550 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JUT,Y 1. 



them, and may bp gathered early each morning 

 and destroyed. If tlie grass is thoroughly poi- 

 soned by use of London purple, we may not 

 need to collect the worms: yet we are more 

 sure if we gather and destroy them. I have 

 known a large pailful of worms to be gatheix'd 

 in a few hours by use of such traps. This may 

 seem like a seveie task: but where cutworms 

 are very abundant it often pays a great profit 

 for the time spent, and saves labor and expense 

 of replanting. I have known many to use this 

 on a large scale, among whom are D. M. Ferry & 

 Co.. who have been more than pleased with the 

 result.' In case of a corntield. the traps or grass 

 bunches— small forkfuls— should be placed every 

 two or three rods apart each way, just before 

 the corn comes up. If these are examined each 

 morning, the cutworms will be found beneath 

 them, and are easilv gathered and desti-oyed. 

 We have used these traps this spring, and pre- 

 viously, with marked success, and so I can rec- 

 ommeiid them to Mr. Soper. 



MYRIAPODS. 



The insect sent me by W. P. Root is a milli- 

 ped, or "thousand-legged worm." This is one 

 of the lowest ord<'rs of myriapods. These are 

 many-legged, cvlindrical. harmless, vegetable- 

 eating myriapods. They sometimes eat veget- 

 ables, and do much harm. We find them in con- 

 siderable numbers under our cutworm grass 

 traps. The millipeds never have 1000 legs, but 

 they may have over 300. These species may ho 

 handled" as safely as an angleworm, though 

 many people regard them with dread and seri- 

 ous alarm. 



The Hat mvriapods have fewer legs, two in- 

 stead of four to each joint, and only about sixty 

 in all, and often many less than this. These 

 are quick, carnivorous, and poisonous. Ours 

 hn-e are so small, however, that their bite is 

 not serious. I never hesitate to pick them up, 

 and have never been harmed. A. J. Cook. 



Ag"l College, Mich. 



[Friend Cook, you just briefly touched on the 

 one point that interests me most in the above. 

 You admit that myriapods are poisonous; but 

 in the next sentence you intimate that it is only 

 when thev bite you. Now, suppose you bite 

 them— then how about it? We have heard 

 many stories of people who ate a milliped that 

 was curled up in fruit, say near the stem of a 

 peach; and a good many have been frightened 

 because a thousand-legged worm was found be- 

 tween the loose leaves of a head of cabbage. 

 Well, if one of these worms should be cooked 

 with cabbage, would it poison the people who 

 ate it? I feel quite certain that you will say 

 no. But so many have got this notion, we 

 should like to have you tell us the truth about 

 being poisoned in this way.] 



comb, which is cut in two — that is, using only 

 a half-comb, as shown on page .5(3 in Doolittle's 

 work on queen -rearing. In this way we get 

 from 10 to 1(3 large cells, which hatcli lai'ger 

 queens than any we ever had to hatch from 

 colonies that prepared them previous to swarm- 

 ing. 



The plan of using an upper story with a 

 queen-excluding honey-boaid between upper 

 and lower stories is of valuable service for rais- 

 ing queens during the swarming season, and 

 the upper story is also a good queen-cell nursery. 

 We have sometimes from three to five lots of 

 queen-cells in such a nursery. The bees take 

 care of them the same as if they had no queen 

 ill the lower story. As these lots of cells are of 

 different ages, we cut each lot of cells out on 

 the 10th or 11th day. Considering all the good 

 points which are gained by the above-naaied 

 method of queen-rearing, we would not dis- 

 pense with it for any other known method now 

 in use. Jxo. Nebel & Son. 



High Hill, Mo., June 4. 



[We have been using an upper story of a 

 strong colony for a queen-nursery, with consid- 

 erable success. It is far ahead of the old lamp- 

 nursery, in that the bees will take jHirtudly 

 completed cells and finish them up. We just 

 take frames of cells from good strong colonies 

 with good queens, brush the bees off carefully, 

 and set the whole in the upper story, queen- 

 nursery above the queen-excluding zinc. In 

 this we have cells in all stages of growth: and 

 when we want cells we go to this upper story 

 and cut out those that are. so to speak, *' ripe." 

 Doolittle's book is first-class.] E. R. R. 



DOOLITTLE'S METHOD OF aUEEN-REAKING. 



FRIEND NEBEL S SUCCESS WITH IT. 



Having been in the queen-breeding business 

 for the past ten years, we have, during that 

 time, tried all the methods which have been 

 recommended for rearing queens, but have 

 found by the "Doolittle method" we can raise 

 better and finer queens than by any other meth- 

 od we have ever tried. Last year we raised 

 and sold over 800 queens by this method. This 

 season, from April 15th to June 1st we raised 

 nearly 400 queen-cells. We do not use the 

 wooden strips to fasten the artificial cell-cups 

 to. but fasten from 13 to 18 cups to a frame of 



OFF FOR CALIFORNIA. 



DR. MERCHANT REPORTS TWO CASES OF CAL- 

 IFORNIA FEVER. 



Mr. Editor :Some weeks since I was repre- 

 sented in your columns as having a dangerous 

 attack of bee-fever, which. I am happy to say, 

 ran its normal course, reached its crisis, and, 

 under the skillful hands of a trained nurse, ter- 

 minated in convalescence. I now have the 

 melancholy pleasure of rcijorting two cases of 

 " California " fever, which have recently come 

 under my observation. Although my case was 

 considered critical by my friends, the prognosis 

 of these two cases still remains in doubt. 



A gentleman from Yoi'lv State, whose princi- 

 pal business seemed to be nnnhling around the 

 country, chanced to be traveling this way, and 

 fell in with Mr. Arthur C. Miller, a native and 

 resident of these plantations. With them it 

 was " hail fellow well met." Both being adepts 

 in the science and art of bee culture, this sub- 

 ject, of course, engaged their attention from 

 the start. Among the many knotty questions 

 and projects discussed by them was the advan- 

 tage of California as a honey-producing section, 

 compared with the East, and also that most 

 charming climate which is said to be the finest 

 in the world. The low price of honey in that 

 State, the frequent appearance of foul brood, 

 the excessive heat in the interior towns, and 

 the frequent droughts, with a consequent fail- 

 ure of the honey crop, had no terrors for them. 

 The cases of the California fever in this section 

 of the East are sporadic. With Miller the pre- 

 monitory symptoms began to develop some 

 three or four years since; but of late, his friends 

 cherished the hope that the disease had been 

 eliminated from his system; but not so. The 

 germs were " not dead, but sleeping," ready to 



