1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



823 



tim. from which he says his bees have gathered 

 much honev and pollen for the whole of Au- 

 gust. The honey, he says, is of a beautiful gol- 

 -den color, but is so bitter that it is untit for ta- 

 ble use. He says it was brought from Texas by 

 a, physician because of its medicinal qualities, 

 which, it was claimed, resemble those of qui- 

 nine. The plant has spread widely, and ruins 

 all the fall honey, except for food for the bees. 

 Mr. French asks whether this plant is valuable 

 for medicine. 



By looking in Gleanings for 18S)0, p. 673,' it 

 will be seen that I received very much the same 

 information and inquirv about this plaiit from 

 Mr. C. P. Coffin, Pontotoc, Miss., last year. 

 This is an introduced plant, and is naturalized 

 all through the South. It is closely related to 

 goldenrod, sunflowers, asters, etc.. and so we 

 need not wonder that it is a rich honey-produc- 

 er. It is to be regretted that the honey is bit- 

 ter. We can only advise that it be kept sep- 

 arate as much as possible by extracting all oth- 

 er at the dawn of its blossoming, and use it in 

 winter and spring to feed the be(>s. That it 

 mav have decided therapeutic qualities is not 

 improbable. To answer this, careful experi- 

 ments would need to be made. A. J. Cook. 



Ag'l College, Mich., Sept. 15. 



High-pressure Gardening. 



BY A. I. ROOT. 



STINGINESS BEES. 



In Youth's Companion (Sept. 24, 1891) it is 

 •stated that they have siingless bees in Austra- 

 lia. Is that true? If so, why are they not im- 

 ported into this country ? E. Brubaker. 



Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 28. 



[There are stingless bees in some parts of 

 Africa, South America, Mexico, and, we believe, 

 in Florida. So far as we know, they are worth- 

 less for practical use. Those we tested in our 

 yard were about equal to bumble-bees as work- 

 ers.] 



Answers to Questions 



FROM OUR ABC CLASS. 



E. T., York, Neb.: — Pouring boiling water into 

 the extractor, and then revolving the basket, 

 might disinfect an extractor that had been used 

 for extracting honey from foul-brood combs. 

 The better way would be, if you can. to cover 

 the extractor and then turn in a jet of steam 

 and let the steam whistle into it for half an 

 hour. If you can not get access to steam, put 

 in a great deal of hot water. Fill the can full 

 ■of boiling water, and let it stand until the wa- 

 ter cools. 



D. P., Vickshurg. Mich.: — If your bees have 

 built your combs crosswise, cut them out and 

 transfer them into the frames right, as per 

 '• Transferring,'" in the A B C of Bee Culture. 

 To avoid a recurrence of such, use founda- 

 tion. Even narrow strips fastened to the comb- 

 guides will answer to get the bees started right, 

 although almost all bee-keepers prefer to use 

 full sheets, and generally wired, at that. 



F. J. S., Canaanville, Ohio:— It is too late 

 ■now to try to increase your colonies. Don't at- 

 tempt it until about next May, and then you 

 •can do it by dividing, as you suggest: but when 

 you divide, be sure to put all the hatching 

 brood into the new location, and at the same 

 time carry two-thirds of the bees there. This 

 will secure a nearly equal division of both, be- 

 cause the old bees will return to the old stand 

 where their queen is. 



Here it is October 2d, and the beautiful 

 weather continues. Some tomato - plants 

 which I put out so late (on ground that was 

 vacated) that some said they were sorry to see 

 me wasting my time, are now i-ipening up beavi- 

 tifuily. Those cucumber-vines are also yield- 

 ing enormously. There has been a little frost 

 on the creek bottom, but none at all on high 

 ground. The market-gardener should own a 

 hill as well as a valley; and where it is desir- 

 able to escape frost, his gardening should be on 

 the highest ground. Underdrain and surface- 

 drain so as to avoid wash. Have your furrows 

 run horizontally instead of up and down, and 

 vou can have many things to put on the mar- 

 ket after the fi-ost has spoiled them for every- 

 body else; and this. too. without sash. The 

 hilltops are just the place for strawberries. 



We dug our nice crop of Puritan potatoes 

 with the cheap potato-digger. The principal 

 reason why the ten-dollar digger is not as good 

 as the hundred-dollar one is because it does not 

 leave (ill the potatoes on the top of the ground; 

 thei'efore when potatoes are worth any thing 

 like a dollar a bushel, your ground should be 

 cultivated after digging, and have some boys 

 pick up the potatoes. We did the cultivating 

 with our two- horse cultivator, and the boys 

 picked up about twelve bushels more from a 

 piece that had given us something like 2(X) 

 bushels. You can see from this whether you 

 want a cheap potato-digger or not. After the 

 cultivator had gone over the ground it was in 

 bea.itiful shape to tit for rye; but as the ground 

 is comparatively new, and has never had much 

 manure, we gave it a heavy dressing, say 2,5 

 loads to the acre, right ovt r this cultivated sur- 

 face, and we are plowing it now. The ground 

 is so hard that, ordinarily, it would be impossi- 

 ble to plow it; but this ground has been made 

 so mellow in cultivating potatoes, and later in 

 digging them, that it plows up splendidly, pro- 

 viding we do not run the plow too deep. This 

 reminds me of an experiment we made in order 

 to test the value of rye. Last winter a strip of 

 rye a few rods wide ran right through where 

 our potato-field is now. The rye was put in in 

 September, and in the spring it had made such 

 a beautiful mass of feed that we commenced 

 giving it to the cow. By the time we had got 

 it all off once, where we first cut it it was ready 

 to give another cutting. About this time we 

 plowed it up for potatoes. As we cut such a 

 quantity of gi'een feed from the strip, I did not 

 suppose the stubble would be of any advantage 

 to the ground. To my surprise, however, the 

 potatoes all along during their growth looked 

 much finer over the rye strip; and the yield 

 this fall showed a marked difference in favor of 

 the place where the rye stubble was plowed 

 under. A part of this stubble, however, was 

 green and growing, as I explained. Somehow 

 or otherT always find a specially keen enjoy- 

 ment in making garden and in sowing seeds in 

 October. The cool nights and mornings act as 

 a tonic, and give me enthusiasm. We have 

 some rye that is now three or four inches high; 

 some more just coming up, and the piece I have 

 mentioned, where we have jiist been getting 

 ready to put in the seed. The sight of the 

 beautiful rank thrifty rye and spinach, when 

 every thing else is exhibiting only death and 

 decay, gives to me a special enjoyment. Owing 

 to the unusually warm fall, one lot of spinach 

 has got too large and has run up to seed. There 

 is usually no sale for it until frost comes, be- 

 cause so many other things are on the market. 



