206 



(JLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mak. 15. 



There are thousands of acres of poison laurel 

 (Kalmia latlfolia) here, and yet this is a poor 

 honey section. During its bloom the honey- 

 flow is light. No honey here is known to beany 

 thing but healthful. In five years' residence and 

 bee-keeping I have nevei', in a single instance, 

 seen a bee working upon poison laurel: and, 

 most conclusive of all, the plant makes, as if 

 aware of its poisonous chai'actei', pi'ovision for 

 its own fertilization. As shown in a cross-sec- 

 tion of the flower, it issaucer-shaped,\vith little 

 pits, or depressions, on the; side to retain the 

 end of each stamen with its anthers until the 

 pollen in the latter is ripe. I su])i)ose in tln' bud 

 the bloom is so folded as 

 to guide the stamen c in 

 theii' growth into the 

 pits (I ; and as the corol- 

 la unfolds, these become 

 sprung, as a bow. When 

 the pollen is fully I'ijjen- 

 ed the anthers burst, 

 the stamens are sudden- 

 ly released, and this 

 miniature and beautiful 

 catapult raises (juite a 

 dust for several inches 

 around. I have assist- 

 ed this result often, and it is certainly a beau- 

 tiful evidence of design in nature. I should 

 take that soldier story out of thi; A B C. oi' put 

 this by the side of it. Chas. T. Sweet. 



Swanton. Md.. Feb. Kl. 



[Gently, friend S. Please remember that ma- 

 correspondent J.(!rammer. whose letter appears 

 in the A B C.Jwas a veiitable physician residing 

 in Halifax in 1875. He may be there yet for 

 aught I know. During the years that have 

 passed since 1875 we have had considerable cor- 

 respondence on the subject: but the letter in 

 the ABC book secMns to cover the whoh' ground 

 so fully we thought it not l)est to put in any 

 more testimony. During my travels I met sev- 

 eral times the mountain laurel, and inquired 

 about poison honey. The evidence seems to be 

 that it either yields honey only occasionally, 

 like many other i)lants. or that the honey is not 

 always poisonous. But a great many instances 

 are on record of honey thai atifected |)eople in 

 much the same way as described in the A B C 

 book. Before we consent to put your letter be- 

 side the on(! in the A B C book, we shonkl like 

 to hear from others who ha\'e had experience 

 with poison honey. The letters need not neces- 

 sarily be for pi'inl. for most bee- keepers would 

 feel a little delicate about advertising the fact 

 that honey from their locality was even sorne- 

 timcK poisonous.] A. I. K. 



ALUM FOIt S.N'AKE-BITES. 



1 saw in Gi.eamnos, some time la^^t year, 

 that some one recommen(l(>d alum for sn;ike- 

 bites. In your cotnmeiits yon seemed to doubt it, 

 and said that the bite would probably have got 

 well itself. You also stated that, so mucii alum 

 would be injurious. I have lived in S()uth\\esl 

 Texas (where there ai'e tnore rattlesnakes than 

 in any other place I ever h(>ai'd of) foi' 31^ years. 

 I have had numy cases of sniik(>-bite, both with 

 man and beast. I use nothing but alum, and I 

 never lost u, (Mse. I cured one man after h(( 

 was insensible. If I can giv(f a patient tin; 

 alum as .soon as he is bitten, the place will not 

 swell. You must be;ir in mind that alum, being 

 an antidote foi- snake-bite, can do no harm of 

 itself until the jxiison is dveirome. I luive 

 never seen nor heard of any bad effects. If this 

 should save .soiiu' jx-rson's or animal's life I 

 shall be well paid for writing it. 



.Taponica, Tex.. Feb. .'5. .Iohn Vinixg. 



BIO results fkom two colonies. 



In Southern Kansas bees have wintered finely. 

 To date there have been almost no losses at all. 

 We have had a favorable winter for them here. 

 Bees that were out in the yard have been flying 

 a little nearly every week this winter. To-day, 

 Feb. 26, the bees have been carrying in pollen, 

 reminding us that soon we are to see our young 

 bees in the air. Oui- climate in the latter part 

 of the summer is too dry for bees to do their 

 best, yet it pays to handle bees even here. Bee- 

 keeping is not my business — I am a minister — 

 and yet two years ago I made ?.50.U0 from two 

 colonies; and last year, a poor year, I made S35 

 from two colonies. Our honey here comes most- 

 ly from the sumac. I am now crowding my bees 

 and will expect them to come into the honey 

 harvest under " a full head of steam." 



Yates Center, Kan.. Feb. 2(). N. V. Moohe. 



evai'ouatino honey by steam. 



I have just read J. A. Green's article, page 88, 

 and wish to inquire whether anybody has ever 

 tried evaporating honey by steam. I can't see 

 why it would not work "just splendid '' to run 

 the raw honey through an evaporatoi' with a 

 transverse curi'ent over a steam-chest. I once 

 evaporated some in a tin can on a cook-stove, 

 and it "took the cake" ovei- any thing that I 

 had that Sf^ason, and riunained liijuid (if that is 

 the correct word, but it was \ eiy thick) until 

 the latter pan of the winter. But evaporating 

 in that way lakes too much time, and requires 

 too constant watching for fear of scorching. 

 With an evai)orator. such as sugg(>st(^d above, a 

 constant stri-am could be run in at one end from 

 a faucet, and th(^ lu^at would be uniform, so that 

 a uniform article could be turned out without 

 danger of scorching. What do you think of it? 



Centerville, la., Feb. 9. (J. B. Rei'Logle. 



[Mr. Thos. Wm. Cowan, of the British Bee 

 JoHvadl. constructed an ap|)aratus for evaporat- 

 ing honey by means of hot watrr: and ihe ap- 

 paratus is illustrated and describetl in the ABC 

 of Bee Culture, under " ExlracU'd Honey." Hot 

 water would be better than steam, because the 

 latter would be liable to scorch or overheat the 

 honey.] 



OUTSIDE WINTER CASES. AVITH DEAD-AIR SPACE,. 

 A SUCCESS. 



Long before I ever read any thing about bees,, 

 since 1880, I was convinced that bees should be 

 wintered outdoors in nnpainted hives, with 

 covers sealed down tight, and that the hives 

 should be protected from the weather by out- 

 side cases. I have never found the necessity of 

 any packing between those hives when the out- 

 side case is air-tight. This sealed cover was 

 impracticable with the Simplicity and chaff 

 hive. Since 18S2 I hav(> been using a hive as 

 made and used by Henry Alley, nnpainted. 

 with a cover which always was sealed down in 

 the fall, and I can say that these hives win- 

 tered bees each winter since, and never lost 

 an v. .1. T. Fletcher. 



Olai'ion, Pa., Feb. 20. 



WHY DO <,>t'EENS DIE IN THE SI'ULNCi? 



I waul to ask th(> following question through 

 (iLK.VNLN'Gs : What is the cause of so many 

 young and pi'olilic (pieens being lost b(>fore the 

 honey-tiow in the spring and after thi^ flow in 

 the fall ? We have nevtM' seen any discussion in 

 any of the bee j(»urnals as to the cause of so 

 much fatality of qinums at the above periods. 

 We can readily guess why there are more 

 (iu<'enless colonies discovered in the spring than 

 in th(^ fall: viz., because persons do not examine 

 their l)ees in the fall closely in this respect, con- 



