1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



667 



papers. I would say, go to the convention. I pre- 

 sume you would get a better-balanced view of 

 some things by seeing and hearing actual men 

 who have made a success with bees. 

 Ohio. N. W. E. E. Hasty. 



1 hardly like to say. I think likely you'd get 

 more information fi'om the books and papers, 

 but I believe it might be best to go to the con- 

 vention, for vou'll be pretty sure, if you do go 

 there, to get the ^.") worth of printing afterward. 



Illinois. N. C. C. Millek.j;^ 



Invest the $5 in bee-literature; for if you go 

 to the convention you will not likely remember 

 well enough to make a practical application of 

 more than a small part of what you hear. With 

 the books, you go over them till familiar with 

 their contents. 



Wisconsin. S. W. S. I. Fkeebokn. 



I think the books and papers would very like- 

 ly do you the most good — certainly so if you are 

 a veritable novice. One must have some knowl- 

 edge and experience to geti much good from a 

 convention. You would profit by meeting and 

 talking with bee-keepers. 



Michigan. C. A. J. Cook. 



If you have the ABC and take a journal, 

 spend no more on literature until you master 

 what you have. If you are to succeed in bee 

 culture, the ABC or'any other one standard 

 text-book will give you all the desired present 

 information. You might learn some points at 

 the convention; at any rate, the change and 

 the contact, and the touching of elbows would 

 probably be svell worth $5 to you; and if you go, 

 don't be afraid to ask questions— pump every- 

 body you meet. The Rambler will try to an- 

 swer if you attend his convention. 



New York. E. Rambler. 



It would not do foi' me to advise you not to 

 attend conventions; and if I should advise you 

 not to take Gleanings, perhaps the editor 

 would not print my answer. Y"ou ought to take 

 one or more good bee-journals, and you ought 

 also to attend one or more good conventions, 

 which includes our own. At conventions you 

 get something you can not get fi'om books and 

 papers — you get a knowledge of men, and learn 

 who are the level-headed writers. For this 

 reason our wide-awake editors attend conven- 

 tions. 



New Y^ork. C. P. H. Elwood. 



With me, the money and time would be more 

 profitably spent in reading some more good 

 works on apiculture, and putting the thoughts 

 into practice, if I were a beginner. This is just 

 what I did on the start. However, I realize 

 that there is not another Doolittle, of just the 

 same make-up as I. therefore you might spend 

 that $.5 to good advantage in attending conven- 

 tions. Don't rely too much on the advice of 

 others, but study your own make-up; and when 

 you see what you want, movi' right out along 

 that line. If you have the right mettle in you, 

 you will succeed, no matter how many "flat 

 stones " are laid on your head. 



New York. C. G. M. Doolittle. 



[No. 191 is a hard one. If a bee-keeper has 

 had two or three good seasons it will pay him 

 to go to a convention. For the money, he can 

 get more information out of hooks and jour- 

 nals: but to see and talk with an old writer 

 whom he has known through the pi-inted page 

 for several years is a pleasure indeed, and his 

 writings will have double value thereafter. It 

 is worth something to know the visible person- 



ality of writers. There are very few that have 

 attended conventions who, on returning home, 

 would be willing to have the money paid back 

 to them and forfeit the benefit of what they 

 gained by attending.] 



Heads of Grain 



FROM DIFFERENT FIEUDS. 



MORE AHOrT MALTA ; OLD RELICS. 



Gleanings for June 1 contains a correcting 

 letter from friend D. Noble about the island of 

 Malta. Though he may know a good deal 

 about many things in Malta, still I maintain 

 that I was wronged in being put in Lazaretto 

 for ten days. I was coming fi'om Jaffa, and no- 

 cholera was there. I landed in Egypt without 

 interference; my passport was examined, and 

 the English steamer that brought me to Malta 

 was set free, while I alone had to be in quaran- 

 tine; and, again, the French Mediterranean 

 squadron coming from Beyrouth, in Syria (the 

 cholera being in that province to the north), 

 was freely permitted to land. Why can one 

 man more easily bring in an epidemic than sev- 

 eral thousand soldiers and. sailors'? Explain 

 this '"quarantine regulation." 



You likely, friend N., meant Citta Vecchia 

 with its wonderful spring. Yes, I've seen this, 

 the catacombs, etc., not the pressure of Paul's 

 foot, as we have similar things here in Pales- 

 tine by the dozen; but such things are only 

 tradition. We have the print of Christ's foot 

 on Mount Olive; we have drops of his blood; 

 we have Elijah's lied in the rock; we have the 

 stone that "iroiitd have called out hallelujah " 

 on that first Palm Sunday; we have the angel 

 Gabriel's finger-prints when he kept back the 

 rock of the temple trying to follow Mohammed 

 into heaven: in short, we have possible and 

 impossible things. When I said " nothing but 

 carob-trees," I meant as being worth any thing 

 for bees. A few oranges, lemons, apricots, are 

 not sufficient for honey-gathering. Plenty of 

 fig-trees are growing around from Floriana to 

 Sliema; but fig-trees yield no honey except the 

 overripe fruit, just as do grapes. Olive-yards 

 are also to be found, but all availing nothing 

 for bees. That is what I meant. I, too, should 

 enjoy an exchange of ideas as to the " haunts 

 of the pirates " in the beginning of this century. 

 Philip J. Baldensperger. 



Jaffa, Syria, July 6. 



WASPS AS AN enemy OF THE REE: THEII! 

 HABITS. 



Prof. Cook: — By this mail I send you two 

 insects — a big wasp I caught sipping honey 

 from a honey-can, and another insect I J,ake to 

 be one of the asilus family. It was captured 

 trying to force an entrance into one of our 

 hives, but the door-kei-pers seemed to say no. 

 Please name the insects througli Gleanings. 

 I enjoy your entomological talks, and only re- 

 gret that the demon of work pursues me at a 

 time when I should like to be collecting my 

 favorites (beetles). We are thinking of .trying 

 Heddon's new hive on account of the inversion 

 feature. II. H. Y'ouNG. 



Perris, Cal. 



[Prof. Cook replies:] ■ 



The large beautiful wasp sent by H. H. 

 Young is a species of stizus, new to me and to 

 our collection. These wasps have a very pow- 

 erful sting, which they use to paralyze their 

 prey as tliey capture it for their young. They 

 breed in cells which thev dig in the earth. In 



