290 



CJLEAMNGS 1^' JJEE CULTURE. 



Ar-iJii, 15. 



will cunsciit U) (.•oini'— 1 iiican the bee- keeping 

 fraternity. This is not only a honey country, 

 but a mass of (luweiy vegetation, with sugar- 

 plantations, miles wide, dotted here and there 

 with enormous sugar-factories, and the climate 

 is just delightful li'oni October until May. The 

 place to take the boat would be at Tampa, Fla.. 

 there being a line of elegant steamers that run 

 from Tampa to Havana, a distance of ;{20 miles. 

 The run is made in about 24 hours, with a small 

 stop at the charu)ing city of Key ^Vest, Fla., 

 which has a population "of about 20.000. it 

 would be best to write to Dr. James Warner. 

 Havana, about three days before your father 

 takes the boat at Tampa, so as to meet him at 

 the boat-landing in Havana, for every one 

 speaks Spanish, and possibly he might be annoy- 

 ed. Dr. Warner lives in Havana, and is quite 

 an extensive bee-keeper. Mr. Casanova is living 

 here, and he is a fond lover of bees, and, besides, 

 owns one of the finest sugar-plantations in 

 Cuba, as well as a fine new sugar- factory, and 

 he too would be very glad to have the honor of 

 entertaining Mr. Root. With the hope that we 

 Cuban bee-keepers will be honored by Mr. Root's 

 visit to oui'Iand of i)altns, 



I am sincerely yours. 



F. (). S()MKRFt)i;i>. 



San Miguel, Cuba. Feb. 14. 



[Many thanks, friend S., for your very kind 

 invitation: but, as 1 have before explained, you 

 will have to wait until scmie future tiine before 

 we make that pleasant visit. I assure you that 

 your kind invitation has done us both a great 

 deal of good. The fact of having such friends 

 away off in Cuba is of itself worth a good deal.] 

 A. I. R. 



i'()Ktek"s hee-es('ai'E8 ake a great success. 



In an editorial in (Ji.eanings of March 1, the 

 editor asks any one in a position to know, 

 whether the rumor that he heard was true, 

 that a Canadian association of bee-keepers con- 

 demned the Forter bee-escapes, saying that 

 they tore the wings of the bees. Xo: that ru- 

 mor has no foundation whatever, and no Cana- 

 dian association of bee-keepers did or could be 

 got to condemn the Porter beecscapes. because, 

 wherever any bee-keeper in Canada, has tried 

 the Porter escape, he speaks of them with un- 

 limited praise. If any one will tear one of the 

 Porter escapes open and examine it he will be 

 convinced at once that they could not in any 

 way injure a single bee. Xo bee-keeper on this 

 orb of oursshould be without niorc^ oiless of Por- 

 ter's very valuable escapes. They are one of 

 the best things ever bi'ought into any apiary, 

 and they should be used in every bee-yard in 

 the whole wide woi'ld. 



^^'.M. McF,\- OY, Funl-bvootl Inspectoi-. 



Woodburn. Out.. Can., Mar. 14. 



A SUGGESTION. 



To meet the objection of Mr. Walratli. to 

 V'ing the sides of the end -bars of the Hoffman 

 frame why not make the V by cutting the wood 

 away all on the outside thus: 



]z: 



]z: 



]z: 



This lea\ es the inside next to the bees smooth. 

 lUit the frames would have to be all square and 

 close-fitting in the hive; i. <;., have no end play, 

 else the sharp edge of the end-bar would not 

 always touch its adjoining bar. Perhaps by 

 leaving the point of the V ,i. inch thick would 

 make it work. E. H. Whitakek. 



FaSalle. 111., Feb. 24. 



[Your sharp edges would be impracticable for 

 the very I'eason that in practice it is impossible 

 to avoid all end play: and when there is end 



play, the sharp edges would slide by the square 

 edge, and thus destroy the function of accurate 

 spacing. Even if the liives and frames are 

 made ever so nice, moist and dry weather would 

 inake it impossible to get the fi-ames down in 

 the rabbets.! 



SEVERE WINTER EOSSES: fONDITION OF .M V 

 r.EES. 



The honey-dew is doing its best in this part 

 of Uncle Sam's domain. When I go down into 

 my bee-cellar the odor is dreadful: the floor 

 (made of cement), barrels, boxes, shelves, ev- 

 ery thing, are covered with dead bees, and 

 soiled. Over half of them are dead: the other 

 half, or one-third left, will be in such a dilapi- 

 dated condition that, if they will not die before 

 long, there surely will not be a pound of surplus 

 this coming season. They had a good fly one 

 afternoon, three or four weeks ago, and were 

 put back into the cellar the same evening. I 

 also had standing out two in Roe's chaff hives. 

 Both are dead. My neighbor is about as badly 

 off; two-thirds of his bees are also gone, and 

 that means no sections or bee-supplies for us 

 this year. The bee-paper is the only thing that 

 will still flourish. W.\r. >i<)ERSHEi.. 



Homestead. Iowa, March 22. 



ONE third M(»RE honey TO WINTER OUTD!>ORS 



than indoors. 



I find that it is taking a third moi'e honey to 

 winter bees outdoors than it does in the cellar. 

 Those in the cellar used one pound of honey in 

 l.'S days, or very near that, while those in single- 

 walled hives, out of doors, used a pound in 10 

 days or on that average, for the last 00 days. 

 Charees White. 



Farmers Valley, Neb., Feb. 15. 



A I'l.EA FOR THE HEACK HEK. 



Has the black bee no friends, that we see 

 nothing in its favor? For years I purchased 

 Italian queens, and had my apiary well Italian- 

 ized: but the winters of Xorthern New York 

 seemed too much for them, and my bees are now 

 all natives; and I believe that, in this location, 

 if "a man had an apiary of fifty colonies, and 

 forty were Italians and ten black, at the end of 

 ten years there would not be an Italian h^ft. 



Woodville. N. Y.. Mar. 0. W. Van Aukev. 



SMAM. AI'IARIES FOR EXTRACTED OR ((»MB 

 HONEY. 



Would it pay to buy an extractor where one 

 has only S or 10 hives of bees ? and which stands 

 pay most, those run for coml) honey or for ex- 

 tracted? What proportion would you advise to 

 run for comb honev, and what for extracted? 



Weldon. Ark.. Mar. 3. E. W. .Iohnson. 



[If you have only a few colonies you had bet- 

 ter run them all for comb honey.] 



AEFAI.FA. AND WHEN CI' T FOR HAY. 



On page 115 of (tLeanings we read that alfal- 

 fa cut for hay is cut before it blooms sutticienlly 

 to produce honey. I would not give much for 

 that hay. In this country it produces honey for 

 a while before it is cut. but not as long, of 

 course, when cut for hay as if cut for seed. 



Last, Cal., Mar. 27. W. A. H. (Jiestrau. 



A CHEAP l"ACKA(iE FOR EXTRAC TED HONEY. 



Candy-pails for honey I find are the best and 

 cheapest thing for extracted honey. When the 

 honey granulates they can be shipped every- 

 where. My bees are wintering well. 



Cokato, Minn.. Mar. 21. Fayette Lee. 



