i:; 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1.-5. 



Tliis good man seemod to have gained new 

 knowledge of things, and adniittiHl tliat he 

 had acted a little hasty. That evening I pre- 

 sented his wife a few bo.xes of honey, and in re- 

 turn he sent me a tine selection of choice 

 grapes. Since then all has been peace and har- 

 mony between the bees and fruit-men in this 

 place, so far as I know." 



"Do the ladies near you ever complain that 

 the bees trouble th(nn while they are canning 

 fruit, making pickles, etc.?"' 



"No particular complaints have come to me, 

 and yet some of my neighbors have mentioned 

 that, on such occasions, the bees would enter 

 the house: but, surmising the cause of their in- 

 trusion, they closed the doors. But these in- 

 stances are now very rare, as nearly every 

 house is provided with screens, which prevent 

 the bees from entering, as wfU as flies. Let 

 me tell you, Mr. Larrabee, that I believe that I 

 am in an exceedingly favoi'able locality so far 

 as regards kind and sympathetic neighbors, for 

 I have not, to my knowledge, a neighbor who 

 is not intei'ested in my success, for there is 

 hardly a person of my acquaintance but that, 

 when I meet him. inquires after the bees, and 

 expresses a wish that I may be successful. I 

 will give you the experience of one day with my 

 neighbors, as I noted it down. In the morning 

 I went to the office to mail a few queens, when 

 I met a neighbor, who asked, ' Manum, how 

 are your bees doing this season?' My answer, 

 of course, was, 'Not very well j-et.' 'Well,' 

 says my friend, ' I am sorry. I hope they will 

 yet make you a lot of honey. I have been 

 thinking of you for some time, and wondered 

 whether you were getting much honey.' In a 

 few moments I met another neighbor who ask- 

 ed, ' Manum, are your bees doing any thing this 

 summer?' 'Well, Mr. Wright, they are doing 

 just about nothing.' 'Well, what is the mat- 

 ter? You have had several poor years now in 

 succession, and I did hope they would do well 

 this year. Do you salt them enough? I re- 

 member when I was a boy my grandfather used 

 to salt his bees, and he said they worked better 

 when salted.' The next person who hailed me 

 was a lady. ']\rr. Manum, your bees must be 

 making lots of honey now, for I see so many 

 clover-blossoms everywhere ; and yesterday 

 there was a lot of bees getting honey from the 

 clover on our lawn, and I forbade the children 

 from playing there for fear they might disturb 

 the bees, for I am so anxious that your bees do 

 well for you this year, you have had such bad 

 luck for a few years past." On my return from 

 the office. I harnessed a horse and started for 

 one of my out-apiaries. I had gone but a short 

 distance when I met a farmer who inquired 

 about the bees much as the others had, and 

 asked whether I thought bees would get as 

 much honey from Japanese buckwheat as from 

 the other varieties, and remarked that, if they 

 could, he would sow live acres instead of one, 

 as was his custom, and said that he thought 

 that, inasmuch as my bees were a benefit to 

 buckwheat, farmers ought to sow more and 

 reap the benefit from the bees, and at the same 

 time help me. 



"I soon met another farmer who asked, like 

 all the others, how the bees were doing, and 

 then asked whether it would be any damage to 

 me if he should cut his alsike clover, which I 

 had induced him to sow, while it was in blos- 

 som. I told him, that undoubtedly it would rob 

 the bees of so much pasturage, and, besides, it 

 would damage him : for, unlike the red va- 

 riety, alsike clover makes better hay if allowed to 

 stand until nearly all the blossoms turn brown, 

 because it is finer than red, and of such a na- 

 ture that it is much hardier when allowed to 

 mature; and, again, that, unlike red clover, it 



seeds with the first crop; hence, if allowed to 

 nearly mature, the seed furnishes much addi- 

 tional nutriment; whereupon he decided to let 

 it mature. On that day I met 11 persons who 

 manifested a similar interest in my welfare and 

 success, as did those whom I have mentioned. 

 In fact, I do not know of a person of my ac- 

 quaintance who is not friendly to the bee-busi- 

 ness: hence. I say, that, judging from an occa- 

 sional article that appears in the bee-papers 

 regarding the enemies of the business, I feel 

 that I have a favored locality in that respect, 

 for I have most excellent neighbors." 

 Bristol, Vt. A. E. ManUxM. 



RAMBLE NO. 37. 



THE BAY STATE APIAliY. 



We reluctantly bade our Rhode Island friends 

 good -by, and sped on our way toward the Bay 

 State Apiary. Our route conducted us through 

 the city of Boston, and here our patriotic blood 

 became so stirred up that we lost our reckoning. 

 But Boston people have erected a massive 

 stone tower on Bunker Hill, where the traveler 

 can climb up 294 steps and get a wide view. 

 This view enabled us to get our reckoning 

 again in a manner highly satisfactory. We 

 immediately ran downstairs and followed our 

 reckoning, and were safely landed in Wenham, 

 about 11 o'clock. A street-car was standing 



BUNKER HII>L MONUMENT; THE KAMBI.ER GET- 

 TING HIS EYE ON HENRY' ALLEY. 



near, and an inquiry elicited the information 

 that Mr. Alley lived half a mile from the depot. 

 We journeyed by street-car until the conductor 

 pointed out the residence of our friend, and we 

 were soon exchanging our identity with Bro. 

 Alley. Our identity seemed to be satisfactory, 

 and we were invited to rest a while in his den, 

 and we gratefully accepted a rocking-chair. 

 We found Bro. A. just giving the finishing 

 touches to the October issue of the Apiciilturist, 

 and his letters and :MSS. were in a i-ather pro- 

 miscuous heap u]X)n the table. We also noticed 

 a large pile of" Thirty Years Among the Bees," 

 ready to mail, besides quite a number of^pi- 

 cultiirlsts. There were also sevei-al crates of 



