690 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



unless the feet get tender, and then a pair of 

 Tips in fi'ont only, at a cost of 15 cents per foot. 

 These tips are merely old shoes with the heels 

 cut off and tapered down so the horse's heel 

 ivsts on the ground. It's a sort of cruelty to a 

 liorse to make him wear a hard, heavy piece of 

 iron when traveling over the nice soft ground 

 that would feel so cool and comfortable to his 

 feet. 



White i.ettuce, all white, friend Roo.t I 

 don't believe you could ever reach. There is a 

 beautiful foliage geraneum. Madame Salleroi, 

 having some of its leaves pure white— a beau- 

 tiful thing. I tried a number of times to root a 

 <jlip of the pure white, but failed every time, 

 although partly green slips root easily. Then I 

 took an established plant with a strong root, 

 a,nd pulled off all the green part, so as to have 

 a white plant ready rooted. Do you believe, 

 the whole thing died, root and all. There must 

 be some green to keep up life. 



A BEE-HUNT WITH A SEQUEL. 



SOME FUNNY EXPERIENCES, AS RELATED BY 

 •T. P. ISRAEL. 



John and I went out on a bee-hunt. He had 

 the fever bad. He said he wanted an apiary, 

 even if it was only one hive. He was a great, 

 'Strong broad-shouldered fellow who could al- 

 most fell an ox with a single blow of his great 

 tist But his heart was great too— big enough 

 to embrace all humanity. Nothing did him so 

 much good as to do a kindness to any one. He 

 would stop a plow in the field to lend a team to 

 a poor neighbor, and even send a team and 

 man to do the plowing. But he was quick to 

 resent an injury or avenge a wrong. John was 

 no fool either. He knew enough to know that 

 he was not somebody else. 



John had found the bees some days before, 

 about live miles from his house. He had come 

 over with his wagon for a hive, and insisted on 

 my goin"^ along. As we passed John's place he 

 took on°hiswife and two children. I did not 

 like this, and told John so: but he said the bees 

 were in a big piece of woods, and that his wife 

 and children could wait under a tree at a safe 

 distance from the bees. One of John's animals 

 had a colt— a mule colt. Going np a long grade 

 I noticed the colt appeared to be tired. 1 called 

 John's attention to it. and told him the story 

 that you published some years ago about Prof. 

 Cook taking his little colt up into his carnage, 

 and thus taking it home. At the same time^I 

 dilated on the professor's claim that, by kind- 

 ness to animals, we could make them just as 

 gentle as we please; and I added that Mr. Root 

 indorsed all that Prof. Cook claimed. 



Arrived on the ground, I found that these 

 bees, in a moment of temporary insanity, had 

 built up in a forked limb of a large oak. They 

 were on the lowest limb, but it was twenty feet 

 from the ground. I at once decided that the 

 limb—bees and all— would have to come to the 

 ground I raked together about a cartload of 

 forest-leaves and set them on tire You can 

 create a world of smoke with forest-leaves, and 

 need not let them blaze at all. Well, the smoke 

 poured up among the bees, and set them to 

 howling at once. I got John up the tree to saw 

 off the limb. i # ■+ 



" Now. John, take this rope; put the end ot it 

 over the limb above your head, then haul it 

 down and make it fast to the limb the bees are 

 on When you saw off the bees I will let them 

 down slowly to the ground." ,^ , , , 



" But how am I to saw ? I can't hold on to 

 that limb up there and stoop down to saw." 



" All right, John. Here is a short rope. Tie 

 one end of it to the upper limb." 



"Well, it's done." said John, looking down. 



" Now tie the other end around your neck, so 

 that, if you fall, you won't fall far." 



John's eyes blazed with indignation. 



"Look here, old man; it's well for you that 

 you've got me up this tree. If I were down 

 there, there'd be a tight or a foot-race." 



" I beg your pardon. John. Put it round your 

 waist, and tie it securely." 



"All right, old man. Now you're talking 

 sense." 



" But, John, if your brains lie in your heels 

 as—" 



" Now, there you go again — but, look out 

 now; this limb is nearly off." 



" All right, John. I'll let it down easy." 



We had miscalculated the weight of the limb 

 and bees, and I shot up into the air like a sky- 

 rocket. I heard John shout in derision, " Let 

 'em down easy!" 



I looked up, and saw that great black limb 

 rushing at me at the rate of ninety miles an 

 hour. 



If my head should strike that limb, it was 

 certain destruction. A thousand thoughts 

 seemed to rush through my mind at once. What 

 would the poor bee-keepers around me do ? 

 What would they do in the hour of peril, with- 

 out my wise counsel and fatherly advice? 

 What would become of the bee-keeping fra- 

 ternity, if such a star should set in cloudless 

 night? What would Gleanings — no, no! 

 Gleanings is already a victory. Gleanings 

 will live— live without the aid of any one single 

 man in all this world. All my anxiety was for 

 others. Not a selfish thought sullied my gener- 

 ous and magnanimous soul. But after all I was 

 equal to the occasion. I gathered into my iron 

 frame ail the agility of three combined circuses 

 — threw up my hind feet, and warded off the 

 blow. Tilt! bees had alighted on the ground, 

 and I on the limb. When I backed down the 

 tree I found the limb and bees had turned clear 

 over, thus making a natural reversible hive. 

 Hang it in the air. and it was right side up. 

 Hang it on the ground, and it was self-revers- 

 ing. 



•• John, this is the coming hive. Ten frames 

 (for it has ten combs), fixed distances (because 

 their Langstroth is not yet born), self -reversing 

 every minute, for it is so crooked it can't lie 

 still at all. My fortune is made! Hurrah! 

 hurrah! Drawings, four dollars. New hive, 

 just cut from the tree, two dollars. Beginners 

 should take both— one will illustrate the other. 

 Dear! A fraud? What's the matter with you? 

 Didn't Mrs. Cotton sell her drawings for four 

 dollars? Doesn't Dr. Hall charge four dollars 

 for his little secret, which is no secret at all? 

 Haven't I as good a right as any other swindler 

 to make four dollars? Answer me that." 



In fifteen minutes I had the comb and bees 

 all in the new hive, ready for home. We did 

 not intend to leave the bees there to fasten 

 their combs. I did the fastening right there. 

 How? Well, I will tell you. Bend a No. 16 

 wire like this, 



so that it will spring tightly on the frame 

 lengthwise. Take a frame and spring three of 

 them on a side. Turn the frame over and fill it 

 with comb. Now spring three more on this 

 side— on top of the comb. Put the frame in 

 your hive. You can haul it any place. The 

 wire is bent inward, because, when it is sprung 

 on the frame, it will hug the comb in the center 

 and hold it fast. Strings? Why, strings are 

 perfectly worthless. They do not and can not 



