GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



over. Thev j^oldom trouble us vei'v ranch after 

 the first real warm weather. Now, then, 

 friends, this is a little hnmilating, after having 

 given tobacco dust such a recommendation as I 

 have done. I was encouraged to do so because 

 our experiment stations recommended it so 

 stronslv. So far it seems to rout the little 

 black" rtea-b<-etle completely. If you paid us 

 monev for tobacco dust that has not been worth 

 what'it cost you. let us know and we will credit 

 you what you paid. 



DISPOSING OF YOUR STRAWBERHY CROP. 



A little incident has just occurred, that sug- 

 gests to me a way in which both growers and 

 consumers can be greatly benetitted. An old 

 bee-friend in Marietta, ().. sent us. on Decora- 

 tion dav. two bushels of beautiful Sharpless, 

 Jessie, and Bubach strawberries. They made 

 the whole trip across our State, and reached us 

 in almost as nice order as when shipped. At 

 the same time, we received a crate of straw- 

 berries from a Cleveland commission house. 

 The latter cost more, and were not in nearly as 

 nice order. We sold the Marietta berries so 

 well that I telegraphed to our friend to send us 

 two bushels a day until further orders. We 

 paid him 10 cts. a quart, delivered here, and it 

 would do you good to see the people flock 

 around those berries when the crates were 

 opened. They are large tine berries, good mea- 

 sure, uniform all through, and put up in neat 

 packages. We sold them at 13 cts. a quart, or 

 two quarts for 35 cts. One bushel is usually 

 sold here in the evening, and another goes on 

 the wagon in the morning. So you see our 

 friend across the State has "furnished us straw- 

 berries fully two weeks before ours were ready 

 to put on the market. Now, what is to hinder 

 having just such arrangements between grower 

 and consumer all over our land ? No middle- 

 man has any thing to do with it: and the ber- 

 ries never stand still a minute, waiting for cus- 

 tomers. The express charges are a little over a 

 cent a quart. But perhaps many lines of these 

 could be started, where the transportation 

 would be even less. After strawberries are 

 gone here, I should be very glad to make some 

 such arrangement with somebody in the north. 

 It seems a little strange that there should be a 

 difference of two weeks in the period of ripen- 

 ing, between ^Medina and Marietta— a straight 

 line, almost south, of only 135 miles. But I pre- 

 sume our Marietta friend escaped the frost that 

 took off all our earliest berries. Here is a letter 

 fi'om the man himself: 



Mr. Brjof :— Your favor of the 3d is at hand. I will 

 ship two hushels a day at your figures as long as I 

 can afford it. By the way, how did you like the Bu- 

 bachs I sent youV Do you {irow them mueli larger 

 on your ground? We picked 27X Viushels to-day of 

 nice berries. Thank tlie Lord for the strawberi'ies. 

 I have given the bees plenty of room and told them 

 to go It; and they do. To all appeari'.nees we are 

 going to have an old-fashioned honey season. 



Marietta, O., June i. R. Stehle. 



JUNE 15 — JUST BEFORE GOING TO PRESS. 



We can furnish you beautiful strong trans- 

 planted cabbage-plants in any quantity, and, in 

 short, almost any other vegetable-plant you can 

 think of. New strawberry-plants are fairly 

 rooted, but perhaps would be better if not sent 

 out before ten days or two weeks.— Last Satiu-- 

 day night I found the Hubbard squashes crowd- 

 ed so closelv undei' their wiie-cloth coverings 

 that I decided to strip them all oft', and let them 

 take their chances with the bugs. This Mon- 

 day morning I am ivjoiced to see them growing 

 with wonderful luxuriance, and not a bug in 

 sight anywhere. It wa< not tobacco, and it was 

 not the wire screens. What became of them ? 

 May be Prof. Cook can answer.— During these 



hot June days, do you ever get so thirsty that it 

 seems as if the more you drink the thirstier you 

 are? Well, get a chunk of ice as big as a goose- 

 egg, and crunch it up between your teeth.'and 

 then swallow it as fast as you can. It will cool 

 and refresh you wonderfully: and instead of 

 luinning your digestion in anjMvay. I think you 

 will find it just the contrary. This is one of 

 tlie luxuries that come from having a carp-pond 

 to give you beautiful ice for the summer time. 

 — During ht)t weather there is no need of going 

 to the trouble of getting hot water for the in- 

 ternal water cure. Just set a large-sized crock 

 in your out-building, and keep it tilled or partly 

 filled with water. Now. if you can have right 

 beside it a great big can of dry dust from the 

 road, you can keep your out-building tidy and 

 sweet-smelling. There should be a good-sized 

 underdrain to communicate with the vault be- 

 neath, to take off all surplus water. Ours has 

 a twelve-inch tile, and we manage to get fall 

 enough to put it four feet below the surface of 

 the ground. 



CONVENTION NOTICES. 



The Rock River Bee-keepers' Association will hold its next 

 semi-annual meeting on Thursday, Aug. 6. J. M. BURTCH. 



Morrison, 111. 



*fiHDt1oME -^ 



Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light —II. 

 Cor. 11: 14. 



Bee-keeping and amateur photography are 

 somewhat alike. There is a fascination about 

 both. But there is more money in bees. 



Le Ruc'Her (The Apiary), one of our best 

 French exchanges, devotes four pages to the 

 illustration and description of tlie Hill smoker. 



Prof. Cook writes that the last edition of his 

 book has been changed, several pages being en- 

 tirely reset and several cuts exchanged. We 

 are glad to make the correction. 



A DISPATCH from Washington, dated June 13, 

 says that Assistant-secretary Spaulding has de- 

 cided that queen-bees can be admitted entry 

 free of duty. This will be highly gratifying to 

 queen-breeders. 



It proved as we surmised, that the beautiful 

 bees which we noticed on page 484, in our last 

 issue, editorial columns, coming from J. F. 

 Michael, came originally from L. N. Hearn, of 

 J'renchville, W. Va. If we are coiTect, all 

 these four and five-banded bees were developed 

 by Mr. Hearn from stock which he obtained of 

 G. M. Doolittle. 



Elmer Hutchinson. Rogervsille. Mich., has 

 just sent us a cage of beautiful yellow bees, and 

 they are all five-banded. Wonder if he select- 

 ed out the yellowest, or took them off the frame 

 just as they came. These yellow bees are so 

 transparent through the abdomen that you can 

 almost see the internal organs when the bees 

 are placed on the window. Who is going to be 

 the lucky chap to produce Italians with abdo- 

 mens r/Zi' yellow, with not even a trace of black? 



