't 

 you suppose they kind o' remembered what 

 their fathers, (;r, if you please, their great 

 ancestor aunts did? " Thanks for your pho- 

 tos. They have been placed in our collec- 

 tion.— We should be pleased to receive the 

 queen whenever the weather will be suitable 

 enough to send her next spring, which with 

 us will be about the 1st of May. 



MRS. CHADDOCK'S VISIT 



TO MRS. L. HARRISON, CONTINUED. 



ip FTEK I had spentall the money I had, and bor- 

 rowed some of Mrs. Harrison, I had bought 

 N every thing that I wanted— that is, nearly 

 every thing—and we left the business part 

 of the city and drove out to " the Park," to 

 call on some friends; of Mrs. Harrison's. It is a sort 

 of water-cure-electrical institution. They have been 

 doctoring Mrs. H. and her family for years, and she 

 likes them better than Professor Cook or anybody. 

 The lady physician looks like the picture of Martha 

 Washington, and she carries herself like a princess. 

 (This sentence is borrowed from somebody, but I do 

 not know who, or I would give credit. I never saw 

 a princess, and, of course, do not know how they do 

 carry themselves; but I thought it would sound 

 well here, so 1 put it in). This Mrs. Dr. Welsh was 

 in the Chatsworth horror, and lay for three hours 

 under the wreck before they could get her out. 

 She was not crippled, nor any thing, but the rail- 

 road company paid her 11500 tor the injury to her 

 nervous system. All the time that we sat in their 

 beautiful and newly furnished parlor, that little 

 Lucy kept me on tenterhooks. I was trying to 

 talk to Dr. Welsh, but 1 could not connect my sen- 

 tences very well, because I was so much afraid that 

 Lucy would pull the " bobbles " oft the lovely new 

 curtains, or knock out a pane of glass, or some- 

 thing. And the doctor was as much troubled as I 

 was— possibly more. She spoke to the child several 

 times, and re(inested her to please keep her hands 

 off the curtains, and not to scratch the paint with 

 the jHgged stick that she hud picked up on the side- 

 walk Mrs. Harrison was busily engaged, talking 

 and laughing with Dr. Graham, but she turned to 

 I-ucy from time to time and bade her be quiet. 

 When 1 could sit still no longer I went over to the 

 little lady and asked her to give me the stick. She 

 gritted her teeth and clung to it like grim deatt). 



