64 



GLEANINGS IN liEP] CULTURE. 



Jan. ir. 



harm from it. as. t'oi' instance^, in the "siu'p 

 cure " for foul brood emanating therefrom. :i. 

 Yes. the right man might do a great deal of 

 good. 

 Illinois. N. C. J. A. Green. 



[I suppose the question has no reference *o 

 any reflection on our experiment stations that 

 belong to the different States, for these have 

 certainly given us some gi-eat -helps; and I 

 heartily indorse Prof. Cook's ])Osition, that 

 every Stat should help its bee-keepers. I be- 

 lieve the Government Experimen . Station will 

 doubtless do much for all our industries.] 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS, 



honey taken by robbt'r bees from colonies affect- 

 ed by said disease will carry it home, and soon 

 it will break out in their hive. At any rate, it 

 has with me. I expect to try taking all the 

 combs of honey away from the colony so affect- 

 ed next year, and give them empty combs, and 

 see if that will cure it. I have tried taking 

 away queens, and failed nearly every time. 



JosiAii Eastburn. 

 Fallsington, Pa., Dec. 22, 18C(0. 



[Friend E., this matter came up at our recent 

 Detroit convention. Almost every one present 

 claimed that changing the queen was a perfect 

 cure: and Prof. Cook said he had recommended 

 this remedy to great numbers, and had never 

 yet heard of a failure. If the disease you have 

 is carried from on(» hive to another, as you de- 

 scribe, I think it must be something else.] 



BUYING AND SELI.IN(i HONEY: (JRADING A 

 NECESSITY. 



Allow me to extend my sympathy. Your 

 troubles in regard to buying and selling honey 

 are the common troubles of all bee-keepers. I 

 would suggest, as a remedy, that all honey be 

 graded as other products are; and I think that, 

 if A. I. Root or some other prominent bee-keeper 

 would bring it n\) at the convention at Albany, 

 something coukl be done. I would suggest, as 

 a starting-point, something like the following 

 grades: 



No. 1. Extra pure white, in No. 1 sections or 

 cartons, no candied honey, capping free from 

 stains. 



No. 2. Pure white; slightly stained cappings 

 should be admitted to this grade. 



No. 3. Slightly shaded and stained honey not 

 good enough foi" No. 1. 



No. 4. Dark honey, partly tilled sections, and 

 badly stained. 



No. .i. Leaky sections, wormy and broken. 



Exti'acted honey could be graded in about 

 the same way. These grades could be printed 

 on slips; and bee-keepei's could inclose one to 

 their customers, when shipping, and so establish 

 a uniform grade to buy and sell hy. 



Saratoga, Wis.. Dec. 7. Thomas Em.iott. 



[Y"ou are right. If honey were properly and 

 honestly graded and honestly named it would 

 do away with half the trotible in buying and 

 selling. When a buyer receives honey of a 

 poorer quality than lie c.rpcctcd. h(> has some 

 grounds for c()ni])laints. Pcc-kceijers are dis- 

 posed to be honest: but a little self-interest (the 

 kind that puts the best out) sometimes slips in. 

 Carelessness in grading, or, what is worse, no 

 grading at all. meets its reward, and a mighty 

 poor rewai'd it is sometimes. Those producers, 

 as. for instance. Manum. Crane, and a good 

 many others, who grade their honey, get a good 

 price.] 



nameless bee-disease not cured by 

 removai. of the queen. 

 I agree with friend Doolittle, in what he 

 states in Gleanings, Dec. 1. page 855, of the 

 nameless disease. I have removed the queen 

 several times through the summer, and it did 

 no good. Those that were badly affected with 

 it last summei'. ISS'i. showed no signs of the dis- 

 ease after cold weather, nor did they show any 

 signs of it until hot weathei' came in earnest; 

 then the disease broke out again in some of 

 those that were affected last year, but not all, 

 but started in some healthy ones, and kept with 

 them until freezing weather c;imc: but I have 

 not seen any signs of it since, although the bees 

 have been flying freely. I believe yet. that 



THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF BOTTOM VEN- 

 TILATION IN HIVES. 



Will my bees winter in dry cellar with per- 

 manent bottom-boards on. with top ventilation? 

 My bf)ttoms are all fastened, and I have a gable 

 roof with a H-i'ich hole at each end, with a 

 piece of burlap over the brood-nest. I have 

 only ten swarms. Why is it necessary to have 

 the" bottom open? Hiram B. Winslow. 



Mahopac, N. Y., Dec. 8. 



[Your bees may winter with the top open, but 

 the tendency of the times is emphatically 

 against top ventilation of the hive in the cellar. 

 It should come from the bottom, either through 

 a good-sized entrance kept cleared of dead bees, 

 or, better, from the whole lower part of the 

 hive, the bottom -board being removed. The 

 reason is this: If the top is open, all the heat 

 rises and escapes. On the other hand, if the top 

 is closed the heat rises and is contined near the 

 top. and the surplus, if any. " overflows " at the 

 bottom. Bees need plenty of ventilation in the 

 hive, but they must not have it at the expense 

 of heat.] 



those register - boards of mutii-rasmus- 

 sen"s, again. 



In your foot-note to my article, page 850, you 

 proi)ose printing numbers on the date-cards, 

 running from 1 to 100. I must strongly object 

 to this. How many bee-keepers have exactly 

 KM) colonies? If one buys a package of 100 num- 

 bered date cards, but has less than that num- 

 ber of colonies, what is he going to do with the 

 rest of the cards? Or if his number of colonies 

 exceeds 100. what then? No: i)lease leave the 

 l)lace for the number blank, and let the pur- 

 chaser himself write the number as it may be 

 wanted. Print the cards just as the sample, 

 only )>mhe the <l<ite _tiiiurc.'< as large as possible, 

 and T am sure it will be thus most satisfactory. 

 The cards might be (for convenience) put up 

 in bundles of 25. like postal cards. When you 

 get them i)rinted, send me 200 cards, without 

 furtluM' order. As apiaries and millinery stores 

 are not always close neighbors. I would suggest 

 that you, for the accommodation of your cus- 

 tomers, obtain and keep for sale suitable black 

 pins for these cards. 



Wm. Muth-R.\smussen. 



Independence, Cal., Dec. 9. 



MRS. I>. HARRISON INDORSES THE STRAWBERRY- 

 BOOK. 



I was slightly ill of late: and. casting about 

 for something to alleviate my aches and pains, 

 my eye fell upon your strawberry-book; presto I 

 they were soon forgotten. How I dug. raked, 

 and planted, and delighted in seeing them bud 

 and blossom, and gathered tlu^ luscious fruiti 

 It is a grand panacea for an invalid. Let him 

 have a small straw berry -bed, and he will soon 



