508 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



the rest of us; but they also do lots of good by 

 greatly reducing the cost of doing business, 

 and hence the price to us. T. B. Terky. 



Hudson, Ohio. June 4. 



[Friend T., I am exceedingly glad to get this 

 report from you. Of course, I am not glad that 

 you have suffered this loss, but it will call the 

 attention of strawberry-gi'owers to this very 

 important point. I believe our locality is much 

 more favored than yours in the matter of free- 

 dom from frosts. Our Michel's Early were al- 

 most all killed; but, strange to say. our Haver- 

 lands, both on the hill and the low ground, 

 were almost unharmed. Three-fourths of all 

 our berries this year will be fiom the Haver- 

 lands. As our berries are still blooming, the 

 bloom being kept back by the cool weather, we 

 anticipate a later crop of berries than we have 

 ever had before. The first ripe berries that we 

 found, June 5, were Havei'lands. This is a full 

 week later than we usually begin to get ripe 

 berries. — I, too, feel a great deal interested in 

 what you are going to get from that barrel 

 of potatoes. I am glad you are interested in 

 the things in Gleanings, and now please do 

 not stop when you feel as if you had something 

 to say to us all. — Your suggestions in the way 

 of more charity toward large firms and corpora- 

 tions, I feel are providential just now. I do not 

 believe in letting upon fraud — notone iota: but 

 let us ijot fall into the error of thinking that it 

 is only the moneyed men who are wicked. In 

 all my business experience I have met continu- 

 ally just such facts as the one you give. Some- 

 times I am called upon to give my evidence, or 

 testimonial, for certain goods or commodities. 

 When I suggest that my experience would not 

 be of benefit to them, their answer is, almost in- 

 variably, "Never mind; let it come. Your 

 testimony is the very kind we want. If there 

 are still difficulties to be met and overcome, let 

 lis face them. Never hesitate about bringing 

 out the truth." Now, dear friends, the above 

 is certainly the attitude and spirit of many of 

 our great institutions ; and thei'efore, like the 

 wise man mentioned in the scriptures, they de- 

 sire to build on a solid foundation. I have 

 been quite well acquainted with the firm of \V. 

 P. South worth ct Co. for 2r> or .30 years; and the 

 universal verdict seems to be that their great 

 business has been built up year by year by ab- 

 solute honesty and truthfulness in every thing 

 they buy or sell.! 



GIANT WATER-BUGS. 



St>ME MORE WONDERFUL TIIING.S FROM PROF. 

 COOK. 



over 2}-^ inches long, and more than one inch 

 bi'oad. Some visitors, a few days since, asked 

 what the monstrous insects are that are 

 so frequently caught under electric lights. 

 " Why," he says. " we catch them which are as 

 large as my hand." 



1 laughed, and spoke of the boy who saw a. 

 thousand dogs, which proved to be " old Bose 

 and another dog." I showed him a case of 

 these great water-bugs, and he said at once, 

 "They are the fellows." These live in the wa- 

 ter all their life, and come foi'lh only to mate, 

 which they do in the night. Then they are at- 

 tracted by lights, and so are found, "often in 

 consideraVjle numbers, dead under the brilliant 

 electric lights of our cities and towns. They 

 are as rapacious as they are big; and woe be- 

 tide the fish or insect that comes within reach 

 of their strong piercing beak. They, like all 

 true bugs, have a strong formidable sucking- 

 tube with which they suck the blood and life 

 from their victims. If very numerous, they 

 would be serious pests in a fish-pond. 



Ag"l College, Mich., May 2.5. A. J. Cook. 



[Look here, friend C. Do you mean to say 

 that this great bug 2}4 inches long, that lives in 

 water all his life, not only comes out on dry 

 land to mate, but that it fiics through the alr'f 

 How else could bugs of that kind be undei' the 

 electric lights '? I have heard of flying fish, but 

 I did not suppose that we had any "thing in that 

 line right here in our own land. If so. there 

 are more " bookS in running brooks " than I 

 ever knew of before. I confess I should greatly 

 like to see an insect that lives in the water, and 

 yet comes out and flies in. the air. Another 

 thing : Is it really true that an insect 2}4 

 inches long would undertake to eat a carp 8 

 inches long ? or did the carp try to swallow the 

 insect? It seems to me that you and friend 

 Erb are telling marvelous stories, or else I am a 

 good deal behind the times in the " bug busi- 

 ness."] 



DR. MILLER'S HOME-MADE BINDER. 



Prof . A. J. Cook: — Inclosed you will find an 

 Insect of some species that lives in water, of 

 which I should like to know the name and its 

 character. The way I came to see it was sim- 

 ply this: I have a dam wherein I keep carp, 

 and I was sitting there one day and saw this 

 insect struggling with a carp about 3 inches 

 long. I tried to get it, and at last succeeded in 

 getting both the insect and carp; but the carp 

 was dead after I got both. Then 1 took the bug 

 home and kept it three days in watei', alive. 



Layfield. I'a., May 20. I. R. Erb. 



[Prof. Cook replies:] 



The large bug that is playing the part of a 

 freebooter in Mr. I. R. Erb's carp-pond is no 

 stranger to me. It is one of our largest Amer- 

 ican insects. Its color varies from dark to yel- 

 lowish gray, and its size; varies from i^i inches 

 in length to '2}4. The one sent by Mr. E. is a 

 little more than 2 inches long, and % of an inch 

 broad. I have them in our collection that are 



AN EMPTY COMB OR DIVISION-BOARD — WHICH 

 GIVES MOItE PROTECTION? 



" Now you must send a description of that to 

 Gleanings." 



"Oh. no I enough book-binders have been de- 

 scribed already." 



"Yes; but the others are all intended for 

 binding at the end of the year, and you know 

 how much more convenient this is." 



I was obliged to admit the point, so here 

 comes the description. I don't know how many 

 ways of binding I have used, some of them 

 very satisfactory, but they all contemplated 

 leaving the pamphlets to be bound when the 

 volume was completed; and before that time, 

 too, often some of the numbers were mislaid, 

 and then there was a big time hunting up and 

 arranging. I tried the self-binders— got one for 

 Gleanings and one for the American Bee 

 Journal. I used them less than six months, 

 and they ar(^ for sale cheap. 



The beauty of th(^ arrangement I now use is, 

 that each bee-journal or magazine of any kind 

 can be bound as soon as received, with the pre- 

 vious numbers of the year; or you can do as I 

 do — thi'ow them into a drawer, and bind once a 

 month or so. Indeed, two of the jouiiials I get 

 are not sewed together in any way, and one of 

 them not (^ven cut. in which case it is very 

 handv to bind tliem before I cut the leaves, for 

 it is about as handy to bind them as it is to 

 hunt up a needle and thread and stitch them 

 together. 



