6S 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jax. 15. 



case before? I think I shall feel sorry to have 

 our trees sprayed again, for our honey crop is 

 worth much more than our fruit crop, when we 

 have clover honey; besides, our apples are just 

 as wormy as those of our neighbors who did not 

 spray their trees. The apple-trees were spray- 

 ed three times— twice with London purple and 

 once with Bordeaux mixture. They fell off 

 badly through the fall also. If it were poison- 

 ing from spraying. T should not have thought it 

 would have lasted so long. I could not see any 

 more dead bees in front of the hives or in the 

 apiary than usual. I could see no dead bees or 

 dying bees, that acted as if they had the name- 

 less bee-disease. The rest of the season they 

 did as well as bees could that gathered scarcely 

 any honey. The last of June we took 40 colo- 

 nies to another location near a timber three 

 miles away, and 2() to another location in an 

 opposite direction, hoping, by leaving but 

 about 70 at home, they would all build up with- 

 out feeding all summer, as they were getting a 

 living at home, and storing honey at our out- 

 apiary where there were over 100 colonies. We 

 visited each little out- apiary, and saw they 

 were improving, and thought they would take 

 care of themselves, as there were so few of 

 them: but we fed the home apiary some the 

 middle of August. 



This fall, when we visited them, expecting to 

 find they had enough foi- winter, we found very 

 weak colonies, so that we brought them all 

 home again and doubled them up. putting two 

 and three together to winter them, and fed all 

 or nearly all their winter stores. ]Sow, if we had 

 left them at home, and fed them in August a 

 few dollars' worth of sugar syrup, to the amount 

 of the expense of moving them, they would 

 have been much better off, so that we have 

 concluded it pays better in poor years to keep 

 our bees at home and feed some. During good 

 years this location can as easily support 12.5 or 

 150 colonies as .50. If they are away from home 

 we are apt to neglect them much more than at 

 home. It is an easy matter to run out to the 

 feeder with a few pails of sugar syrup, and give 

 them a feed now and then; but when we have 

 to feed at an out-apiary it is much more labori- 

 ous. 



At the timber apiary, in the spring we had 

 several hundred brood-combs not in use. We 

 gave them to colonies to put the honey-dew in, 

 rather than have so mucli stoi'ed in sections. 

 The colonies built up very strong— nearly as 

 strong, it seemed to me, as colonies do at 

 swarming time, but none swarmed. They 

 must have had from 40 to 90 lbs. in the brood- 

 nest, so that w(! felt quite sure of having strong 

 colonies this fall to gather the fall harvest, and 

 so we did; but they had used up nearly all 

 their honey: and as there was no honey com- 

 ing in to cause the queen to keep up laying, 

 when we came to feed this fall we found the 

 colonies were only about as large as those at 

 home. Some colonies which I saw had two or 

 three comics of eggs. The eggs wei'e all re- 

 moved — because no honey was coming in. I 

 suppose. So I think it i.s only guesswork as to 

 which is the better plan — to have strong colo- 

 nies at the close of the spring lion<'y harvest, 

 that eat much honey through the summer, and 

 are sti'ong in time io gather the fall harvest, 

 which fails us about half the time, or to have 

 small colonies during summer that do not re- 

 quire so much honey to live upon, and are 

 small, consc^quentlv. when the September har- 

 vest comes in. \\'(' fed. both liome and out- 

 apiary, granulated-sugai' syru|) in the spring — 

 nearly all they had to livi' on, so that it was 

 not poor feed that caused one apiary to dwin- 

 dle and the otln^i- to prosper. 



Roseville, 111., Nov. 10. Mks. L, C. Axteli,. 



[We can hardly believe that, if you followed 

 spraying as directed by Prof. Cook, the bees at 

 your home yard suffered from it. Some other 

 cause is more likely responsible for it. So far 

 the testimony has always been that no bad re- 

 sults followed the spraying if administered 

 after the falling of the blossoms. Perhaps 

 some of our extensive be<' and fruit men of 

 Michigan or elsewhere can give us some light 

 on this matter. We presume that, ere this, you 

 have seen the testimony in the Albany con- 

 vention report, and in the Michigan, in this 

 issue, to the effect that spraying during fruit- 

 bloom is decidedly destructive to bees. J 



Notes of Travel 



FROM A. I. ROOT. 



Dec. I'-i.—Oh. yes! about that pretty moss 

 that coats and covers the rocks. Well, that is 

 not all it does, for, on going about the city, I 

 find that it even covers the roofs of the houses, 

 and it does make them look funny enough. 

 Every roof of any age at all. with its " moss 

 back," makes one think of the '• old oaken 

 bucket" of childhood's memory — '"the moss- 

 covered bucket," in very truth. My friends 

 tell me this heavy coat of moss does not rot the 

 shingles very much; but as I see our next-door 

 neighbors taking the pains to scrape it off, I 

 confess to being a little skeptical. These mag- 

 nificent forests, the thrifty - looking fruit- 

 orchards, the beautiful waterfalls, and last, but 

 not least, the moss on the roofs, is the result of 

 the frequent and copious showers, both winter 

 and summer, and, in fact, the year round. Add 

 to this, rivers and bays, so that steamboats go> 

 almost eveiywhere, and do you wonder that 

 there has been a great stampede for Oregon 

 and Washington? 



Dec. 24. I suppose I might as well own up 

 that I have been sick. I thought for quite a 

 spell I would say nothing about it: for you have- 

 heard almost enough about doctors and medi- 

 cine already; but as there seems to be quite a 

 lesson right here, I think I will give it to you. 



Well, you know I advised calling a doctoiv 

 when you need one, from among your own 

 neighbors — a good man from among your ac- 

 quaintances. But suppose you are a stranger in 

 a strange land, what then? Why. inquire about 

 and find a doctor in good practice that is gener- 

 ally well recommended. That is just what I 

 did in Portland. Oregon. I had been suffering 

 from a severe cold for almost two weeks, and it 

 had settled into a fever, so I thought it must be 

 " lung fever." The doctor, however, said very 

 decidedly that it wasn't lung fever. After a lit- 

 tle examination he said, " Your lungs are quite 

 sound. Your cough and cold is a bronchial 

 trouble." 



I could hardly believe this: but as it is the 

 third time I have been told much the same thing 

 by as many prominent physicians, I was obliged 

 to believe it. Then he said almost exactly what 

 our doctors away back in Ohio had said— " My 

 dear sir, the real seat of your trouble is a broken- 

 down nervous system: and if you have at pres- 

 ent any business on your hands, just get out of 

 it as soon as you can." 



I told him I was on a pleasure-trip solely for 

 my health: and he resumed: 



■■ The immediate trouble just now is, how- 

 (>ver. that you are bilious. Before the quinine 

 you have been taking for your cold can do any 

 good you must get your stomach in trim. What 

 have you been eating lately?" 



•' Why, doctor, that is the great trouble. I 

 can't eat any thing— nothing tastes natural, un- 



